“You are such an asshole. I should have left you in that prison.”
“Right about now, I wouldn’t have minded if you had.”
“Go to the right,” Luca advised. “There are too many voices coming from the other direction.” Dante covered us as Luca dragged me along, my feet useless, dodging bodies and avoiding puddles of blood.
Another sound echoed down the corridor ahead of us, just around the next turn. Low and guttural, not quite vampire.
Dante shouldered past us. “Stay here, keep your distance. Stay low.” He looked at Luca. “You know what to do.”
The kid lowered me to the floor as my brother paused at the intersection, then stuck his head around the corner. He looked back, and his fingers flashed.Twelve. He dropped the blanket, then disappeared around the corner, and all I saw was his bare ass.
“There are twelve of those things?” I tried to sit up, and Luca pressed his hand to my shoulder and held me in place. “How many did you see coming in?”
“A lot. Stay low if you want to keep your hair.”
We both flattened ourselves down as a blast of superheated air roared over us, not quite loudly enough to block out the high, shrieking screams coming from Dante’s position.
“Ashbound dying,” Luca explained, wrinkling his nose against the stench. “They sound like that because theirsouls are being severed from their bodies, and it must be painful.”
“How do you evenknowthat?” What the fuck was going on here? Luca was supposed to be safe, not traipsing around with my half-naked brother.What the fuck had I missed?
“Because we’ve already killed about twenty,” he explained, with a touch of the same kind of awe I used to feel every time I looked at Dante. “The demon inside him has the same kind of fire magic, which means he can destroy their magic.”
“How…” I shook my head, wondering if I’d heard him right. Wondering when my brother decided to trust this kid with his deepest, darkest secrets.And not me.
“When did he explain all this to you?”
“On the boat ride. After we stole the Basin—the real Basin—from my uncle. It was guarded by a bunch of these things, and he turned them to ash in one go.”
Another blast of heat rent the air above our heads, and more shrieking echoed from around the corner.
“And your sister?” I asked weakly. “Where is she?”
“Oh, you’re not going to like it,” Luca hedged. “Maybe your brother should tell you.”
I grit my teeth. “Where is Emberline?”
After a pause, Luca said, “Creating a distraction.” He sighed. “Okay, fine. She went to the palazzo to distract my uncle, to give us time to steal the real Basin, and for us to come and rescue you. I expect she’s running out of insults, right about now.”
Oh gods. Fear sent my heart into a skittering rhythm as I imagined her alone with that fucker, after all the ways he’d already hurt her.This was my fucking fault. Mine. If I’d played this smarter, the female I loved wouldn’t have to risk herself to save my worthless ass.
“Just so you know, none of this was my idea,” Luca pointed out as Dante prowled around the corner, naked as the day he was born, smoke drifting from his nostrils. He paused, picked up the blanket, and wrapped it around his hips.
“Looks like we’re moving again.” Luca heaved me up to my feet, and I ignored the spike of pain, tightening my grip on the blade as more of those guttural growls came from behind us.
By the time we burst into the open night air, my vision was tunneling, my battered body screaming in protest.
“Tell me Emberline didn’t go up against Giovanni by herself.” I braced my hands on my knees, dragging in ragged breaths. “Fucking tell me she’s not alone.”
“Of course not,” Dante grunted. “Nico’s with her, and we’re already late to the rendezvous point. So, buckle up, my brother, because this is going to be a rough ride.”
69
EMBERLINE
My arms were wrapped tight around Nico when the world snapped back into place.
One breath, I was nowhere, and the next, my boots settled on stone, the faint brine of the lagoon in the air. Fear sizzled in my veins, Blackstone’s dark magic still prickling over my skin as I stepped away from Nico and bent over, sucking in a shaking breath.
