Page 129 of Devoted

Dante made a low sound of agreement. “If they knew what happened to Aurora and Louis, they would have stayed in their estates, locked behind their wards.”

“Yes, they would. Which means they either don’t know, or they’re fools willing to stick out their worthless necks for more power. My money’s on the second option.”

“Hmmm. Fools, it is.”

My brother and I had snuck into the city through a back-channel Dante used in emergencies, an ancient gondolier who didn’t ask questions in return for a king’s ransom in gold. I’d worried the male would sell us out until he lifted his stump of a hand and assured me that any chance he had to stick it to Giovanni DiRavello was a favor from the gods.

Which was good enough for me.

After our attack had been aborted, we’d come to the city to recon our enemy’s current positions.

We discovered La Sala was a fortified stronghold, the perimeter around the building filled with traps created from dark magic, an army of glamoured guards, and enough warding to slow us down, turn us into easy targets. There would have been high fatalities as we fought our way inside, but the advance team…

I took another breath, counting to ten, trying to steady myself.

Emberline, Nico, and my brother would have taken the brunt of that ambush.

I doubted any of them would have survived.

Inside, forms had moved erratically past the windows. Ashbound and Drax, too many for us to count. There was no sign of Lord Blackwood, only his brutish guards, posted at every entrance and along the roofline.

We’d dematerialized to the equally well-protected DiRavello palazzo, only to find the heads of the minor families meeting with Giovanni, likely so he could test their loyalties.

“Look on the bright side. His paranoia has to be through the roof,” my brother observed. “There’s no way he can be sure who is really loyal.”

“As everyone jockeys for power, there will be bloodshed,” I murmured. “The tighter he grips his power, the more he’ll be sure it’s about to slip away.”

“Little does the smug bastard know how close he came to losing that power tonight,” Dante said, then paused, shaking his head. “Who am I kidding? If it wasn’t for Luca, there’s a good chance Giovanni would have us on our knees, not the other way around.”

“After seeing their defenses, I agree. We dodged a fucking bullet tonight.” The words came out sharp, my frustration bleeding through. “They anticipated every step of our plan. Severin did the recon himself. Two hours before we launched our attack, there were no signs of any extra protections. Now, La Sala is a veritable stronghold.”

Below us, the argument grew more heated, and yet that reptilian smile on Giovanni’s face only grew wider. Oh, you are really enjoying this, aren’t you?

“Blackwood’s been listening to everything we’ve said, everything we’ve planned.” I traded a look with Dante. “They knew our schedule, down to the minute, and they were ready for us tonight.”

Dante was quiet for a moment. “We would have walked straight into a trap if not for the kid.”

“Your mouth to gods’ ears,” I muttered, not ready to delve into the dark thoughts that kept consuming me every time I imagined what would have happened tonight if Luca hadn’t stumbled out of his bedroom at that exact moment.

I would have lost Emberline.

And all of us… we would have lost our future.

A future already teetering on the cusp of this coming war.

No. I fisted my hands. No, I would not allow this. I would not allow this pathetic excuse for a vampire—this devious, cunning Machiavellian bastard—to steal what we deserved.

“Someone got the Drax onto the island,” Dante pointed out, scratching the back of his neck. “I mean, they didn’t just magically appear.”

“That we know of.” Not that we knew enough about them to absolutely cross that possibility off the list. No, we knew so little of what we were up against, it was impossible to anticipate our enemy’s next move.

“That we know of,” he conceded.

For a moment, we just watched the garden below, Giovanni manipulating his sycophantic guests with the ease of a man who had spent half a millennium wielding power from the shadows.

“Do you remember,” Dante whispered, “the summer Mamma took us to the villa outside Verona?”

I sent him a sideways look, but nodded. “The one with the fishing pond.”