The battered table still marked with burn marks from my cigarettes.
Gods, I could use a cigarette right now.
I tasted blood with every swallow, copper clinging to the back of my throat. My wrists were bound behind a chair—the same chair I’d used during my own interrogations—shackles biting into tendons and broken skin.
Giovanni’s hired thugs had done their job well.
My head hung forward, blood dripping steadily from my broken nose. Every rib ached. Some were cracked, maybe broken, my kidneys so bruised, I’d be pissing blood for days, though I doubted I’d live that long. My eyes were swollen nearly shut, and every time I changed position, pain lanced up my side fiercely enough, I nearly blacked out.
At least pain meant I was still alive.
A good sign, given the alternative.
I’d had sufficient time to replay all the ways I’d fucked up today, while calculating the shrinking chances I’d survive this. I should have listened to Emberline. She’d tried to warn me, but I’d been so sure I was invulnerable, I’d plowed ahead, driven by pride and arrogance.
Well, now I’d die, and when we saw each other in the afterlife, she could say I told you so.
Gods, I could hear her clever insults now, while making me laugh at the same time.
My grin faded when muffled voices drifted in from the other side of the door.
“…I’m telling you, this isn’t right.”
“You could be wrong,” a second voice, lower, uneasy. “You didn’t see them up close.”
“Fuck no, I didn’t get close.” A long pause as boots scraped the floor outside, and then, “I don’t have a death wish.”
“I heard they don’t even move like vampires,” the second one whispered. “And their skin… looks like stone almost, it’s so white. And fire glows in their eyes.”
They were talking about the Ashbound.
“Why would he bring those atrocities here?” the first guard muttered. “We’ve got two fucking prisoners and twenty guards.”
“Not for long. Bringing in more prisoners, I heard. They’re rounding up every Dominico off that island now. Going to Purge them all, I heard,” the second countered. “Don Giovanni wanted plenty of backup tonight.”
Fuck. I should have seen this coming. I should have evacuated the island days ago, shipped my family to safety, but I hadn’t. And if they’d caught Nico or Emberline…
“They’re fucking attack dogs.” A dry cough followed. “Hope I don’t fucking see the things.”
Silence fell again, and I shook my head, rage building with no place to go.I’d failed everyone. My friends. My family. I didn’t fucking deserve to be Don.
Knuckles rapped against the door.
“Hey, Your Highness,” one of the guards called, “You still alive in there? How does it feel for the Dominicos to finally lose their crown?”
I didn’t answer.
“Doesn’t matter,” he went on, almost conversationally. “You’ll be dead soon. And when your friends show up, know this…” A chuckle. “They’ll get eaten alive.”
Footsteps drifted away, and laughter faded into indistinct murmurs.
I closed my eyes. The Ashbound weren’t backup;they were a trap.
Giovanni wascountingon a rescue mission, and prowling the halls were these hired thugs, a few Draconi soldiers, and gods knew how many Ashbound, and I would just bet they were all under orders to kill first.
That’s what the bounty was for, after all—deadoralive.
And once he had us rounded up, Giovanni would Purge my bloodline from this earth, down to the last female and child. I squeezed my eyes tighter as reality crashed in. I’d sentenced my entire family to death because I’d been too fucking arrogant to consider I wasn’t the smartest male in the room.
