BooksBarbecue
Back Kingdom of the Wicked
Chapters (58)
  1. About the Author
  2. Title Page
  3. Imprint Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. Map
  7. Contents
  8. Prologue
  9. One
  10. Two
  11. Three
  12. Four
  13. Five
  14. Six
  15. Seven
  16. Eight
  17. Nine
  18. Ten
  19. Eleven
  20. Twelve
  21. Thirteen
  22. Fourteen
  23. Fifteen
  24. Sixteen
  25. Seventeen
  26. Eighteen
  27. Nineteen
  28. Twenty
  29. Twenty-One
  30. Twenty-Two
  31. Twenty-Three
  32. Twenty-Four
  33. Twenty-Five
  34. Twenty-Six
  35. Twenty-Seven
  36. Twenty-Eight
  37. Twenty-Nine
  38. Thirty
  39. Thirty-One
  40. Thirty-Two
  41. Thirty-Three
  42. Thirty-Four
  43. Thirty-Five
  44. Thirty-Six
  45. Thirty-Seven
  46. Thirty-Eight
  47. Thirty-Nine
  48. Forty
  49. Forty-One
  50. Forty-Two
  51. Forty-Three
  52. Forty-Four
  53. Forty-Five
  54. Forty-Six
  55. Forty-Seven
  56. Forty-Eight
  57. Acknowledgments
  58. Endmatter page 1

I scanned the notes, nothing stood out. Except . . . I thought back to when Vittoria first started acting strangely. It had been roughly three weeks before she died. Right around the time of our eighteenth birthday. I’d assumed it had to do with her secret affair with Domenico, but it seemed more likely now that that was when she’d started summoning demons.

One week later, the first murder occurred in Sciacca. Then the first witch in Palermo died a few days after that. Within a week from the second murder, my twin was killed. I didn’t know if Wrath would share any detailed information with me about the bargains, but there was a strong possibility that my sister’s first summoning correlated to the devil’s sudden desire to break the curse.

Maybe her use of demon magic awakened something in the underworld that had long been slumbering. If she’d managed to summon a prince of Hell, anything was possible. Or maybe none of that was true. If she didn’t summon a demon or find the first book of spells, maybe she found the Horn of Hades and its discovery set everything into motion.

I pushed those thoughts aside and focused on the theory I’d started with. Witch hunters. They were human, but humans used folk magic as part of their religion throughout the Kingdom of Italy. Perhaps they had some way of being alerted to that kind of dark magic.

I sighed. The witch hunter theory still didn’t quite fit, no matter how hard I tried making sense of it. It did, however, look more probable that there was a link between the demons being summoned, the devil’s bargain, and the murders that followed. I’d summoned a prince of Hell, so it was likely Vittoria had accomplished the impossible, too. Which still begged the question of where she’d gotten the summoning spells to begin with. I scribbled another note.

Grimoire sheets—was Vittoria summoning a demon to control, or did one of them give her these summoning spells? if so, who and why?

I stopped writing and carefully considered the last point. What if Vittoria didn’t summon a demon first . . . maybe one was already here, like Wrath. If that demon prince gave my sister the grimoire sheets, did that mean he’d convinced her to help in some wicked scheme? What could a demon prince possibly gain by angering the devil, and slaying his brides? Was it a bid for the dark throne? No matter what secrets my sister kept, I knew with utter certainty that she’d never help someone if they murdered witches.

I picked up the gambling chip, wondering if it wasn’t something Vittoria had taken, but something that was gifted to her. Maybe it was a token of good faith, or . . . I needed to stop speculating and start hunting. I had a new plan for the morning, and it made my stomach twist.