Page 87 of Devoted

We were all used to watching our backs.

“What about my uncle?” Emberline demanded, adding caustically, “Do I at least get a say in what happens to him?”

“Giovanni is all yours, tesoro, as promised. You can slit his throat and dance in his blood, but to do that, we have to lure him out into the open.”

“Hmmm. That’s quite the picture you’re painting, husband,” she murmured, her eyes lighting up. “Not that I’m arguing.”

“First, we see what we’re up against,” Nico interrupted. “In Giovanni’s absence, my father’s established a foothold here in Venice, and he’s gotten comfortable. If we could draw him back to Rome, even for a few days…”

“That would give us room to maneuver,” Gabriel agreed. “Come up with something dire enough to send that fucker home while we gather numbers on Blackwood’s guards and the Drax.”

“Where does Emilia come in? Because she won’t sit on the sidelines, that I can guarantee you.”

Nico was right.

But in the end, the High Priestess would do whatever the fuck she wanted to do, just like always.

“Severin assured me Emilia is willing to act in an advisory capacity.”

“Advisory… capacity?” Nico shook his head. “That’s utter bullshit. She won’t settle for anything less than stabbing my father in the heart for putting her into stasis. He colluded with Vincenzo and Paolo to steal the Dynasty. They’re locked in cages. What do you think she’ll do to him?”

“I don’t know.” I grinned, brightening at the idea. “But I hope with all my heart I get to see it.”

Then I sobered up. Even with Emilia and the might of the entire Brotherhood at our backs, we were outgunned in the monsters department. My ifrit was useless against the Drax, and there was only one Nico.

We needed a secret weapon to win this war.

Like… this Emissary.

I turned a critical eye on Nico, wondering what, exactly, he was hiding beneath that mortal skin. If he could kill the Drax in this form, what was he capable of in his other?

“There is one thing I know from experience. Denying your magic doesn’t make you stronger; it makes you vulnerable. This power you have locked away, you need to know—we need to know—what you’re capable of.”

I’d spent decades denying the ifrit trapped inside me, and look where that got me. Half out of my head with madness. Embracing my inner fire demon. Okay, so this wasn’t a picnic, but we’d arrived at some sort of tentative understanding.

All the blood drained out of Nico’s face. “That’s a terrible idea. Worse than terrible.”

“It could be the death of you,” Gabriel deadpanned.

“Or the death of everyone else,” Emberline added, lips twitching.

“This is not a joke,” Nico snapped, glaring at the lot of us. “This is…”

“A matter of life and death?” I suggested, unable to hold back my bark of laughter.

“Good gods,” Nico groaned. “I hate you all. So much.”

32

NICO

Istared up at the spires on the Draconi fortress.

And up.

And up.

This place seemed bigger than the last time I was here, an immovable mountain of stone and steel, perched on an island just outside of Venice, hidden from the world by ancient, powerful wards. We’d taken a convoluted route to avoid being followed, but now that we were inside, even my father couldn’t find me.