Kingdom of the Wicked

Emilia connects the fennel used in Nonna’s cimaruta spell to the pawprint symbol on the door of the abandoned “room with the fishing gear” she and Wrath explored in Chapters 31 and 32 (324). Emilia returns to the building to investigate. She is drawn to an “ordinary-looking hook” that has magical properties (325). The hook triggers a secret passageway, and Emilia follows the path into a system of underground tunnels, guided only by her magical senses and the half of the amulet she recovered from the Viperidae.

The tunnel system leads Emilia to the area underneath the cathedral, adjacent to the chambers the Viperidae inhabited. She finds the other Horn of Hades on the ground. Wrath appears, informing Emilia that now that she is in possession of both halves of the Horn, “three dozen Umbra demons” sent by Envy are “closing in” around them (329). He offers to transport her to his abandoned palace, but Emilia is hesitant to agree to demonic transportation. Before they can leave, Envy arrives. He and his Umbra demons attack Wrath, gutting him and sending him back to Hell to recover. Emilia fears Wrath is dead. She brings the Horn of Hades together, unlocking a powerful reserve of magic, and banishes Envy who reluctantly leaves.

Emilia returns to the abandoned palace to summon Wrath again. She hopes he will return to help her figure out how to stop the gates of Hell from breaking. She discovers Wrath has gifted her a gold ring, providing Emilia with the final necessary component for summoning him. After several attempts, however, she is unable to summon Wrath. She is uncertain about what this indicates: Either Wrath is too hurt to travel between realms, or he chooses to ignore her summoning. Regardless, Emilia is alone, and their marriage bond is now broken.

Emilia goes to the marketplace to confront Domenico Junior about Claudia’s accident. She speaks with Domenico’s father who reveals that the Nucci family are shapeshifters. The pawprint symbol Emilia has been seeing around town indicates the presence of “Ember Wolves,” creatures like werewolves that can transform at their will, and the Nucci’s are members of this clan. Domenico Junior was implicated in a deal his father struck with Greed at the gambling house: When his father’s debts were too high to pay, Vittoria and Greed crafted a bargain that the Ember Wolves would “fight on the side of the devil when the time [came]” (345). Domenico Senior only agreed to the deal because he and the other Ember Wolves had been unable to transform for “nearly two decades” (345), but Domenico Junior transformed on his 20th birthday, indicating that the ability has mysteriously returned. Vittoria understood that the Ember Wolves needed to fight with the demons to stop another greater force of evil threatening the livelihood of all magical creatures: the holy brotherhood of monks.

Emilia goes to the monastery to “uncover the secrets the holy brotherhood [is] keeping” (347). She senses magic and follows it into the monastery where it leads her to a room that appears empty from the outside. Despite feeling that something is unsafe about the room, Emilia enters only to discover that it was indeed a trap.

Emilia is caught in a containment spell that prohibits her from leaving the room in the monastery. There is an obsidian lectern in the room with La Prima’s “first book of spells” atop it (352). Vittoria had discovered the book, which is where she learned the summoning spells and the truth about the Horn of Hades.

Antonio enters the room to Emilia’s surprise. He is the primary opponent of the witches, and he admits that he is the murderer. While working with Envy to rid the earth of “evil” witches, Antonio has volunteered to kill each of Pride’s bridal candidates. Envy hoped that if Pride could not find a bride to break his curse, then Envy could supplant his brother as the King of Hell. Emilia uses her magic to take vengeance against Antonio, granting him mercy only when she remembers that even Wrath grants mercy to his opponents. Antonio’s ultimate goal was to destroy the Horn of Hades. He agrees to work with Emilia to destroy the demons if she will grant him his life. They summon Pride who “take[s] possession of Antonio’s body” and offers Emilia marriage in exchange for her soul (360). Emilia considers the deal and places Antonio in a charmed slumber. She plans to “strike a deal with Pride that would hopefully be his realm’s undoing” (362), just as Vittoria had planned to do before her death.

In the seaside cavern, Wrath arrives to collect Emilia’s soul for Pride, who cannot leave Hell of his own accord until the curse is broken. Emilia is surprised to see Wrath and feels betrayed that he is the arbiter of the deal because of her complicated romantic feelings toward him, despite their own marriage bond being broken already. Emilia agrees to marry Pride on two conditions: “No other witch will be hunted, no human attacked” by demons and “Antonio will be [her] prisoner to do with as [she] see[s] fit” (366). Wrath agrees to these terms. Emilia signs the marriage contract, and Wrath transports them to Hell.