No. I was just going to control her blood. Just a little bit. I was going to show everyone why they should listen to me.
I look at Ale, and he looks at me. Her blood is all over his face.
And then people are pouring out of the pews. They fill up the aisle and scramble for the chamber doors.
They’re running away.
They don’t realize what they’re doing. I’m going to save them. They need me.
I race after them. I catch up to a woman and grab the back of her dress.
And then, all I see is blood.
The woman is gone. I don’t know where she went. I try to find someone else, and I can’t find anything but blood.
There’s so much blood.
There’s too much blood.
And then there’s nothing at all.
I open my eyes, and I see the arches of the cathedral ceiling high above. I sit up, and my head spins. There’s a sore spot on the back. I think I fainted.
It smells sickly and sweet. It’s so dark and so quiet. I don’t know where everyone is, but I vaguely remember them running away from me. It seems my encounter with them didn’t go quite as I’d hoped.
Ale.
I leap to my feet.
They must be following Ale out to the catacombs. I have to stop them. I have to show them that I really can bring back the water.
I turn around, and I trip over something.
It’s a pair of pants, soaked in blood and almost unrecognizable as clothing. I follow the blood down the aisle, trying to find the place where it ends. But it’s not ending. It’s stretching on and on and on.
Slowly, I lift my eyes.
The double doors at the front of the cathedral are still closed. Scattered all over the aisle and in the pews are piles of bloody, abandoned clothes.
For a very long moment, I can’t make myself comprehend it. My people were running away from me. It almost looks like they all died in here. But that’s not possible.
I didn’t mean to kill them. So they can’t be dead.
Then I taste the blood in the air, and it hits me all at once.
I run, bursting out the cathedral doors. I stumble down the steps.
Everyone in my city was in there. Ale was in there. They can’t be dead.
I was going to save them.
I’m alone in the cathedral square, underneath the bright red veil. All around me, the black manors are empty and silent. I’ve never heard a silence like this. It makes even my breath seem so loud. Too loud. It’s coming so fast, but I can’t seem to get any of it into my lungs.
They can’t be dead. This is my city. These are my people. One little dose of magic can’t possibly be enough to kill them all so quickly.
I hear a noise behind me and turn, but everything goes black. I scream.
“Emanuela! Emanuela!”
Somebody is wrestling with me.
“It’s a blindfold,” he says. “I’m just blindfolding you. That’s all.”
I break out of his grip and stumble back. I touch the fabric over my eyes.
“Ale,” I whisper.
He’s still here. I can’t see him, but I can feel his presence.
I don’t know how he could have possibly survived.
“Ale,” I say. “I…”
The truth of it is sinking in, all at once.
“I can’t control it,” I say. “Why can’t I control it?”
Nothing. But he’s still there. I know he is. I can feel him looking at me.
“Ale,” I say.
“I’m going to touch you again,” he says.
“All—all right,” I stammer.
And a moment later, I’m in his arms. We’re moving, but I don’t know where we’re going. I don’t know what’s happening. But I don’t have it in me to worry about it. There’s only one thing I can think about.
I can’t control it.
I wanted the most powerful magic I could have. But it’s more powerful than me.
I smell the catacombs when we descend into them—dust and stale air. Ale gently sets me on the ground. I lie there on my side, curled up. The taste of blood is all in my mouth and throat, and I don’t know if it’s ever going to come out.
I know Ale is still nearby, and it’s the only thing that brings me comfort. Right now, I feel like I could lie here forever, hiding. All I want to do is hide.
Then the ground underneath me turns cold.
I sit up.
“Ale,” I say. “What’s happening? Is that… is that the—”
My throat fills up with panic, and I can’t finish. For a long moment, Ale doesn’t say anything.
“I don’t know what else to do with you,” he whispers finally.
The ground disappears.
And I’m falling.
I hit the floor hard. I rip off my blindfold and scramble to my feet, looking around wildly.
But I see nothing. It’s pitch-black. I wait for my eyes to adjust, and they don’t.
I drop to my hands and knees, expecting to find the stone floor of the catacombs, but instead, I touch smooth metal. Iron, maybe. It smells like iron. I feel my way across the floor and bump into an iron wall.
There’s absolutely no light. I have no idea where I am, and it’s too quiet, and it’s freezing, and my best friend is nowhere to be found, and I didn’t mean for this to happen.
I just wanted to save my city.
I back up frantically. I run into something solid but strangely soft. It smells disconcertingly sweet, like flowery perfume.
I know that perfume. But by the time I realize it, Verene is already screaming and shoving me away.
TWENTY
VERENE AND I DON’T SPEAK. WE SIT ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF our small prison at the bottom of the catacombs, and we do nothing.
Time passes—hours, or maybe days. I don’t know. All I know is that we’re inside a very deep cell. It’s the blankest place I’ve ever been. It’s so dark that my eyes never adjust. There are never any new sounds, and there are
