Work Text:
Lucanis tumbled back, his eyes rolling back in his head until the whites were all that was showing, the purple glow fading away as he slumped to the ground, the blood soaking into his hair. Illario dropped his arm slowly, breathing hard, trying to force his hand not to shake.
He hadn’t been certain it would work. It was difficult to trust Zara’s word, considering she’d lied to him about Lucanis. Had done this to him. Had turned him into something blood magic worked so easily on.
Lucanis had nearly killed him. Lucanis, who fussed over him like a nagging mother. Lucanis, who barely seemed to know what it was to get drunk, out of control, at the mercy of that… thing.
“What did you do.”
Mierda. Rook. Illario had all but forgotten about her. He hadn’t been sure exactly what he would say once Zara was dead, confident the words would come when he needed them, as they always did, but he hadn’t expected the demon to be so powerful. Had barely believed there was a demon at all. How could Lucanis lose himself to such a thing? To be so far gone that he would lunge at Illario, hold a knife to his throat...
Zara had just been supposed to kill him. It was supposed to be simple. It was supposed to have been over a year ago, and instead Zara was dead and Illario was still left with this mess.
“I… didn’t do anything.” Illario allowed his voice to shake, allowed himself to look down at Lucanis’s slumped, unconscious form. “He must have made the - the demon back down.”
Rook took a step toward him and Illario looked up at her again.
She didn't look frightened. Or shocked. She was watching him like a wolf waiting for its prey to make a careless move. Blood dripped off her, slid down her tattoos, her ridiculous golden excuse for armor. “Don’t insult me, Illario.” Her voice was low, gravelly, even more so than usual. “I know what blood magic looks like.”
“What? I’m not even a mage! How could I do blood magic?”
Purple sparks burst between the fingers of her right hand as her lips peeled back from her teeth. “Illario. Lucanis loves you. So, to be clear - If he didn’t I would have killed you by now.”
Illario said nothing. He couldn’t think of anything to say. He was pretty sure he wouldn’t have been able to if he wasn’t lying either, so that was alright.
Lucanis getting the credit for saving him again though, even unconscious in a pool of blood.
“Don’t talk,” Rook ordered. “Right now I wouldn’t trust you if you told me the sky was blue. I’ve had a bad feeling about you since we met, and now the woman who tortured your cousin for a year calls you Amatus. Right before you kill her, just in time to stop her from telling Lucanis who sold him out. So I know, Illario. I know it was you. And the only reason I haven’t killed you for it is because Lucanis would be devastated. So get away from him, and stay away from him.”
“You think I’d betray my cousin? He’s all the family I have!”
“Don’t talk. I don’t know why you did it. I don’t care why you did it. I just know you did. And I’m going to prove it. So get out of here, Illario. And be ready for that, the next time you see me.”
There was no arguing with her expression, with the lightning still crackling between her fingers, warning him, and he had nothing more to say to her anyway. Illario backed away, not turning his back on her until he’d reached the door and she was kneeling beside Lucanis, lifting his head out of the blood and jostling him awake.
How could she know anything? Teia and Viago hadn’t suspected anything, and Viago was one of the most paranoid Crows ever produced. Caterina hadn’t suspected him - unless she had, and that was why she hadn’t told him Lucanis was alive. But if she’d suspected him, she wouldn’t have allowed him in the room when she’d revealed the truth. Probably would have killed him the moment the suspicion he’d harmed her favorite grandson crossed her mind. Or would she have? Maybe it had been a trick to make him show his hand. Had he played into it, taking her, or had he gotten the upper hand for once?
It didn’t matter. He had control of Caterina now, and this was all the excuse he needed to keep Lucanis away. And he had the Venatori, now that Zara was dealt with. He was winning, even if Rook thought she knew something. She was no one. Not a Crow. Lucanis wouldn’t listen to her, and if he did-
That wasn’t even Lucanis, not really. Lucanis would never have attacked him like that. Zara had killed him, just in the most complicated, headache-inducing way possible. He was glad to have that loose end tied up, at least.
The Venatori would help him deal with the demon, if it didn’t turn on Rook first and solve both those problems in one stroke. Until then, he knew Lucanis well enough to know he’d stay away after this. Illario could work with that.
Rook couldn’t know. Suspect, maybe, but not know. She wouldn’t have anything Lucanis would believe. He’d have to keep an ear out for her movements - the Venatori were obsessed with her, so that would be easy enough - but she wasn’t a present threat. She wasn’t a Crow. The others wouldn’t listen to her.
He was the Crow. He was Lucanis’s family, Caterina’s grandson, and the soon-to-be First Talon of the Crows. Rook was no one. A mage who’d gotten lucky a couple of times and believed she could defeat gods. Her word was worth nothing and her luck would run out sooner rather than later.
As for Lucanis, and the thing that had just held a knife to Illario’s throat…
He would deal with that later. He needed to get himself established as First Talon before things in Treviso devolved any further, or before Teia or Viago got any ideas about elevating themselves to the position. He would take what was due to him, and then he would deal with Lucanis.
He glanced over his shoulder, half expecting Rook to have followed him out of the Chantry with that predatory, unblinking look in her eyes.
She was no one. He was the First Talon of the Crows in all but name. The Crows ruled Antiva, and soon he’d rule the Crows. She wasn’t a threat to him.
He’d have the Venatori lay extra wards at the villa all the same.