Page 176 of Devoted

“Now that Blackwood and Luca are back in Rome, we need to move faster,” Valeria urged, stepping into the room when she saw I wasn’t budging. She dropped onto the bed beside me. “Every day he’s there means Blackwood can…” She gulped loudly, then sighed.

I closed the book.

From the look on her face, there was no way she was going to let me finish.

“Romulus is watching over him,” I soothed, even though my own nerves were raw and fraying. “Emilia got word that Rom will shield Luca from Blackwood. And the fucker has his hands so full right now, hopefully, he’s too busy to even remember Luca’s existence.”

No, Blackwood was currently fighting for his political survival in Rome as the Bellamorte Dynasty council descended into a battle for control. Cesare might be ancient and clever, but the Roman vampires were ruthless, and he didn’t have a monopoly on greed.

“Still…” Valeria bit her bottom lip. “After what you told me, I can’t stop thinking about how he’s suffering.”

I closed my eyes briefly, cursing myself for telling her—for telling everyone—that Luca was still inside somewhere, that I’d seen the signs myself and heard his voice in my head.

“There’s a…” I hesitated, then headed for the door, motioning for her to follow me. We headed down the long hall, dodging knots of Draconi soldiers, who looked at us more as curiosities than anything else.

“Luca and I are twins, but you knew that already. And sometimes, twins share certain bonds. Mental bonds. Ever since we were babies, Luca and I could speak to each other. We know what the other thinks.”

Curiosity sparked in her face, then just as quickly, color flooded her cheeks.

“Just how detailed is this connection?” she demanded, catching up to me in the hallway, and I chuckled at her obvious discomfort.

“We can also shield each other from anything private we don’t want the other to see.” I made a right turn toward the training yards. “Trust me, Luca has no interest in what happens between me and my men. He’d rather gouge his own eyes out. So don’t worry—I only know what I’ve seen firsthand.”

“So… you can talk to him right now?”

I hesitated. Despite my many attempts, what I found on the other end of our bond was chaos. Voices that made no sense, an endless chittering, like the drone of insects. And something else, a pulsing darkness that repelled me on every level.

There was no way for me to explain, other than I knew Luca was alive.

That he wasn’t in pain.

That he was… asleep.

“Not talk, exactly, but I can tell you he’s safe at the moment and sleeping.”

She stopped moving, leaning against the wall, as if her legs stopped working.

“Oh, thank the gods. I’ve been so…” She peered at me through her tears. “You probably think I’m crazy for feeling like this, but your brother and I… I always liked him. Luca wasn’t like the others. He was always so kind to me.” She swallowed. “Whenever we spoke, I felt like he really saw me, you know? Not as a tool, or a stepping stone, but just… me. We talked about books and painting, and it might have been the only time I didn’t feel like I had to pretend to be somebody else. I could just be myself.”

I laid my hand on her shoulder. “We’ll bring Luca back home, and I’ll figure out how to get Blackwood’s poison out of him.”

“But I thought Nico said…”

Yes, Nico said his father’s magic was irreversible, but he was the Emissary of Death. My husband was a fire demon. I wasn’t willing to doubt my brother’s chances, not when the world didn’t seem to obey the same limitations.

“Nico’s wrong. About this,” I added because he had to be. He had to be wrong because I wasn’t about to give up on my brother and apparently, neither was Valeria.

Valeria nodded, and we pushed through the exit doors, letting in a wash of humid summer air and the sounds of combat—heavy bodies colliding, the clang of steel meeting steel, guttural shouts. We wove through the fighting, some soldiers in straight lines going through structured exercises, some battling hand-to-hand.

Like Valeria and I were about to.

“We did my uncle a favor getting Blackwood out of Venice. Now, there’s nothing standing in his way, and according to Emilia’s spies, the mage is making progress on the Basin. The real Basin.”

Because my uncle had discovered our ruse, and I only wished I’d been there to see Giovanni’s face when he did. I’d bet my last ducat that incompetent mage got an earful.

“My father talked his way out of trouble, too,” Valeria said bitterly. “I hear he’s back on the council, like nothing changed.”

“Too bad, I’d rather he lost his head than some innocent family.”