Page 6 of Devoted

“Once we secure Rocco, we either dematerialize out, or we’ll use the boat. We can blend in with the canal traffic,” I leaned back in my chair, my spine cracking. “The approach will be the trickiest part.”

“I’m not sold on these ridiculous costumes,” Dante grumbled. “Why can’t we just dematerialize inside and start slaughtering? Seems like a lot of planning to accomplish the same thing.”

“Because there will be wards, and we need to evaluate the situation, and there’s a chance Rocco will be too injured to dematerialize out,” I explained for the tenth time. “The boat’s our contingency plan. We need it on-site in case we need emergency transport. Valeria promised us a fast craft, powerful enough to outrun anything else on the canal.”

“I think you’ll look handsome dressed as a rich human,” Emberline teased softly. “And if we play this right, the guards won’t pay a bit of attention to us.”

“The costumes are still a stupid idea,” he grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest, even though there were two spots of color in his cheeks now.

“I don’t mind dressing up, as long as it helps the cause,” Luca said with a bit too much enthusiasm. “I’ll scan every soldier and warn you if any of them suspect us.”

“I don’t want you going at all.” Emberline laid her hand over her brother’s. “We’re already risking too many lives.”

“Luca’s not the only one who could stay behind.” I shot her a pointed look. “In fact, Nico and I are perfectly capable of getting Rocco out by ourselves.”

“Oh, just try to keep me out of this,” Emberline’s tone took on that too-calm edge that told me I was pushing my luck. “I dare you, Gabriel.”

“And what about the Ashbound?” Dante slapped his hands down on the table. “Last I looked, brother, the entire place was crawling with them.”

“And who will warn you if the soldiers suspect something?” Luca hooked both thumbs at his chest. “Me. I’m the only one who can read minds, and just ask Dante, I can handle myself in a fight.”

Dear gods, save me from heroes.

I rubbed my throbbing temples. “Fine. We all go, but once you step into that boat, once this is underway, I’m calling the shots. If I sense anything out of place, we abort mission.” I glared at the lot of them and finally got a smattering of reluctant yeses.

“We’ll shoot for two nights from now. I want to run through the plan a few more times. And we need to do recon. Nico, check out La Sala. Give me new numbers on patrols, guards, and whatever else those fuckers have in place. I don’t want any surprises.”

Which gave me—and Dante and Nico—two days to convince Emberline and her brother to stay here.

Afternoon faded into evening.

The Adriatic turned darker, the table became littered with coffee cups and crumb-filled plates, hand-drawn sketches of the palazzo’s layout, Nico’s rendering of our approach along the Grand Canal, and for some inexplicable reason, a cat wearing sunglasses that looked suspiciously like Dante.

We were just finishing up when Valeria rushed in, a paper crumpled in one shaking hand, her eyes red-rimmed. She drew a shaking breath, then stopped, shaking her head, as if the news was too terrible to be spoken out loud.

We all waited, tension spreading through the room like the shockwave before an explosion.

“Rocco is to be executed at dawn,” she said hoarsely. “Those bastards aren’t even giving him a trial.”

3

EMBERLINE

The paper rattled in Valeria’s shaking hands, and for a second, I felt sorry for her.

Then I remembered her rubbing herself against my husband like a cat in heat, and common sense replaced pity.

Unfair, yes, but she was the one who’d started this game, not me. I’d be a fool to ever trust her—she was a Demente, after all.

For a moment, nobody moved. All of us calculating our shrinking timeline while Valeria stood there looking like her world was collapsing around her.

“This could be a trap.” Dante broke the silence first. “Giovanni’s announcement backs us into a corner time-wise. Could be he’s trying to lure us back to Venice.”

“For that to be true,”—I swallowed the bile rising in my throat—“he’d have to know Valeria was the one who saved us from Blackwood. He’d have to know we were here.”

“Nonsense,” Valeria sniffed with enviable superiority. “I’m not a fucking amateur. I know how to hide my tracks.”

“That settles it.” Gabriel’s curt order cut through my rising panic. “Nico and I will get Rocco out; the rest of you stay here. If things go wrong…” His eyes slid to his brother, then to me. “You get her out.”