Page 61 of Devoted

Nico panted harder, blood running onto the marble in a steady stream.

“You are an embarrassment to our bloodline.” The blade edge glittered in the candlelight as I fought to get free. “Not that it matters now.”

The blade fell.

Because this was a dream after all, it fell in slow motion, with clinical, perfect accuracy, straight toward that pale, exposed patch of skin on the back of Nico’s neck where his hair parted, as if offering him up to be sacrificed.

Nico turned his head, and the world narrowed until there was only the two of us.

There was apology in his eyes. Regret.

The blade was there—right there—when black smoke exploded through the chamber, and every candle went out simultaneously. I didn’t know where the fume came from, but darkness swallowed everything except for Blackwood’s screamed curse, and the sound of the containment circle shattering.

All around me, the silver runes flared, then went out, and the spell holding me prisoner vanished.

I stumbled forward, clawing through the smoke-filled darkness until I collided with warm skin and fabric.

“Nico.” Strong hands caught me. “Was that smoke yours?”

“Not mine,” he panted. “We have to get out of here,” he caught my wrist. “Run.”

The temple dissolved around us, columns twisting into mist, shadows blurring, Blackwood’s laughter echoing all around us.

“You are running out of places to hide. And I am so very close to finding you in the real world, Nico. So very close.”

I burst out of the dream to a circle of worried faces peering down at me, Nico’s hand still clamped around my wrist like iron, my pulse drumming madly against his fingers. I couldn’t catch my breath. Couldn’t fucking think around my terror.

Blackwood’s son. The secret he’d carried all this time.

The lie that was soon to be out in the open.

And gods help us all.

21

DANTE

The moment Emberline opened her eyes, I knew something had gone wrong.

Catastrophically wrong.

One second, she and Nico were lying motionless in a sea of pillows on the floor of Valeria’s villa, surrounded by flickering candles. The next, they bolted upright, gasping for air as though they were drowning.

Now, ten minutes later, I reminded myself patience was a godsdamned virtue as rage simmered beneath my skin like poison. I wanted answers, and I wasn’t fucking getting them, at least, not quickly enough for my liking.

Moonlight poured in through the floor-to-ceiling sliders. My brother paced back and forth in front of the view, stopping only to run a hand through his hair before moving again, as if he couldn’t bear to stay still.

“If you woke Emilia up, if you accomplished what you went in there for, then why do you both look like you’re barely holding it together?” I kept my tone even, so I didn’t spook Emberline.

She was sitting on the sofa near the fireplace. Gabriel stopped behind her, one hand resting on the back of the couch like he wanted to touch her but wasn’t sure he should.

Nico lingered in a darkened corner, deliberately keeping his distance.

From her.

From all of us.

Just like he had ever since Rocco’s clusterfuck of a rescue mission.