We’d beaten Giovanni at his own game and survived.
And tonight’s success was fragile, but I let some of the tension ease from my shoulders and hugged my husband closer, pride swelling in my chest as I looked at this family of mine—bloodied and covered in soot—who I wouldn’t trade for the world.
“Alright then.” Gabriel squared his shoulders before Luca pulled him to his feet. “We need to move. This place won’t stay safe for long. What’s our destination, now that the island’s been compromised?”
“I’ve got a place on the mainland the Brotherhood uses.” Nico paused, looking past us to where the violin had stopped playing. “We get ourselves there and hunker down, see what Giovanni does next.”
“Then we take that fucker out,” Gabriel said grimly, just as the air shifted around us, like lightning was about to strike. We all went still, scanning the piazza.
A scream rent the silence. Over at the fountain, the violinist was on the ground, the crowd scattering in all directions.
A sea of burly figures moved between the tourists, tossing them out of the way like toys. Some groaned and crawled away; others didn’t move at all.
Black uniforms. Unmarked. Not Giovanni’s.
“Who the fuck are these assholes?” Gabriel growled, stepping between me and the threat, even when he could barely keep himself upright.
A thicker layer of Nico’s shadows wove around us, but the newcomers sensed we were here, splitting off into groups, five of them headed in our direction.
“Fuck.” The curse dragged out of Nico in a long, horrified hiss. “Get Emberline out of here. Now.” Before I could argue, his eyes met mine. “Blackwood’s private guard.” His gaze landed on my cheek, where Dante had touched my blood. “Go. I’ll slow them down.”
“We fucking stay together,” Gabriel snapped out. “We’ll lose them in the campos. They don’t know this city like we do.”
“You’re injured and can barely walk,” Nico argued. “You’re not losing them anywhere.”
“Uh, they’re getting closer,” Luca muttered beneath his breath. “Whoever’s in charge had better make a decision.”
One of the soldiers stopped. Stared right at me, as if he could see through Nico’s magic.
Then he smiled, fangs gleaming.
“Get behind me,” Dante ordered, then stepped straight through those shadows, and the illusion of safety shattered as the world turned into a blinding ball of flame, and in the space of a breath, the closest soldiers were smoking piles of ash, a few stray embers floating down from above. But there were twenty more, and now they knew our location.
“Go,” Dante ordered over his shoulder. “Get to the second site. I’ll meet you there.”
Nico grabbed the back of my jacket and practically tossed me into the alley, then the entire world burst into a brilliant, blinding flash of heat.
We ran. Down the crooked, narrow alley, straight toward the canal.
Behind us, chaos erupted, fire roaring, gunfire, people screaming.
“How far to the Arsenale?” I shouted, following Nico, racing down the narrow street, my shoulders brushing both sides of the brick walls, my pulse hammering.Dante will never fit through here, I thought, panicked.
“Not far. Five minutes.” Nico’s feet pounded the cobblestones, his shoulder clipping a pipe sticking out too far. But we could make it, it was a clear shot between here and…
“Move faster, we have company,” my brother grunted. Soldiers poured out of a side street behind us, momentarily getting tangled up in the small intersection, then they were moving, gaining ground.
“They’re going to trap us in here. What’s our next move?” Luca asked breathlessly, so close his chest bumped against my back. I prayed Gabriel was right behind him.
I never answered because Nico was gone, crossing the canal in one leap, a slip of water barely wide enough for a boat. I teetered on the edge as Luca slammed into me, my arms pinwheeling, desperate not to fall in.
“Come on, Ember, jump,” Nico urged, reaching out his hand from the other side. “You can do this, just pretend you’re on a roof.”
I pretended, but that watery deathtrap was too damn close for my liking. My heels caught the edge when I landed, Nico hauling me to solid ground by my belt. Then Luca was across, and finally Gabriel, landing heavily with a pained grunt.
“We can’t keep this up.” I set my hand on Gabriel’s shoulder, peering behind us for any sign of Dante. But all I could see down the thin opening were those black uniforms, getting closer. They were so big, they were moving sideways, which was slowing them down.
“Can you dematerialize?” Nico hauled Gabriel to his feet. “Because we have to get the fuck out of this gauntlet.”
