“They won’t.” His voice was quiet, his face gentle. “Because you won’t tell them. I know this is hard to accept, Amalia. But you must do as I say, just as Ardence must do what Raverra commands. All these years, you have survived only to serve me. You simply didn’t realize it until now.”

A wave of fury boiled up in me, and I slapped him in the face.

Ignazio stood, eyes flashing. “Do you think you can get your precious elixir elsewhere?” he snapped. “It is in my nature to be thorough, Amalia. Before I even acquired the Demon’s Tears, ten years ago, I started hunting down every copy I could find of the formula for the cure. I have devoted more than a decade to locating every written record of the recipe, and destroying it. The elixir that keeps you alive exists only in my mind, Cousin.”

So he had been the one who poisoned me in the first place.

It was too much. Angry, helpless tears stung my eyes, grieving for the Uncle Ignazio I remembered so fondly. The lie I’d believed. The man he’d never been. “I cared about you, Ignazio. For Graces’ sake, you’re my family.”

“I care about you too, Amalia. But I have been passed over too many times.” His voice twisted to bitterness. “Not quite powerful enough an alchemist for the mage mark. Not quite near enough in the succession to sit on the Council of Nine. And then not quite good enough to stay Serene Envoy to Ardence. Well, no more.” He started pacing again. “I may never sit on the Council of Nine, but you will do it for me, speaking with my voice. And if I can’t be Serene Envoy, I will be imperial governor. When this city devolves to the Hell of Madness and I am the only one who can solve its problems and end the war, the doge will have no other choice.”

“The children said a man would rescue them,” I said. “I thought maybe they meant Ruven. But that was going to be you.”

“Of course. I will save the children, find the jess, and put to justice the Shadow Gentry traitors who stole them both. I will rescue my own kidnapped cousin, freeing her just in time to save the city from the balefire she loosed from afar in a panic when she was captured. I will have the backing of the Ardentine people and the late duke’s own right hand. And of the Council of Nine, once Lissandra prevails upon them, for how could she not support her own cousin after he rescues her beloved daughter?”

He sighed, then, and his shoulders slumped. “That was the plan. It’s going to be harder, now you’ve made a mess of things. But if you help me, we can still salvage this.”