I knew of only two others in Venice. Ancient time rifts, anchored in place by complicated witch spells and arcane pagan magic, and gates capable of transporting you from Venice to anywhere in the world in the space of a heartbeat.
All you needed was to imagine where you were going.
Or step through a still-open gate.
I slid the heavy pendant back and forth along the chain around my neck, searching every surface, every shadow for some clue, any strange marking…
There.On the corner roof of an unassuming house, peeling plaster walls covered by a particularly stubborn vine, sat a carved dragon. Wings outstretched, the gargoyle could have been a simple adornment. Butthisdragon was carved from obsidian, the dark stone absorbing every drop of moonlight.
My heart hammered against my ribs.
This gate led to the Draconi training grounds.
That meant my uncle’s clandestine meeting was with Severin, Master of the Draconi Brotherhood. Head of all D’Immortali security and one of the most powerful Pentarchs in our Dynasty.
Who also happened to be Nico’s boss.
Who we thought was our ally.
I studied the gate, debating my next move. The outline shimmered faintly, which meant the wards remained open. Technically, I could slip through. Chances were, five hundred highly trained, trigger-happy males waited on the other side.
Chances were, I’d be cut down the moment I came through.
Logic told me to turn around.
Cut my losses, go back to Gabriel, and tell him everything. Let Nico handle Severin with his unflappable arrogance, Brotherhood connections, and dangerous charm.
But… if my husband was here, he wouldn’t hesitate. He would follow my uncle, find out why he and Severin—our supposed ally—were meeting in the middle of the night, then use that information to bury our enemies just a little bit deeper.
But…Dante was imprisoned in the Fossa, wherever that was.
And if we were trusting Severin with our secrets and he was really working for my uncle, then we were all dead anyway, so I had nothing to lose.
With that unshakeable logic, I dropped from the roof to the ground, the wind picking a few dark strands free from my braid. The wet stone was slick with algae from the overspray, and a few old wooden boats thumped faintly against the stone wall with the waves.
Before I lost my nerve, I pulled out the pendant, the crest pulsing faintly with silvery light as I marched to the water’s edge, and murmured a few words into the shimmering air. The underwater sigils flared brighter, and I dropped the pendant back between my breasts and hopped onto the stone wall.
The pendant was a cipher key, bespelled to pass through every Dynasty family’s wards. Rare. Priceless. Untraceable. The holy grail of vampire cunning and deceit. Don Marcello had kept this one under lock and key until Gabriel stole it three days ago and carelessly left it lying on a table in the safehouse. Right in plain sight.
His mistake.
Not even feeling the least bit guilty, I stepped off the wall straight into the air.
Blinding light flashed, and for a moment, nothing existed.
No water. No air. No sounds of the city.
Just awful, crushing pressure, like hands closing over every inch of me, squeezing and twisting. Then the gate spat me straight out into a patch of darkness where I flattened myself to the ground, expecting to be picked off immediately.
But the portal had been left unguarded.
A rookie mistake for the seasoned commander of our entire army, but who was I to judge?
“I guess nobody wants any witnesses tonight,” I muttered, ducking down behind a low clump of bushes as I got my bearings.
The air tasted sharper here, of steel and magic and rigid discipline.
The kind beaten into you with fists.
