Page 125 of Devoted

“I need to go. I need to be there.”

And I needed to be here, too.

“Let me stay with him,” Valeria murmured softly, leaning in to adjust the edge of the sheet, her long, delicate fingers trembling. “Watch over him until you return. I won’t leave him alone, I swear.”

I looked up at her gratefully, wondering how I could have so badly misjudged her.

From the anguish on her face, clearly, she cared—really cared—for my brother.

“What are his chances?” my husband asked Gia, going straight for the marrow, like someone who’d seen death so often he’d lost all his tact.

The healer stared down at Luca. “If something doesn’t change soon, he won’t see the dawn,” she murmured, not looking at me or Dante but at Valeria. “This type of infection is nothing we have seen before. If we knew more about what caused it…”

Valeria crossed her arms over her chest and turned away, her breathing ragged.

“I’ll find Emilia and bring her here,” Gabriel said, already moving for the door.

“You can’t,” I said miserably. “She needs to be with her priests; we need their magic for the…” I caught myself before I revealed all our plans. “We need her focused.”

“I think we can all agree Luca is more important, Emberline.” Dante’s hand cupped the back of my neck, his grip so warm and certain, I bit back a sob.

“The mission is important, too.” I could barely get the words out. “We can’t just abandon everything we’ve put in place because of my brother. There’s too much at stake.”

Luca was only one person, and our uncle was waging a bloody vendetta. Who knew how many people would die if we called tonight off?

“Just a short delay,” Nico said gently, crouching down beside me so he could peer up into my eyes. “Until we know for sure he’ll pull through. Our war can wait one more day, but you should be here for your brother. He needs you right now, Emberline.” He paused, pity glimmering in his somber expression.

“If I know one thing, it’s that having someone you love with you makes all the difference. Between stepping through the threshold… or staying here.”

He kissed the top of my head, and I nodded, tears spilling down my face, my brother’s hand limp in mine, feeling like an utter failure.

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell them we couldn’t delay, to rise from this chair, tell the healers to do what they could, and go to face our enemies…

But Luca’s chest was rising and falling, and right now, I was afraid if I didn’t keep watching, it just might stop.

CHAPTER 48

EMBERLINE

Dawn tinted the eastern horizon as the clock ticked off the seconds, faster than my lagging heartbeats. Much faster than Luca’s wet, labored breaths.

He was getting worse.

I’d been telling myself he’d take a turn for the better any minute now. That the unnatural veins crawling up the side of his neck would stop. That the black blood oozing from his right arm would turn red and healthy.

That any minute Luca would open his eyes and tell one of his awful jokes, give me that lopsided grin, and make some stupid crack about the awful stench in here… or something.

But he hadn’t been conscious in hours.

Everything that came out of his mouth was unintelligible. Mostly.

Between the moans, words burst out frantic and fractured—the ceiling… don’t go there… stop talking… I won’t do it—the phrases becoming so jumbled and frenetic, the healers had finally used their magic to put him to sleep an hour ago.

Valeria had left to get some rest.

Every so often, Gabriel and Dante drifted out of the room. Nico, too, squeezing my shoulder and pressing a kiss to the top of my head. Present in all the ways I needed them to be, saying none of the empty words I didn’t need to hear right now. The healers moved quickly and efficiently, nudging me out of the way when needed, but otherwise working around me, tending to my brother with single-minded intent.

Right now, Dante watched from the doorway as Gia pressed her palms flat against Luca’s chest and fed another surge of magic into his limp body. Not that anything they did helped.