Flames erupted all down my arms, suffusing me in liquid heat, my clothing disappearing in the blaze. The Ashbound didn’t recognize the danger; instead, the circle closed in around us.
Perfect.
I closed my eyes, took a breath, and dropped every guard I’d kept on myself all these years. The demon rose like a vengeful storm. He and these things had been born of the same magic, but he was their god, and they his subjects, no match for the wall of consuming flames spreading out around me like a tsunami.
When I opened my eyes, every single creature was nothing but broken chunks of bone and smoldering ash.
Luca emerged from the mausoleum, a mix of fear and awe on his face as he huffed a shaky laugh. “I guess you don’t need my help after all. These things are…” He looked around, speechless. “Gods. What are they?”
“Ashbound. I’ve fought these things for fifty years. You can learn to fight them, too. I can teach you.”Fuck, what was I? Some kind of mentor now?
“I sent my sister the message.” He tapped the side of his head. “That thing looks heavy.” Luca resheathed his knife, glanced at the Basin, half hidden in the dark. “You sure we can get this thing to the drop-off point?”
“Of course.” Up close, the relic felt… wrong. Magic prickled my skin, and it was heavy in a way that had nothing to do with weight, humming with an otherworldly presence, as if the thing was watching us.
I wrapped my hands around the edges and lifted.
“Fuck.” My back strained, muscles protesting as I managed to haul the rock a foot off the ground, panting. “This thing weighs a ton. More than it should.”
“Because it’s not just stone,” Luca counseled, moving in to help me center the weight. “It’s six centuries of blood. It’s generations of power.”
Nico had moved the other one using some sort of Draconi magic.Andthe fucking thing had been a decoy. I didn’t have Draconi magic, and the demon was hiding again, the pussy.
“I can’t believe you’re afraid of a rock,” I grumbled, bracing my feet, praying I didn’t blow out a knee. Or my back. Nico would never let me live it down.
“Can you dematerialize with that thing?” Luca asked.
I barked out a short laugh. “Not a chance. Maybe if I was a hundred years older… but this is the real deal, and it’s too damn heavy. We’ll need to get it to the boat.” Between us, we maneuvered the Basin carefully, every step a new challenge as we navigated the path to the dock.
Using the boat opened us up to detection, to attack on the open water, to wasting a shit ton of time while Emberline faced her uncle. I cursed beneath my breath.
But this was our task, and we couldn’t just leave the fucking thing lying around.
The sturdy little vessel waited where we’d left it, rocking gently against the dock. Wrestling the Basin onboard was a fight in itself, too many close calls and a whole lot of swearing, but we managed without tipping over.
Barely.
I shoved off, the boat riding way too low, engine roaring to life as Luca untied the last line. I didn’t feel any betterwhen the mausoleum disappeared, spray hitting me in the face as we sped out into the open water of the lagoon.
“I’d offer you my coat, but it wouldn’t fit,” Luca apologized, grimacing at my nakedness. “I hope you aren’t planning on being out in public tonight; you’re not exactly dressed to impress.”
“I’ve had about enough of your mouth tonight,” I grumbled, but the kid was right.
“Here. Take the fucking wheel.” I rooted through the storage box and found a blanket that stank of dead fish and wrapped it around my waist. If I was letting the demon out of play on a regular basis, I really needed to figure out my clothing situation.
“Emberline better be in one piece when we get back,” I said,
Luca’s jaw tightened as the boat cut through the dark water. “Em’s smart. If anyone can handle my uncle tonight, it’s her.” He steered us toward Venice. “She was calm when I told her about the Ashbound and the number of guards. And Nico won’t let anything happen to her.”
“You trying to convince me or yourself, kid? You clench your jaw any tighter, you’ll crack a tooth.”
He scratched the back of his neck. “It’s just that my sister has a terrible habit of letting her temper take over. And when it comes to my uncle, she has a lifetime of pent-up rage.”
67
EMBERLINE
Lord Cesare Blackwood crossed the threshold, and the study shrank around him.
