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“You attacked Rieka.” Dante lowered himself until he was at eye level with Idris.

“Rieka is the key.” Idris threw back his head and laughed. “But now you have it. You can’t keep it safe forever. It belongs to the O’hurani.”

“She.”

He wanted to force Idris to acknowledge Rieka as a person, but it would change nothing.

“When did the Anki approach you?”

The question was never far from his mind, always followed by how he had not seen the changes within Idris. In a flash, Dante saw the old Idris appear. The assassin turned scholar, the brother he had confided everything to, but in a blink of an eye, it was gone. The Idris he remembered would never return.

“I told you there was something in the catacombs with us.” Idris shook at the chains, the sound rattling off the walls. “But you refused to believe me.”

Dante closed his eyes. The memory slammed into him as if he was back in Rome. As young adolescents, they had helplessly wandered the underground chambers, cut off from the world. After three days, half-starved and dehydrated, Idris had suddenly found a way out for them. In the end, Dante had never known Idris. It had always been a façade that he had worn around Dante.

Idris licked his lips, smiling as he stared at Dante. He shook the shackles in front of him, blood dripping from his wrists. “There are worse things than death.”

Dante sat in the silence. “I know.” He picked up a handful of sand and watched the suspended particles as they floated midair before they drifted slowly to the ground. Something else was down there with them. “What are the Anki planning?”

“They will come for the key. You cannot stop them.”

Seconds ticked by.

“The O’hurani is awakening. And so is his army.”

Chapter 59

Syphastoodattheedge of the cliff. Their skin crawled with trepidation. The vision was always the same. It hadn’t changed, even when they had found Rieka and the tomb. It had been reckless to gift Rieka the bracelet, but Sypha knew there was no other way. The bracelet had triggered Rieka’s ability to call forth the flame. It was a weapon that they would need in the near future.

Sypha breathed in the new scent of darkness and screams. The aroma of death wrapped around them, suffocating everything else. The curse of their gift. But the truth had come too late—they hadn’t known about Idris. Had trusted him like a brother, and it had almost cost them Dante and Rieka. The scars would run deep, long after the superficial wounds disappeared.

A faint shadow shimmered in the distance. He wore a hooded cape and disappeared just as quickly as he had appeared—the sliver of desert-colored hair unmistakable. After all the centuries, Sypha finally had a name for the shadow that had sometimes kept them company in the darkness. Lucien. The forgotten son of Vandana.

Violet flames edged with red–gold licked at the edge of their vision as they were dragged back to consciousness. Sypha opened their eyes, disengaging with the vision. The smell of antiseptic and despair assaulted them. They were in sick room. Sticky moisture trickled down their face. Sypha stared at the red-tinged finger. A mixture of blood and tears.

“Sypha.” Talik towered over them. A look of concern crossed his handsome features. He still wore the matte-black uniform of the guards. Khalida stood next to him; her yellow gaze missed nothing as she looked at what Sypha was holding. In the background, Meraki stood guard at the door, half-hidden in the shadows.

Sypha held out their hand. “It is all I could find.”

Khalida gently took the paper away, careful not to touch them. “What is it?”

Sypha swallowed. They refused to return to the place where they had found it. Idris’s mind had been a labyrinth designed to trap and destroy them. But the war was coming, and they needed to slow it down before more blood was spilled. Sypha didn’t know if they could win. All they could do was hope they had a fighting chance. Vandana’s heir was on their side. “A way to find the Anki.”

Chapter 60

Dantewalkedintohisroom. No, their room.

Desire slammed into him. Rieka stood in the middle of the suite, surrounded by piles of books and papers that towered over the floor and almost reached the tops of her legs. A look of concentration flitted across her features as she regarded the mess, hands on her hips. The bracelet remained a dull bronze color. She was still wearing his white shirt; it was oversized on her and brushed her mid-thighs, her long legs on tantalizing display. Her colorful phoenix tattoo beckoned for him to trace it.

He hadn’t worked out exactly when it had happened. From their first meeting when he had assumed she was discardable to somewhere around the ball, she had become a part of him. Somehow Rieka had bulldozed her way into his heart and soul without him noticing it. He had never believed in fate until that moment. She challenged everything he believed or had thought he wanted. He could still not quite put into words what she meant to him, nor did he think he ever would. Mere words could not explain the breadth of emotion that Rieka had released in him.

She placed a book on a pile that looked like it was about to collapse. Her bright eyes filled with desire as the heady scent that was only hers surrounded him. “Will they seal the vault?”

Dante glanced at the nearest book; he didn’t recognize the title. They must be from Aadya’s personal collection, a collection that his grandmother was sharing only with Rieka. “Yes. The council have agreed that it will remain here and not be transported to New Atlantis, with a little help from Frankie.”

“How?”

Dante chuckled. It had been a sight to behold. “Once a thief, always a thief. Frankie could explain in detail how the items could be re-appropriated if we moved them.”