“The price is not for you to pay, child. Whatever cost there is for this will come out of another’s pocket, so to speak. Worry not, go home. Sleep. Recover.”
Emilia’s mouth pinched in displeasure. “You understand,” she warned, “that what we did tonight can never be spoken of. Not to your fathers, not to your brothers, not to Luca or Marcello or Rocco. If the rest of the Council knew, they would demand all our heads, and I am rather attached to mine.”
“It’ll be our little secret,” Nico promised, mimicking zipping his lips.
Emilia’s eyes gleamed. “If you betray me, know this… what happened with the wards will seem like a kindness.”
55
EMBERLINE
Iwas…
I didn’t know.
Unmoored from reality, perhaps.
Like I was still floating, grasping for a rope that was forever out of reach.
The last thing I remembered was the water closing over my head, my lungs burning like they were on fire, and then…
Darkness.
Cold, endless darkness. And a voice, calling my name.
“Do not worry, Dante.” Emilia smiled sweetly, even though she looked like she was considering tearing out his throat. “I will not ask you to do anything you were not already planning.”
Right.They were talking.
I should pay attention. This conversation was probably important, given the circumstances, but listening was hard when the world kept slipping through my fingers like quicksilver.
My heart leapt into my throat when Dante braced his feet apart.
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“It means,” Emilia said, ruthless intelligence glimmering behind her dark eyes, “I know you discovered Marcello’s secret. The role Giovanni played in covering those secretsup. That you are just finally realizing how deep the rot in the Dynasty has eaten.”
“And you covered for them this entire time,” Dante hissed. “You’re in this just as deep.”
“Perhaps I am, but I had my reasons then, and I have them now,” she snarled cryptically.
I looked between them, barely even breathing. When a vampire as powerful as Emilia saved your life, the cost would be high, and my husband was going to pay.
Dante bargained with the High Priestess to save me, and now Emilia owned him, for a cost I couldn’t even begin to imagine.
Half-hidden by shadows, Nico remained quiet, but darkness gathered around him like a living cloak. No…it really was alive.
I focused on those shadows, weaving between his legs, wisps of inky black that seemed so… familiar.
“Andyou,” I came to attention when Emilia rounded on me, “you were careless, child. Caught snooping. Which means any hope you had of operating in secret is over. Enemies are out in the open, and now the only logical result is war.”
“Yes, I was careless,” I admitted, my jaw clenching as the full extent of my foolishness settled over me like a heavy weight. I’d fucked up my plans. I fucked up Dante’s plans. I glanced over at him, but all he was doing was staring at me with such heated intensity, I might catch fire.
“You sit on the Shadow Council,” I pointed out the obvious, trying to wrap my head around why Emilia would take such a risk. “Why are you helping us when it would have been easier to let me die?”
“Because I admire audacity.” Emilia shrugged, one of herspaghetti straps slipping off her shoulders, and I noticed the fresh punctures on her throat. “Because I am tired of watching greedy males play games for more power. Because once, I imagined a better future for this Dynasty, and because sometimes, the smallest blade makes the deepest cut.”
She cupped my chin, tilting my face up so our eyes met. “You are going to succeed, ragazza. Or you are going to die. Either way, you have changed how this latest game will play out.”
