“Then why are you here?” he shot back. “One knife to the head wasn’t enough excitement for the day?”
She blanched. “I only stopped wearing the veil recently. Hardly anyone knows what I look like.”
“Signor Arguelles does.”
“Well, he didn’t see me.”
As children, they’d spent countless hours crushing herbs for their neighbor before Adrick became his apprentice, and while she couldn’t imagine the kindly older man betraying her, it wouldn’t be the most shocking recent event.
“Tell me what you’ve heard.” Alessa stopped short, forcing her brother to turn back.
“Look.” Adrick blew out a breath. “It’s been a long day. The apothecary has been mobbed with people looking for tinctures to remove their marks—impossible, of course—and medics needing supplies to treat people who tried to burn or cut theirs out. People are panicking, thinking…”
“That I can’t protect them.” She’d thought she was the only one who lay awake at night, afraid she’d let everyone down. Instead, her deepest fears were being shouted from every street corner.
He tugged his ear. “Well, can you?”
“Can you please believe in me?”
“I do. It’s just—” Adrick cast a wary glance ahead at a group gathering around a robed woman. “People are saying all kinds of things, like Crollo has cursed you, or you’re some new kind of ghiotte sent to steal the Fontes’ magic. Some even think you’re proof Dea’s forsaken us and Crollo’s finally going to end it this time. Hell, there’s a whole cult of people who think we all deserve to die and Dea should never have defied him in the first place.”
For hundreds of years, Saverians had survived against the odds, trusting their saviors to protect them when wicked wings descended. And now, the people were giving up. Because of her.
She’d never asked if any of the rare trading ships had offered news from the other islands about her counterparts—whatever they were called—so it was possible she might not be alone on this sinking ship. Maybe, somewhere across the sea, someone else was railing at their own inability to perform their duty. It wouldn’t change the fact that if Alessa failed, she’d be the one responsible for the deaths of every living thing on Saverio. If the other islands fared better, their survivors would someday arrive on Saverio to find barren shores and empty ruins, and if any records remained, Alessa would live on in their history as a cautionary tale: Alessa, the last Finestra.
Dea’s greatest mistake.
She swallowed, throat tight. “Do you believe I’m a … a new kind of ghiotte?”
Adrick smirked. “I’ve seen you bedridden with cramps. Ghiotte would be tougher than that.”
She bared her teeth. “Adrianus Crescente Paladino, you’d cry like a baby if you got cramps.”
Adrick made a gagging face at his full name. “I know, I know. You’re the divine warrior and I’m the worthless brother you left behind. Why do you care what I think? You’re the one with the direct line to Dea. Ask her.” His lips twisted with a hint of bitterness.
“It doesn’t work like that.” She flicked a glance at the dusky sky.
“You!” a robed woman called out.
Alessa flinched, but the woman looked past her.
Adrick broke into a jog. “Keep your head down and hurry up.”
“Do you know her?”
“’Course not. They’re all pushy like that.”
She frowned. It had sounded like the woman was speaking to someone she recognized. Alessa glanced over her shoulder. The woman wasn’t following. No angry mob giving chase. Not yet.
“Adrick, what do I do?”
“Prove them wrong. Get a Fonte and keep them alive for once.”
“I’m trying.”
“I know.” He gave her a sidelong glance. “You always do.”
The twinkling lights of the city grew closer as they walked in silence.
She ducked her head, baring her unmarked wrists for the drowsy guards manning the city walls. Adrick bid them a hearty good night and they traded some sort of manly handshake.
After checking that the surrounding area was clear, Alessa unlocked the first tunnel entrance they passed and stepped inside. “I still can’t believe you didn’t tell me about Ivini.”
“I said I’m sorry.” Adrick’s moonlit silhouette was fragmented by the bars. “Lock it.”
Alessa turned the lock with a click. “Satisfied?”