Heart of Ash Read online

  All I could do was nod.

  As she stepped outside to open the door, the cameras started flashing.

  The guards hurried out, deftly maneuvering through the crowd.

  As I stood on the threshold, I took in a jittery breath. It felt symbolic, as if stepping over this threshold meant that I was choosing to embrace Dane Coronado and everything that came with him.

  I wasn’t sure if someone nudged me or if I took the first step, but as soon as I emerged into the open air, a barrage of flashes and questions awaited me.

  I focused on Dane, who was waiting for me at the foot of the stairs. And that’s all I needed. I breathed him in, focused on his emotions, leaning on his confidence, his love, his strength to get me through this.

  As soon as I reached his side, Dane slid his arm around my waist. “Just smile,” he whispered. “We’re nearly there.”

  He kissed my cheek and turned to the reporters. “This is the woman I’ve been telling you about. May I present Miss Ashlyn Marie Larkin.”

  The sound of cameras clicking, pens scribbling on paper, made my head spin.

  “How does it feel having the attention of the most eligible bachelor in the world?” a reporter asked.

  “Are you planning a trip?”

  “Are there wedding bells in your future?”

  “I certainly hope so.” Dane grinned. “Believe me, it’s not from a lack of trying. You’ll put in a good word for me, I hope?”

  The reporters laughed. He was so charming, so effortless. I guess he’d had a year to practice. I couldn’t imagine how difficult that must’ve been for him. He was forced into the limelight from day one, while a war was being waged inside of him. And he still managed somehow. The least I could do was stand here and smile.

  The woman from the shop was waving at me from the stairs, reminding me to take off my sunglasses.

  The flashes went crazy.

  “Where did you meet?”

  “Does your family approve? What about your twin brother?”

  “It was love at first sight,” Dane offered in an attempt to deflect the questions. “At least on my part, but I think I’m starting to grow on her.”

  “Is that true, Miss Larkin? Is he starting to win you over with lavish shopping trips?”

  Dane squeezed my hand. He knew that would set me off. I could make enough gold in a month to buy this store out ten times over, but I strangled the thought.

  “And how do you know all of this isn’t for me?” Dane grinned. “Now, if you’ll excuse us,” he said as he motioned for me to get in the car. “As you can see, we have more pressing matters to attend to.”

  A low chuckle swept through the crowd as he slipped in next to me and shut the door on the world.

  32

  “L’ACADÈMIA,” DANE SAID to the driver.

  He took the sunglasses and bag from my trembling hands. “You were perfect,” he said, lacing his fingers through mine.

  His touch was an anchor holding me to myself, reminding me that I wasn’t alone in this. There was no denying the connection we had, but it was beyond blood at this point. It was a shared experience, something I could never explain to another living soul. We’d been through so much together. He knew me probably better than I knew myself. And for the first time, I felt like I knew him, too. All of him. Including Coronado. And I was strangely at peace with that.

  He wrapped his arms around me and I didn’t feel stifled, only loved and protected.

  The car pulled up to a narrow street and we got out. Arcanum guards were lining the alleyway, along with the paparazzi.

  “This is a message from the council,” Dane said in a low voice. “They’re watching, but fortunately for us, so is the rest of the world.”

  We strolled hand in hand up the winding, narrow cobblestone path to a small square, brimming with life.

  There was a small medieval chapel tucked between a café with bright red chairs clustered around a handful of small tables and an art gallery with apartments above. Clothes hung from lines strung from balcony to balcony. The Catalan flag in full display. Gauzy drapes fluttering in the gentle breeze. Flowerpots and cats in windowsills, guitar music wafting through the air.

  Dane led me to a restaurant called L’Acadèmia, nestled between two ancient buildings, directly across from the chapel. It was small and rustic. The dark wood interior gleamed in candlelight. But it was empty. I was about to ask him where everyone was when I saw him slip a stack of cash into the owner’s hand. A short, stocky waiter in starched linens showed us to a cozy banquette in the corner of the room. Dane and I sat next to each other, so we could gaze out at the square, and so the paparazzi could look in at us. Whatever the case, the seating arrangement made it easy to whisper in each other’s ears.

  The waiter brought over a bottle of champagne. It looked old. Dane inspected the bottle, then gave a nod of approval.

  The cork popped and the waiter poured two glasses, being extremely careful not to waste a single drop.

  “I thought you never eat or drink in public places.”

  Dane raised his glass. “None of that matters now.”

  We clinked glasses and took a sip.

  “This is nice, but how is it a part of the plan?” I whispered in his ear.

  He took my hand, stroking his thumb against my palm. Just that slight touch made me catch my breath.

  “We’re closing in on Spencer,” he whispered back. “Thanks to Timmons’s research, we should have the location within the hour.”

  He must’ve felt a wave of sadness pass over me, because he raised his glass. “To Timmons.”

  Blinking back the tears, I clinked his glass and took another sip.

  “What are we doing here? Shouldn’t we be preparing?”

  “We are. I have three things to deal with at the moment. First is bringing Rhys home safely to you and Beth. The jet is ready to go. I have a team in place. Medical assistance at the ready. Hazmat suits. We are prepared for every possible scenario.

