Page 118 of Devoted

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“Ithink, with some tweaking, I can neutralize the Drax. Or rather… my priests can.”

I was halfway to Luca’s room to check on my brother when Emilia stepped out of the shadows, and I nearly stabbed her with the kitchen knife out of pure reflex.

In the chaos, I hadn’t had time to worry about my brother. Then, during the aftermath, as Gia was healing my wrist and trying to comfort Valeria, I kept wondering… where was Luca? Hadn’t he heard the screaming, the glass breaking, us fighting for our lives?

And now… Emilia was standing in my way.

“A little jumpy?” She eyed the steak knife with the serene unconcern of a female who was never frightened by anything, least of all me.

“I practically had my soul partially drained by a creature made of nightmare fuel,” I snapped. “So, yes. Slightly jumpy is one way to put it. What can I help you with? I’m ten feet away from checking on my brother, and you’re standing in my way.”

I was still feeling woozy after Gia and her healers finished with me, not surprising, since I’d lost like a gallon of blood and nearly my entire hand.

She tilted her head. “I’ve had a spy buried inside Blackwood’s organization for years. According to his latest message, Blackwood has become obsessed with the Basin. Whatever happens tonight, he cannot end up controlling the Basin. I want you to understand that clearly. Blackwood getting his hands on that relic is not a setback or a complication. It would be the end of everything.”

I stared at her. I thought about the Drax on my chest, about the cold pulling sensation that I was going to be feeling in my sleep for the next month, and a slow, hot surge of anger burned up my throat.

“You have a spy inside his organization? This information would have been useful weeks ago, Emilia. Before tonight. Before we were…” I stopped, clamping my lips together as everything fell into place.

Romulus.

She has to be talking about Romulus.

“Does Gabriel know? Or Nico? Does anyone know anything, or are you playing your own power games while we fumble around, not seeing the whole picture?”

She regarded me with that flat, slightly disappointed expression, then shrugged, one small, elegant lift of her shoulder, and said, “I’m telling you now, aren’t I?” then turned and walked back away, leaving me standing with my mouth open and nothing clever to say.

And without confirming my suspicions.

Sleep, as it turned out, was a theoretical concept.

After Emilia waylaid me, I’d forgotten to check on my brother, and now I was too exhausted to get out of the bed.

Too tired to move, too worried about the future to fall asleep.

The sun was still shining merrily between the slatted shades, the waves rolling up and down the shoreline in a patient, eternal rhythm that should be soothing and currently was not.

I couldn’t turn my brain off.

Couldn’t close my eyes without seeing the Drax or hearing those clicking mandibles, the cold bite of those teeth as they drained me dry.

Then there was our plan, filled with enough holes, we had no business going through with it.

We weren’t prepared at all. But we didn’t have a choice.

And while I should be using this time to close loopholes and look for ways to leverage our strengths, I kept coming back to that slow draining away of my soul. How cold leached into my bones, and my limbs went heavy while the Drax kept me pinned, the horrible intimacy of the thing latching onto the most secret, private part of myself and pulling, like a deep splinter drawn from flesh that didn’t want to let go.

I pulled in a shuddering breath, and the door opened.

Dante came first, then Gabriel, silently taking me in, worry written across his face, and finally Nico, his shadows already reaching for me, brushing across my cheeks and leaving a trace of coolness behind.

“You’re supposed to be sleeping,” Gabriel said, the bed dipping beneath him as he stretched out beside me. “We still have a few hours before we leave. Try to get some rest.”

“I’ll pass your message along to my brain, which is currently obsessing over how close I came to having my soul sucked out of my eyeballs.” I grinned at Nico. “Like a tube of yogurt.”

He visibly winced. “Gods, don’t joke about that, princess. Not yet.”