I tucked Emile behind the three of us. The Da Vias blocked the exit from the house. We’d have to get through them to escape, but it didn’t matter how good a clipper Marcello was, or how much divine energy coursed through Les and me, we couldn’t handle so many Da Vias. Time for my backup plan.
“Marcello,” the woman in the center said. She had a rich voice and gray hair that tumbled in waves around her shoulders. She wore no mask. Estella Da Via. “So quick to leave our hospitality, husband of mine.”
He lifted his sword. “I’ve had better hospitality from sewer rats. And I see the years haven’t been kind to you, Estella.”
She glared at him, and a few of the Da Vias shifted in response.
“Let us pass,” I said. “And no more of your blood need be spilled.”
A few of the Da Vias laughed, but some of them looked to Estella.
“Lea?” Val asked, shocked. In the group of clippers, Blood Spatter and Grape Leaves turned to each other. Claudia, without her mask, pushed her way from the rear to stand beside Val.
“Val,” I responded.
“I saw you die.” He looked to Claudia and then to me. “How are you here? How did you survive?”
“These are secrets you would know if you hadn’t turned your back on your god.”
None of them laughed this time. Most of them shifted uncomfortably or glanced to Estella.
“Was it easy?” I asked. “Forsaking Her, who had given you so much?”
“So much?” Estella sneered. “So little, you mean. No children. Disrespected by the Saldanas and the Maiettas. Shamed among the Families. These are not gifts She gave us.”
“Gave you, you mean,” Marcello interrupted. “How much arrogance did it take to use your personal shame to convince your Family to turn away from Safraella?”
“Do you so quickly forget about Terzo’s death? How you murdered him? My brother was loved.”
“You murdered Terzo,” Marcello countered. “You brought about his death when you set him upon Savio. You and your damned pride are to blame!”
She flicked her wrist, dismissing his words. “Savio was nothing. Terzo said he begged for mercy, like a common man.”
Marcello moved to stride forward and only Les’s arm blocking him held him in place. “And so instead you kill Dante and Bianca? Their children? All for what? To prove your point? To prove that your anger has festered inside you until it’s all that’s left?”
She shrugged. “A secondary benefit. But it was Dante’s influence on the king that put my plan into motion.”
“Marking your kills,” I said. She faced me. “That’s what this was about? You were afraid the king would make you mark your kills?”
“The Da Vias helped put Costanzo Sapienza on the throne, and this is how he repays us? Forcing us to spend our gold on the dead?”
“Oh, of course,” I scoffed. “It must be extra hard, giving a coin to Safraella when you’d turned your back on Her! You killed my Family to keep your little secret safe, to keep it hidden that you’d turned to Daedara and were clipping people falsely. What about all those people who paid you? What about all those people who found the bodies of their friends and families at the cleaners and at least could take comfort that you had delivered them into Safraella’s arms?”
“What about them?”
“All those people made angry ghosts.” I shook my head. “Because one woman was spurned by a man she never even loved.”
Behind the Da Vias, a flash of white appeared, then vanished. Les and Marcello shifted beside me. They’d seen it too.
Allegra stirred in her sling and whimpered.
Claudia pushed aside her brother and pointed at me. “Is that my daughter?”
I looked at Allegra, and she calmed. “No. She’s a Saldana now.”
Val grabbed Claudia’s wrist as she rushed at me, holding her back. She swung her hand at Val, trying to strike him across the face. He ducked his head aside.
Another white flash appeared behind them. Closer this time. Then another.
“Claudia, don’t,” Val said. “She’s been resurrected by a god.”
“I don’t care! She has my daughter!”
“I don’t care either,” said Estella. “Kill them. Kill all three of them.”
The Da Vias moved toward us.
“You should care!” I yelled. They paused.
“And why is that, Oleander Saldana?” Estella snapped.
“The city wall outside your house is crumbled,” I said.
“The entire city is surrounded by crumbling walls.”
“But you’ve forsaken Safraella, which means you’ve given up Her protection. She’s revoked it from your house.”
Behind them, more flashes of light appeared, and a few of the Da Vias finally noticed them.
“And I brought the angry dead with us.”
One of the Da Vias shouted. She shoved past her Family, trying to escape. More of them turned to see what had frightened her, and then the room filled with screams as they tried to run from the angry ghosts that poured their way inside the house, coming from the courtyard that led to the dead plains.
The Da Vias had turned from Safraella, and now She’d turned from them.