Dante started walking.
Straight toward me.
He moved with the lazy, dangerous confidence of a trained fighter, boots thudding against the ancient stone asvampires—all of them rich and powerful and dangerous in their own right—scrambled out of the way. The closer he drew, details became clearer—the thin white scar slicing through one eyebrow, the crooked set of his nose, the faint mottling along his knuckles where battered skin had healed over so many times, all that was left were the scars.
I’d been right about the pit fighting.
This fucker was a brute, but his eyes…
Ocean-blue, like Gabriel’s, but wilder. Filled with rage, the kind I’d never seen before. They chewed up everything they saw and spit it back out, and right now, those eyes were fixed firmly on me. I couldn’t move, pinned down on the precipice of a cliff where one wrong move would send me tumbling over the edge.
Nor could I look away.
Nico seemed caught in the same trance, a rock in the center of the chaotic crowd, vampires streaming around him, weapons hanging useless from slack fingers.
Beside me, Gabriel looked like he’d seen a ghost. Mouth slightly ajar, something like fear burning in his eyes. I touched his arm, and he didn’t even glance down, hyper-focused on his brother.
“Stop this, now.” Marcello rose, the full weight of his authority and his magic slamming through the chapel, the walls shivering. “You have no right to step foot on this island. I banished you.”
“Yeah.” Dante tipped his head to the side. “Funny thing about banishment. It doesn’t mean much, as it turns out. Not after fifty years away. Not after the hell I’veendured.” His voice was a guttural rasp of sound, like every word had to claw its way up his throat.
He stopped at the steps. This close, he smelled of smokeand rain and the coppery tang of fresh blood. There were droplets on his leather coat and a splash of red across his face, mixed into the water dripping off his tangled hair.
The DiSangue priest swallowed. “This is a sacred?—”
Dante didn’t even look at him. “You have the wrong brother. But keep that knife out, you’re going to need it,” he said conversationally, eyeing me like a wolf. Every instinct told me to run, but my leaden feet were rooted to the floor.
“You cannot do this, Dante!” Marcello was screaming now, red-faced, as if he was about to throw a clot. “You have been banished, declaredIl Bando di Sangue. You are dead to this family, you are deadto me.”
“Do I look dead to you?” Dante’s gaze cut to him, sharp as a blade. “I am stillyourson, in blood and name. You think some sounds coming out of your mouth change that truth, Padre? You threw me to the monsters, and I survived. Now I’m back.Surprise.”
“Dante,” Gabriel shoved me further behind him. “Let us go speak privately, we could… gods, I can’t believe you’re here.Now.” He sucked in a shuddering breath, and my heart lurched. His composure was cracking, eyes wide with grief and hope and everything in between, shock written all over his face.
“You shouldn’t be here. It’s too dangerous,” he breathed, face pale.
My heart broke just a little bit more, hearing Gabriel’s raw, broken accusation. There was a world of pain wrapped up in those words, and for just a second—so fast I wondered if I’d imagined it—Dante’s face softened.
Then his mouth twisted into a crooked smile. “Fate has plans for all of us,fratellino,and this is exactly where I have to be right now.”
My mind spun.Fratellino.Little brother.
“Get him out,” Marcello snapped to his men. “Now.” Black-suited soldiers rushed toward us, hands on weapons, filling the side aisles, too many to count. Dante didn’t flinch. He simply lifted his hand.
A wall of magic tore through the room like a storm, shoving Gabriel and me apart. He was knocked one way, and I stumbled toward the priest, my bouquet flying, feet tangled in the under-skirting of this stupid dress.
Dante’s onslaught was decisive. Violent.
Sparing no one.
Vampires screamed as they went down, crawling across the floor, silk gowns and custom tuxedoes shredding as the desperate clawed their way toward the opening, a few disappearing into the storm raging outside. The air around me crackled with something chaotic that did not respect the laws of dynasties or Dons.
No, this was the kind of power thatforgeddynasties, the kind thatendedDons.
A thrill of excitement invaded my veins, spreading like a shock to the system, and then I gotangry.
I’d come to destroy these people, andthis fucker was about to steal my only chance at vengeance.
The torches along the walls flared a sudden, eerie blue. The nearest guards froze mid-step, muscles locking, until everyone left in the room was trapped in place, eyes swiveling, bodies trembling under Dante’s compulsion.