  “Second, it seems I have a hostile takeover happening in my own house. Lucinda is the ringleader, but there may be others. Those Arcanum guards lining the street, they were sent for a reason. To escort us back to the castle, where they will promptly drain you, before ordering our immurement. I’ll need to find a way to satisfy them in order to put a stop to this. And then I’ll be able to deal with the traitors accordingly.

  “And third, but certainly not last,” he said as he arranged my hair around my shoulders, “I need to protect you.”

  “Oh, that’s all,” I said with an uncomfortable laugh.

  The waiter refilled our glasses.

  “I think I’ve found a way I can do all three things in one fell swoop.”

  “How?”

  “Your blood. If we can offer them your blood, I believe we can make a deal.”

  “You want them to bleed me out?”

  “No. A drop each will do.”

  “I don’t understand. I had to give Beth liters of my blood to save her, and that was a close call. There’s no way a drop of blood would be able to protect them against the effects of Rhys’s blood—”

  “To save someone, yes. But your blood isn’t just a cure for the effects of Rhys’s blood. It’s also a vaccination.”

  “What? How do you know?”

  “Last night, I was reviewing the security footage from my office, and I saw Lucinda place a drop from the amulet she wears around her neck into my tea when I wasn’t looking. She stood there and smiled as she watched me drink it. She tried to kill me, but it was your blood coursing through my veins that saved me. If we could offer the immortals protection, they’d have nothing to fear.”

  “And what’s to stop them from taking my blood—immuring us—and still killing my brother?”

  “That’s where all of this comes in,” he
said as he waved at the cameras lined up outside. “We are going to create a media frenzy. If we disappeared, not even the council would be able to buy their way out of the attention. They won’t be able to touch us.”

  “And when the media frenzy dies?”

  “Trust me. After tonight, we won’t have to worry about the council ever again.” He leaned in, brushing his lips against my ear. “We make our peace offering, and while they’re vacating the premises, you and I will accompany a small team of my best men to Spencer’s location, where we’ll rescue your brother. And by the time we return to Castell de Coronado, the council will be gone, Lucinda will be dealt with, and you and me and Beth and Rhys can live happily ever after.”

  “But how are we going to create this media frenzy? Once they get their photo for the papers, they’ll be gone.”

  He took a deep sip of his champagne before continuing. I could feel his nerves starting to fire. And before I could even process where he was going with all this, he took a knee.

  “Miss Ashlyn Marie Larkin. Will you honor me with your hand in marriage?” He pulled a deep red leather box from his pocket, presenting me with a ring. Not just any ring. It was the gorgeous gray stone from his collection, set in a sea of diamonds.

  Cameras started flashing through the front windows.

  “Dane, I—”

  “I’m asking you to take one more chance on me. Let me prove to be your equal every day for the rest of eternity. I will not let you down. This is how I can protect you, honor you, and keep you safe. We’re already blood bound, which—to me—is more sacred than marriage, but let me legally bind to you, since that’s the language that the world will understand. I want to give you my name. My power. My body. My soul.”

  I didn’t know if it was Dane or the moment or the champagne, but I stretched out my hand, letting him slip the ring onto my finger.

  I heard cheers from outside, a flood of cameras clicking, and bells from the church ringing.

  “After you,” he said as he stood, looking across the way at the church.

  “Wait—what? Right n-now?” I stammered.

  “Why not?”

  “But I always thought Rhys would be with me. My man of honor. And Beth. Beth would die to see this. She loves us both so much.”

  “And we can do it all over again. And again and again. Every week, every decade, every lifetime. As often as you want.” He pulled me into an embrace, whispering in my ear, “And maybe we can find a way to make Beth and Rhys immortal, too. The possibilities are endless.”

  I felt drunk with the notion. Maybe this was meant to be.

  Dane had arranged everything—from the rings, to the flowers, to the marriage certificate, to the priest. The ceremony was a private affair, with just the Arcanum guards as our witnesses. I wasn’t one of those girls who grew up fantasizing what her wedding would be like, but it certainly wasn’t this. It felt cold and impersonal, a business arrangement, until Dane kissed me. The scent of crushed violets between us, his lips finding mine, the taste of champagne on the tip of his tongue, the warmth spreading through every part of me.

  In blood, in body, in spirit, in holy matrimony, we were bound.

  • • •

  The ride back to the estate seemed surreal. The feel of the platinum and stone around my finger, the strange intimacy of what we just shared, paired with the anticipation of what we were about to walk into, proved to be an intoxicating mix.

  I wanted to close the privacy screen and lose myself in him more than ever.

  I kept waiting for Dane to make a move, but he never did. Instead, we went over the plan a hundred times, but it still felt like I was walking directly into a lion’s den. Or lioness’s den, to be exact. Lucinda had tried to kill me. Kill Dane. She’d murdered my lawyer. My friend. And somehow I had to face her without ripping her throat out. That was Dane’s one condition. He didn’t want to humiliate her in front of the council. He wanted to deal with her on his own, when this was all over. I understood why. She was Coronado’s twin and former lover, but letting it go would be one of the hardest things I’d ever have to do.

