Tonight, Nico was a thousand miles away in the desert, searching for Dante and the Fossa, but so far, the secret penal colony’s location eluded him.
Gabriel was across town, pretending to be his father’s loyal heir.
Me… I was supposed to be at the safehouse, lying low, but Giovanni was the only person who knew my husband’s whereabouts.And he was on the move.
After weeks with no leads and dwindling hope, I’dfinally lost patience and taken matters into my own hands. Sure, there would be hell to pay when I got back, but I wasdonebeing patient.
And I couldn’t spend another night alone.
I tipped my head back, inhaling cool night air. My uncle hadn’t just tried to kill me. He’d succeeded. I’d drowned beneath my family palazzo, and while Dante had brought me back to life, the nightmares were getting worse. Every time I fell asleep, I saw my dead parents, the Underworld pulling me deeper into that darkness.
The silver gleam around my irises—theshadow of death, according to Emilia—hadn’t faded.
And I still saw shadows swirling behind Nico like a dark cape. Almost as if they were alive. Shadows no one else saw.
Which was why I was up here instead of letting my mind cannibalize itself.
I dropped to one knee as Giovanni paused beneath a broken statue. The marble figure loomed above him, face worn smooth by centuries of rain and salt air, hand outstretched in a gesture that may have been a blessing.
I hoped with all my heart it was a curse as Giovanni tipped his head, scanning the roofline.
My fingers brushed the dagger’s hilt at my thigh.
Give me an excuse, you bastard.
How good it would feel to kill him. To see the surprise in his eyes when he realized I wasn’t dead after all. To feel his blood slide over my hands as his heart pumped out the last of his wickedness.
But… without him, Dante was lost.
Giovanni dematerialized, and I followed, counting off the beats of my heart as we flew and flew and flew.
At its westernmost end, Venice ended abruptly, as if someone had taken a knife and carved off the rest of theworld. Beyond the short stone wall, the lagoon stretched flat as glass, broken only by the faint silhouettes of anchored boats and the pale smudges of distant islands.
Giovanni didn’t stop.
He stepped up onto the wall, robe snapping in the wind, the air around him coming alive with light. His form blurred, thinned, and vanished like smoke, leaving nothing behind but the shadowy outline of the vile creature who had stolen my entire future.
2
EMBERLINE
Holy...I bit off the rest of my curse with a snap of fangs and teeth.
I was looking at a powerful witch ward.
Where none should exist.
A faint ring of magic still hovered above the water’s surface—like the glint of moonlight, easy to miss unless you were looking for it. The underwater sigils pulsed once, reacting to Giovanni’s passage, then faded to a softer glow.
This wasn’t just any portal. This was a fixed gate.
I rocked back on my heels.Clever.
My uncle was taking extraordinary precautions tonight, which meant whoever he was meeting… had to be important.And outside the Dynasty Council’s purview.
He hadn’t dematerialized or taken a boat to one of the islands, which meant he couldn’t risk leaving a trail. By using a fixed gate, he simply… vanished into thin air. Completely untraceable.
And to my knowledge, there was no record that a gate existed on this end of the city.
