How the fuck was I going to live without her?
“Do you even know what you’re doing?” Nico hissed, crouched down beside me, watching the blue glow sink slowly into gray flesh.
“I’ve only healed battle wounds, broken bones, pit injuries, never…” I couldn’t fucking breathe, couldn’t fucking think, not with her body so godsdamned still on the slick stone, her dark hair plastered to her face, skin the color of marble in winter. Everything stank of algae, salt, and the copper tang of my own blood where I’d already bitten open my wrist, smearing it against her lips.
Nothing.
No flutter under my fingers. No tiny hitch of breath. Nothing but the distant slap of black water against ancient stone and the roar of panic in my ears.
“Dante.” Nico’s voice came from my right, rough and breathless. “Stop. It’s been too long.”
I ignored him and tipped Emberline’s head back again, sealing my mouth over hers, forcing air into lungs thatrefused to expand, sending more magic into a heart that refused to beat, even for me.
Please, please, please, just one fucking thump, that’s all I’m fucking asking for.
I’d been too slow.
Too fucking late.
Why did I leave tonight? Why didn’t I come home sooner? Why couldn’t I have waited when I knew, I fucking knew she’d try something like this? She couldn’t leave me, she couldn’t, not when everything was so new, and we were just…
I pressed my palm to her sternum, felt ribs shift beneath the pressure as I fed more and more magic into her. Rough, healing magic, but I poured everything I had into her in shuddering waves until my muscles shook.
“Breathe,” I snarled, tears blurring my vision as I gripped her shoulders and shook her. “You don’t get to leave me like this. Do you hear me? You don’t fucking get to leave me alone.”
Trembling fingers closed around my wrists. “Dante.” Nico hunched over at the edge of my vision, his shadowy shield fraying apart, his eyes wet, his face lined with grief. “Stop this. You’re going to break her ribs.”
“I don’t care,” I rocked her back and forth. “She is not leaving me.”
“We have to get her out of here,” Nico’s voice shook as he glanced up at the still-dark façade of the DiRavello palazzo. “I can’t keep us hidden forever. Make your peace and let her go.”
The words sliced through me.
Never. I was never fucking letting her go.
As far as peace… Anger poured through me in great, thunderous waves, a black river with no end as I imagined all the ways I was going to make Giovanni bleed. Suffer. Scream.
I jerked away from Nico and sank my fangs into my wrist, hot, thick blood flooding my mouth. I forced her jaw open, letting it spill between her lips, praying it would spark her soul back to life.
Come back to me, Ember. I rocked back on my heels, tears burning my eyes.
Come back, and I will never leave you again. Come back, and I will spend every day worshiping you like a queen, every day telling you how I can’t live a day without you. Just… please don’t leave me here alone.
A trail of crimson tracked down the corner of her mouth, mixing with canal water, pooling darkly at the angle of her throat.Nothing.
“She would never give up without a fight,” I rasped. “She’s too stubborn, she…”
“Godsdamn it, Dante.” Nico’s voice broke. “She’s gone.” He crouched down, staring me dead in the eye. “If she were older, maybe she might have survived, but she was underwater for too long, and she’s half frozen…” His voice trailed off, brow pinching together.
“She’s half frozen, which means her bodycouldbe in stasis. Enough that…” His gaze snapped to mine, something intense burning there, enough to jumpstart my dead, broken heart. “There might be a way,” he began, then shook his head. “No, I shouldn’t…”
My heart lurched. “Tell me, asshole, or I’ll beat it out of you.”
“You won’t like it.”
“I don’t give a damn what I like. If there is any chance of saving her, I’ll take it.”
He hesitated, jaw working. “We could take her to Emilia. Rumor is, there’s a ritual that brings the dead back to life.”
