I glanced sharply over my shoulder, worried there was an invisible spy lurking behind me, waiting to report back to whomever it worked for. I scanned the room slowly, but unless there were multiple Umbra demons in the city, the one hired by Envy was gone.
I shook the chills away and turned back to the secret door. I swore I heard the distant whispers of many voices coming from inside the hidden passage. I thought about Vittoria’s diary, about the lines she’d tried to decipher that had been jumbled like Claudia’s scrying session.
I followed the hum of voices into a cave, high above the sea . . .
. . . I found it there, buried deep within the earth. I managed to understand one line before it descended into chaos.
I thought about the “it” she mentioned. If we’d each been wearing part of the Horn of Hades our whole lives, then that couldn’t be the mysterious “it” she’d been referring to. So what, then, had she heard whispering to her high above the sea? What had Vittoria dug up and decided to hide again, somewhere far from the Malvagi?
I peered at the secret door, wondering if I’d be brave enough to see where it led. Whispers called to me, a little louder, a little more insistent. My palms dampened.
Maybe wearing Vittoria’s cornicello gave me access to her magic. Which meant, whatever had drawn my sister to that cave above the sea, was now calling to me.
If I truly wanted to find out what happened to Vittoria, I needed to see what was behind that door. With a quick prayer to the goddess, I held her cornicello tightly, and stepped into the secret passage.
Forty-Three
A crumbling old set of stairs greeted me. I hesitated at the top step, peering down into the darkness below. There were no torches or lights to guide me once I descended into the abyss. Only spiderwebs and the unmistakable urge to run in the opposite direction. The whispers were much louder and more excited in here, and covered up other noises. If someone or something followed me in, I wouldn’t know it until they were almost on top of me.
I rubbed my thumb across the smoothness of the cornicello. I was a goddess-blessed witch wearing one of the devil’s horns. Surely I could find a way to cast a little light. I concentrated hard on my sister’s cornicello, imagining the times that strange purple light emerged, and the tiniest glow appeared. It wasn’t much, but it would be enough to light my path. I exhaled, and began the long trek down.
I kept one hand around my amulet, and the other against the wall, making sure I didn’t lose my balance and go tumbling to my death. It took a minute or two, but I finally reached the bottom. I swept my attention around, ensuring I wasn’t about to be attacked. I was in a tunnel that reminded me of the location of the Viperidae nest. I fought a shudder. I sincerely hoped I wouldn’t run into it again. Keeping those fears from taking root, I forged ahead.
A few meters down, the tunnel forked off in two directions. The path on my left seemed to incline steadily, cutting off my view. The one on my right looked like it went on for a while before twisting to the right. Honestly, neither one seemed like a fun journey, but I wasn’t here for a good time. I closed my eyes and listened to the magic leading me. The whispers were louder on the right. And the slight tug in my center pulled me that way. So that was the direction I chose.
I lost track of how much time had passed when I abruptly halted. My sister’s amulet had gone from a slight purple glow to a strong pulsating light. I’d never seen either of our amulets act that way before, and immediately became suspicious. I glanced around, searching for the cause and saw a crude cross painted on the wall. I must be underneath a church. I went to look away, but something caught my attention.
There, buried a little by dirt, was a glint of silver. Whispers excitedly chittered.
Pulse racing, I inched close and bent to brush the dirt away. My missing amulet glowed in welcome. I snatched it up and went to loop it over my neck, then stopped. Nonna said they must never touch. I wasn’t sure if that mattered anymore, but didn’t want to chance another catastrophe. I took my sister’s amulet off and stuck it into my secret skirt pocket. The moment my cornicello laid against my skin, my shoulders relaxed. I hadn’t realized how much tension I’d been carrying. It might be one of the devil’s horns, but it now belonged to me.
I stood up, and looked around. I’d been expecting to find a secret meeting location of the shape-shifters, but there were no doors or offshoots. I was considering my options when I heard a sound that wasn’t a result of magical objects whispering. Someone was down here. It might be whoever had painted that symbol on the door, or it might be something much worse.