Page 64 of Devoted

The hair on the back of my neck rose, Rocco’s rant still fresh in my mind.

A traitor inside our walls.

No. Not Nico. He’d saved me from the Fossa. Twice. He was Gabriel’s closest friend and had been for decades.

This line of thinking was…

“I’m Lord Cesare Blackwood’s son,” Nico’s voice was filled with a thick layer of self-loathing. “I left home when I was twelve and never looked back. Joined the Brotherhood and never looked back. But… his blood runs in my veins. As he reminded me so poetically tonight.”

My brain tripped over the information, a vise squeezing the air out of my lungs as disbelief took hold, telling myself I must have misheard.

Then doubt was replaced by anger.

The raw, hurting kind that came from having a knife stabbed into my back. Twisted.

Years—decades—of lies, compounded by late nights of drinking and secrets shared, of trust given and promises made, and how the fuck could Nico possibly be related to our enemy?

But other things slotted neatly into place, as if they’d always belonged. Nico falling apart over Blackwood’s appearance in Venice. His obsession with the male after that failed investigation, when I’d chalked it up to professional rivalry.

In my arms, Emberline shivered like she couldn’t stop.

Something ugly happened in that other realm. And knowing Blackwood’s cruel reputation, my stomach churned. “Did he hurt you? Did he touch you?” I ran my hands over her, searching for anything out of place… I cupped her face in my hands, tilted her head back and… there. A faint bruise blooming on her throat, the barest whisper of color.

Somehow, she’d brought violence back from that other realm.

Blackwood touched my wife.

He’d fucking marked her.

My vision whited out, blood boiling, the demon shifting inside my skin, eager to go to the city, find the bastard and finish this.

“He restrained me so he could kill Nico. He forged a blade from the shadows and he… he…” She choked back a sob. “Then the temple filled up with thick, black smoke, and the circle broke. We ran.” She took a breath. “And we woke up here.”

Black smoke.

Black smoke had interrupted the council meeting and saved Emberline and Luca.

Coincidence wasn’t a word I believed in.

Someone was helping us.

And in war, unknown allies with unknown motives were as dangerous as enemies.

“Who is helping us, Nico? Because you know, don’t you?” His expression didn’t change, but something flickered behind his eyes. The truth, maybe, and if I had to drag it out of him through sheer force of will…I would.

“Who the fuck else is involved? This is the last time I’ll ask nice.”

Nico folded his arms, and my temper exploded. I was done with games and secrets, finished with his lies. Pissed that he’d lied to us in the first place.

Playing games with my wife’s life… that was a line he shouldn’t have crossed.

I gently set Emberline on the couch and launched myself across the room. With the force of a charging bull, I slammed into Nico, plate glass shattering as we crashed through the sliding doors, driving him across the terrace until we both tipped over the edge.

22

DANTE

For a second the world was nothing but rushing air, snapping branches, the green smell of crushed olive leaves.