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Alessa fought the horrific impulse to laugh as she lifted her head so high, no one could see the tears burning behind her eyes.
At her reassuring wave, a ripple of relief—at least she hoped it was relief—rolled through the crowd, and Renata gestured for them to retreat at last.
“How bad is it?” Renata asked as soon as the gates clanged shut behind them.
“Could have been worse.” Alessa winced, probing her injury. “Why would someone do that?”
It made no sense. A Finestra dying before Divorando was unimaginable. Or, at least, she’d thought it was. A number had been woundedduringbattle, but they’d all lived long enough to climb Finestra’s Peak. Without a Finestra and Fonte, Saverio would be entirely defenseless against the demons.
“Who can explain the choices of an unhinged person?” Tomo said, holding out his elbow for Renata. They exchanged a tense look.
“If you know something, tell me.” Alessa followed them through the arched corridor to the interior courtyard. Tomo, tall and still athletically built despite his health struggles, made Renata look even more petite by comparison.
“You can’t protect her forever, Tomo.”
“Renata,” Tomo pleaded, his tan skin going a bit gray. “We don’t even know if he’s connected.”
He?The knife-thrower had been a woman.
“Who?” Alessa asked. They didn’t answer. In moments like these, she became invisible.
“I told you, we should have him arrested.” Renata’s voice crackled with fury. “Lash him to the peak and leave him to die.”
Tomo sighed as if he’d made the argument countless times before. “For talking on street corners?”
“For inciting violence!”
“Who?” Alessa said, louder, and they turned to look at her as though she’d blinked back into existence. “Whoisn’t connected?Whoshould be left to die? Tell me. I’m the Finestra, not a scared child.” If she said it firmly enough, she might even convince herself.
Tomo waved his hand as if shooing a fly. “Some ridiculous street preacher calling himself Padre Ivini. He’s just fanning fears to line his pockets.”
“And which fears are those?” Alessa hugged her sides, suddenly cold. She knew whatshefeared—swarms of demonic insects descending from the sky, everyone counting onherto stop them. But braving terror so others didn’t have to was the Finestra’s burden.
“Foolish prattle. Everyone with sense is ignoring him.” Tomo looked to Renata for support, but she shrugged.
Alessa gestured at her ear. “Everyone?”
“Everyone but a few desperate souls looking for certainty in an uncertain world. Enough about that.” Tomo’s smile was kind but pointed. “We have more important matters to deal with.”
Than her life? Alessa frowned. She might have managed to pry one answer from them, but that didn’t mean she’d asked the right questions.
Renata sighed. “It won’t happen again. Put it from your mind.”
Right. The many things Alessa wassupposedto remember had a tendency to slip away like sand through her fingers, but she wasn’t likely to forget a dagger flying at her head.
Renata rubbed her temples. “The sooner she chooses a Fonte, the better.”
“I didn’t even get to speak to anyone,” Alessa said. “I have to make an informed choice. Ineedit to work this time. Please.”
Please don’t make me kill again.She might as well have said it aloud. They knew what she meant.
Tomo moved as though to clasp her arm, awkwardly brushing at his sleeve instead. “How about a performance? A gala, where every eligible Fonte can demonstrate their gifts, and you’d have a chance to speak with each of them.”
Anticipation fluttered beneath Alessa’s breastbone. She’d expected to spend the next few days in isolation, begging Dea for a sign before choosing whom to shackle herself to, but a demonstration might be exactly what she needed to choose the right Fonte, for once.
“Tomorrow.” Renata nodded. “And she needs to look transcendent. The more jewels the better. I want her dripping with proof of Dea’s favor.”
Inwardly, Alessa rolled her eyes. Once, she might have equated wealth and jewels with a person’s worthiness, but now she knew the truth: The gods gave and took for their own incomprehensible reasons, and only fools tried to make sense of it.
