The Toil and Trouble Trilogy, Book One

by Val St. Crowe

  * * *

  I expect Nonna to sob or scream, but she listens while I explain everything to her without any expression. Only her eyes seem to flash anger as I talk, and she stares at what’s become of her daughter.

  “I think,” I finish up, “that we can help her. When I did the St. Raphael spell, one of them spoke to me. He was human for a second. Maybe together, if we focus enough magic, we can heal her. We can get her back.” Then I stop talking. She knows everything now. I’ve completely betrayed my father and my family. But I don’t feel guilty about it. Instead, I feel like I’m radiating with rightness. Possibly for the first time in my life, I’m on the right path.

  Nonna walks in a circle around the cage, whispering in Italian underneath her breath. “He did this to her because she went to the police.”

  “I don’t know why he did it,” I say.

  “It would have been kinder to kill her,” says Nonna, her voice trembling. “Doing this to her, it’s just...it’s sickening.”

  I agree. And I’m going to give him a chance to explain himself, like I said. I just want to hear him try to come up with some way to make this all right.

  Nonna stops walking. “Olivia, I don’t think you should get your hopes up. When berserkers are this far gone, there’s nothing anyone can do, benedetta or otherwise. This is what the virus does. It’s not reversible.”

  “But the man. He said, ‘Kill me.’ He spoke.”

  “And he told you to put him out of his misery. He didn’t see any hope, did he?”

  My mother crashes against the bars of the cage, yelping. “We can try, though, can’t we?”

  Nonna nods. “Of course we’ll try.” She takes me by the arm. “But first I’m taking you upstairs and getting you cleaned up. You’re covered in blood and berserker bites, and you know those things get infected.”