  • • •

  Hand in hand, Dane and I walked down the long seashell path, bathed in moonlight. With a line of Arcanum guards pressing in behind us, we ascended the stairs, stepping into the main hall, to find all of the immortals standing there, waiting, a tense hush sucking all the air from the room.

  “Liars,” someone finally hissed.

  “You’ve just sealed your immurement.”

  “Not today,” Dane said. “You see, I’ve just released the guest list to our little wedding party. So, if anything happens to us, you’ll have to answer to them,” Dane said, pulling back the heavy drapes and waving to the sea of cameras crowded outside the gate.

  “You think that will stop us?” Mr. Jaeger laughed. “Horrible accidents happen all the time.”

  “Before you start waving your pitchforks,” Dane said, “we have something we’d like to share with you. Consider it our wedding gift to you.” He nodded to one of his guards. “To show our commitment to peace, we’d like to offer each of you a drop of Ashlyn’s blood.”

  “A-a drop?” Mr. Bridges sputtered. “We know from witnesses that it would take a hell of a lot more than that.”

  Mr. Jaeger took a step forward. “What do you take us for . . . fools?”

  “Precisely, and if you interrupt me one more time, I’ll slit your throat open . . . again.”

  Dane motioned to his personal guard, who brought over an IV and a blood bag. “Lucinda. Would you do the honors?”

  She seemed unnerved, but he hadn’t given her away as the person responsible for the immortal murders yet, so she played along. There seemed to be an understanding between the two of them, a connection I hadn’t sensed before, but once I learned the truth about the nature of their relationship, it’s all I could see. All I could feel. The longing. The depravity. The secrets.

  As everyone watched, Lucinda jabbed the needle in my vein and drew blood into the bag.

  Dane was focused on his guard. “Please go down to the cellar. Fetch two cases of ’64 Dom.” There was a split second of recognition that flashed between them—something I didn’t completely understand, but I was so caught up in the energy around me that I couldn’t distinguish his emotions from mine or Lucinda’s or the pure bloodlust permeating the room. Everything was a jumbled mass of suspicion and hatred.

  When the bag was full, Lucinda ripped the needle out, glaring down at the ring on my finger.

  “We’ll need two guards for the demonstration,” Dane said as he took the blood bag from her. “I’ll choose one and you choose one,” he said to Lucinda. “To make it fair. How about Pino.”

  Lucinda’s jaw clenched, but that was her only show of emotion. She wouldn’t be able to object without giving herself away.

  Having to stand there while Lucinda’s guard walked past me, the same man who killed Timmons just a few hours ago, was excruciating.

  But I could feel Dane’s blood searing through his veins. This was hard for him, too.

  “Bennett,” Lucinda called out.

  One of Dane’s key guards.

  As the guards stepped forward, Dane took a glass from a servant’s tray and dripped some of my blood inside. He then handed the blood bag to the guard who’d brought up the champagne and turned to Lucinda, inconspicuously ripping the amulet from her neck.

  “We were able to procure a vial of the immortal killer’s blood from a certain nefarious alchemist,” Dane said as he showed it to everyone.

  “Rennert,” I heard people whisper.

  It hurt that Dane was putting the blame on Rennert, but I understood why. If the immortal council knew that Lucinda was the one behind this, they would shred her to pieces on the spot and immure her in the bowels of the earth. Dane couldn’t do that to Coronado. Evil or not, I
understood the bond between twins.

  “Now, which one of you would like to try Miss Larkin’s blood first?”

  Neither guard spoke up, but Dane went ahead. “Excellent choice, Bennett. You may go first,” Dane said as he topped off the glass containing a drop of my blood with champagne, swishing it around in the glass for all of them to see, before handing it to him.

  “To life.”

  The guard raised the glass to his trembling lips and drank it in one shot.

  “And how do you feel?” Dane asked.

  “Fine, sir.” The guard seemed to stand a little taller.

  “Now for the not-so-fun part,” Dane said as he took another glass and handed it to Lucinda. “You’re so good at this, why don’t you show us how it’s done?”

  Reluctantly, she stepped forward, taking the amulet from him. With trembling hands, she did as she was instructed, placing a drop in the second glass. Dane topped it off with champagne and motioned for her to give it to Pino.

  As she handed it to him, I saw her brush his fingers tenderly; I saw her lips moving, possibly a prayer for his soul.

  His eyes glossy with tears, Pino lifted his glass and drank it, never looking away from Lucinda.

  Within seconds, the guard’s nose started bleeding, then blood was gushing from every orifice. The members of the council stepped back, covering their mouths, horrified by the carnage.

  Bennett, the guard who ingested my blood first, stood there shell-shocked, but relieved.

  “Now, a drop of the killer’s blood for Bennett,” Dane called to Lucinda.

  “But won’t that kill him? Doesn’t he need to drink more of her blood first?” one of the council members asked.

  The crowd erupted in panicked whispers, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying . . . thinking.

  Lucinda carefully measured out a drop in Bennett’s glass, then Dane came up behind her, grabbing hold of her hand. “Hell, let’s do the whole thing,” he said as he tipped the amulet, filling the bottom of the glass with Rhys’s deathly blood.