Tomo, Renata, and the members of the Consiglio were barricaded behind the high walls of the Cittadella, coordinating communication between the various battalions stationed around the island to stop any scarabeo who made it past the first defenses, ready and waiting to coordinate the rescue of wounded.
Soon, the hillside would be littered with shredded bodies, the dirt stained with blood.
If she only watched the surface of the ocean, she might have thought a storm was rolling in. A shadow, stretching across the waves, a hum that became a rumble. But the cascade of terror washing over her was not from the weather.
Wings beat, the sound of a runaway cart on a track rolling ever faster down a steep hill. Her heart accelerated. With the ocean still, there was no crash or roar of the waves to muffle the drone of a million wings, the clicking of mandibles.
In every past Divorando, Finestra and Fonte had lived to walk away.
Would they today?
Would anyone?
She held out her hands to Josef and Kamaria.
It was absolutely ridiculous to feel embarrassed while waiting for death, but Alessa shuffled her feet and stared at the ground after letting go for the second time. It was hard to gauge distances over an ocean, and she kept acting too early. And every time she took their hands, holding her power in check, the entire army stomped their feet and banged their weapons together, making it even more awkward when another ten minutes passed without an attack.
As she dropped their hands and kicked her feet to stay limber, Dante broke from the line of Fontes and came over to her. He flipped up his face shield to reveal brown eyes beneath tousled dark hair and smiled his crooked grin.
This close, he blocked her view of everything beyond, and for several breaths, there was no army, no field of weapons and fighters. Only the ocean at her back, wind whipping loose tendrils of hair into her face. Only Dante, who moved carefully so no one would see him clasp her hand between them.
“You can do this.”
“I know.” Alessa managed to resist hurling herself into his arms.
She would, because she had to. And sometimes that was all there was—necessity. She loved her home. She loved the people of Saverio. She would protect them at any cost. It seemed so simple now. It hadn’t, not so long ago, but the past month had reminded her about love, and she’d never forget again.
Saverio did not have to love her, or protect her, or give her anything. She loved the island like a mother loved a child, without weighing the costs or benefits. The way she loved Dante. If he hadn’t come, or hadn’t loved her, she still would have loved him until her dying breath.
Love was not conditional. It simply was.
“I’ll be right behind you,” he said and kissed her hand.
A shout rose from below, but the swarm was still a way off.
Confused, Alessa turned to see a man wading through the crowd. The soldiers let him pass.
They shouldn’t have.
Forty-Nine
A chi dici il tuo segreto, doni la tua liberta.
Do not put a sword into your enemy’s hands.
Ivini marched a sheepish Kaleb through the ranks of soldiers.
“Hello there, Finestra,” Kaleb called up with a cheery wave. “This chap just can’t let it go. Made them open the gates and everything, but I want it noted in every history book that I told him it is a banishable offense. More than once. He’s not the best listener.”
Ivini’s eyes flashed from below. “She brought the creature to stand beside her. I was right all along.”
“And I was right about you,” Alessa shot back. “So determined to win at all costs that you’ve thrown away your chance to be sheltered. They’re coming, Padre Ivini. If you aren’t ready to fight, I hope you’re ready to die.”
Ivini glanced back at the troops. “I had to warn the armies. A ghiotte on the peak? Unacceptable.”
“Are you volunteering to take his place?” she asked. “We do have the best view.”
Kaleb pulled himself up onto a nearby armory wagon, stocked with extra weaponry for anyone who lost theirs in the chaos.
After a prolonged rummaging, Kaleb pulled out a broadsword, then, with a laugh, a fencing foil.
He pulled the cork from its tip and tossed it at Ivini’s feet. “They locked up behind you, Padre. Better grab a weapon or find a house to shelter in. If anyone will let you in, that is. You weren’t a big fan of harboring others, though, were you?”
Ivini began yelling at the soldiers, demanding they climb the peak and drag Dante off, but Alessa strode to the edge. It was time to see where their loyalties truly lay.