I wasn’t sure I wanted to.
“So what?” I shook my head at the ridiculousness of this entire conversation. “I smile, listen, play the obedient wife while I memorize shipping schedules and computerpasswords? You’re asking me to pretend they didn’t rip our father’s heart out of his chest.”
Giovanni’s eyes softened. “I am asking you whether you want them dead more than you want revenge.”
That warmth in my chest twisted because I wanted both.
“I’m talking about true revenge,cara.Toppling their empire completely, erasing the entire Dominico bloodline, forcing Marcello to watch his whole life collapse around him. Failure is worse than a quick death, trust me.” There was a bladed edge to his voice as he swirled his brandy.
“If you go through with this,” he continued, “you gain something invaluable.”
“What?” I whispered.
“Time,” he offered. “Proximity. Access. You will see their operations from the inside. The secret accounts they don’t show the Council. You will see where the money flows, who gives the orders when Marcello is not in the room, every exploitable weakness.”
I could almost see it as he spoke—the Dominico island, the fortress-palazzo, the hidden offices. Doors that had always been locked for Enzo silently opening for me because of a ring on my finger and a title I would choke on.
“You send me in,” I spoke slowly, “and I deliver you their empire, piece by piece.”
“Exactly.” His gaze brightened. “You do not have to destroy them in a single day, but erode them, bit by bit. You will compromise their network. Plant doubt in their allies’ minds, strain their resources responding to threats you create. And when the time is right—when their operations are in shambles, when Gabriel is stretched too thin, when Marcello is off balance—we strike.”
“How?” Luca asked hoarsely. “They are impossiblypowerful. Guarded day and night by Draconi soldiers. Marcello has six hundred years of experience.”
“So do I,” Giovanni smirked, taking a delicate sip, his gold ring glinting. “And we have something they do not.”
“What?” I asked, my teeth grinding.
He smiled. “You.”
18
EMBERLINE
Iscrubbed my face, trying to buy into this ridiculous fantasy he was painting.
“I have been training you for this since you could walk.” Giovanni slid off the desk and took a single step closer, close enough I could see the fine lines around his eyes.
“Not just with knives and pistols, but with strategy and politics. You read people the way others read books. Enzo knew you were a threat. The Dominicos will realize the truth, too—but far too late.”
He held my gaze, steady and unblinking.
“When you have weakened them,”—his tone was like velvet—“when you have turned their strengths against them, then you kill Marcello. You kill Gabriel and the younger brother. Not in public, but in a moment ofyourchoosing. In their own house, like they did to your father. You will return to this palazzo with their blood on your hands, and we will be so powerful, no one will be able to touch you.”
My pulse thudded in my ears.
“And that’s it?” I wondered. “I just… come home? As if nothing happened?”
“I will become Don. You come home as the female who toppled the Dominico Dynasty.” Gio sounded as if it was already done. “No one will question us. Not the Council.Not the other Pentarchs. Not once I take Marcello’s seat at the Shadow Council and crush any discussions about my beloved niece.”
There it was. The heart of his plan.
Not for me to avenge his brother, but for him to inherit all the power in our world.
I wanted to laugh. This had been his plan since the beginning. The Rite of Arbitration… a ruse to get me to go along with it, a carrot he dangled for me to chase.
Only to dangle an even bigger carrot, one he knew I could not refuse.
Luca made a choked sound. “You’re talking about dismantling our entire power structure. Do you have any idea the chaos that will unleash?”
