Thank the gods. At least I wasn’t naked;thatwould sure make conversation with my parents awkward.
I stepped as close to that threshold as I dared, heart racing, adrenaline prickling through my awareness, every piece of me hyper alert. Searching the darkness for my mother. For father. Waiting for them to emerge like always.
I had so many questions for Ottavia.
About my uncle and his plans. About the Basin and its magic. About our chances of surviving this, although something told me not to tempt fate by asking to know the future.
I waited for so long, it felt like years, but for the first time, there was nothing but an empty abyss, so deep and so complete, I couldn’t tell how far this realm stretched. Forever, maybe, given this was the Underworld.
“Enzo? Ottavia?”
My words were swallowed up by that waiting silence, my skin prickling again, not in anticipation, but in terror because this place felt different than every time before. Threatening, almost. And then…
“Emberline.” I stepped backward as a whisper of my name floated out between the veil, something moving in the far-off shadows, too indistinct for me to recognize what it was. But big. Whatever this was… it was so fucking big.
Oh gods.What had Emilia said, right after she’d saved me?The dark will whisper your name more loudly?I didn’t think she meantliterally.
I had to wake up.I pinched myself. Nothing.Okay, I had to put some space between me and whatever was inside because I felt like it was watching me right now.
I was retreating when the darkness caught me, shadowy tendrils wrapping around my arms, like the fingers of a penumbral god, cold as death, sharp as razor blades, dragging me forward with the strength of the universe.
I didn’t even fight, I was that scared.
My body completely shut down, some sort of primal instinct telling me to stay still, stay small, to make myself invisible. That maybe I’d survive.
An edge of the veil brushed across my right shoulder, and pain tore through me, the kind that consumed everything except my ability to scream.
The sound ripped out of me and echoed, ricocheting back and forth inside my head, and my next desperate inhale sent glacial cold spilling down my throat, strangling my lungs until I couldn’t make a sound.
Death does not like to be cheated. Emilia told me, and she was right.
I was going to die. Somehow, inside my dream, Death was reclaiming my soul, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
Arms wrapped around my waist from behind, warm and strong and real, ripping me out of the darkness’ hold, pulling me back across the threshold to where the ground felt solid beneath my feet, where the air didn’t freeze my lungs, where…
I looked down at the familiar hand flattened over my chest and whirled around.
“Hey, principessa.” Nico’s lopsided grin was edged with guilt. “You sounded like you needed some help.”
“Nico? What is this? How are you here?” I stabbed him in the chest with my finger and winced. His chest was solid as steel.This was so weird.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he said, with all seriousness. “This place is dangerous, Ember. You can’t control what happens in this realm, and Dante cannot reach you.”
“Then how are you here?” I demanded.
“Go back,” he urged, ignoring me. “Go back to where it’s safe, and your husband can protect you from the monsters. Forget about this place.”
“I can’t,” I told him. “This is where I always end up. I was looking for my parents. I need to talk to my mother.”
“You…” His eyes flashed as he looked past me to the opening. “You speak to your mother in this place?”
He made it sound like that wasn’t… normal.
“AndEnzo. They usually meet me at the gate.”Or whatever you called this place. I poked him again, just to make sure he was real, and he caught my hand. Gods, even his skin felt real. Warm, palms calloused in all the right places, his fingers long and elegant, like an artist’s.
His eyes never leaving my face, Nico brought my hand to his lips and pressed a kiss on each of my knuckles. Slow and sensual, with his eyes hooded, like he’d been waiting to do this his entire life.
“Wake up, Emberline.” His whisper sent chills through me. “If I catch you again down here all alone, I can’t be responsible for my actions.”
