Page 59 of Devoted

The circle I’d completely forgotten until it was too late.

Nico wouldn’t look at me. Wouldn’t meet my eyes, but all around us, his shadows swirled into a protective shield that nearly obscured the sight of his father, gloating at our predicament.

“No matter what happens, Emberline, if I tell you to run, you run.” There wasn’t an ounce of doubt in Nico’s voice, only cold certainty. “No arguing, you do as I say.”

Lord Cesare Blackwood was Nico’s father.

And nobody knew. Not Dante. Not Gabriel.

Which meant Nico had been carrying this secret for decades, and now everything made sense. His shame. His silence. His claim I would think him a monster if I discovered the truth. A truth I was sure Nico would have kept a secret until his dying day.

Which might just be today, given the murderous look on his father’s face.

“Ah. My son never shared his true parentage, did he?” Blackwood watched him with obvious amusement. “Not a surprise, given how vigorously he’s rejected his heritage. He could have been a god. Instead, he chose to be a soldier,” Blackwood spat. “Rank and file, just like the rest of the drones. Such a complete waste.”

I saw the faintest resemblance between them, the elegant slope of their cheeks, the way their pale eyes peered out above high cheekbones—the father’s gleaming silver, Nico’s a tawny brown.

“There’s no hiding now, is there?” His mockery rolled through the temple. “The truth will out in the end, as they say, and let us see how your friends embrace you once they know who you really are. The loyal Draconi soldier. The right hand of the future Don. When all you ever were was a traitor in their midst.”

I flinched at the careful cruelty contained in those words, in the sheer venom in his tone. Every word was a lash, an insult, a condemnation. Nico shrank beneath every one, darkness growing in his eyes until black had swallowed up the brown.

I took Nico’s hand. I didn’t want him to have a single doubt where I stood.

Not about him, and not about his monster of a father.

Blackwood’s smile was equal parts snake and wolf when he said, “Tell me, Emberline, how long has my son been lying to you? Did he tell you who he was when he stuck his cock inside you? When he made his sweet promises of forever? When he had his mouth on your cunt, and you screamed his name?”

I forced myself not to react to his coarse, ugly words, leveling a glare at him cold enough to freeze. “It wouldn’t have mattered.”

“If he planted his seed inside of you, did he tell you it would be a Blackwood? Did he tell you I would own you and your spawn for as long as you drew breath? A chain I could yank at any time and have you come crawling back to me?”

“You are even more vile than I ever imagined, and believe me, I’ve imagined quite a lot.” It took everything I had to keep my face expressionless, a cold, contemptuous smirk on my lips.

Breathe, Emberline. Fucking think. There has to be a way out. None of this is even real.

It’s only a dream.

Blackwood laughed softly, gaze locked on my belly, where my palm was flattened on the flat plane of my stomach. “Oh, yes. Blood is blood in our family. And you would never escape me then, little bird.”

I stared at Nico, begging him to say something.

Tell me he’s lying. Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me there’s an explanation that doesn’t include you being the son of a fucking delusional monster who’s our most dangerous enemy. Tell me you can get us out of here.

Nico’s jaw tightened, and still, he said nothing, and that long, ruined silence answered everything.

“So what?” My heart was hollowed out of my aching chest, but so the fuck what? We had to escape this circle and this dream. The truth… the truth was a luxury given to those with the time to spend on small grievances and bigger hurts. Right now, our lives were at risk.

Die in the dream, die in real life.

And I had no doubt Blackwood was making the exact same calculation.

Two nuisances off his hands; all he had to do was end us here.

“I don’t give a rat’s ass who Nico’s sperm donor was.” My voice sounded too high, but I kept going. “And right now, all I see is a shallow, weak male who’s too insecure to do anything except throw around insults. But sure, keep going, show off that weak character of yours.”

Pain flashed across Nico’s face, and I squeezed his hand.

Nothing about this was right. I’d asked him for the truth, and he’d hidden it from me. Hidden it from Gabriel and Dante for decades. But if Blackwood was my father…