All Chapters of THE REBIRTH OF ELENA : Chapter 21 - Chapter 27

Father Alessio's archive gives us nothing new. We spend three hours going through the same old registers we already checked before, and by the time the light through the small windows turns gray with afternoon, my eyes ache and my hands are covered in dust."There's nothing else here," Father Alessio says finally, closing the last box. "I've shown you everything this church has on the Vane family. If Sal's right about them favoring churches, you'll need to look somewhere else.""Somewhere else where," Matteo asks, frustration creeping into his voice.Father Alessio thinks a long moment. "There are two other old churches in this city that came before mine.St. Agnes, where you're meeting her tomorrow night." He pauses. "And Our Lady of Sorrows, out near the old quarter, closer to where the first families settled here, long before the docks even existed."Isabella, who came with us despite Dante telling her to rest, looks up from the register she's paging through. "That's a two-hour rid

For one long, terrible second, nobody moves.Vittoria stands in the chapel doorway like she's simply stepped out for evening air, not like a woman who was led away in handcuffs three nights ago, in front of her entire family, in front of the police, in front of everyone."That's not possible," I whisper. "You're supposed to be in custody.""I was," Vittoria says calmly, stepping down into the churchyard, moonlight sliding pale across her face. "For approximately six hours. Then a very old friend of mine reminded certain people at the station that favors, once given, are meant to be remembered.""You bribed your way out," Matteo says, disbelief and fury warring in his voice."I persuaded my way out," Vittoria corrects. "There's a difference, though I don't expect either of you to appreciate it tonight."Cassia hasn't moved from the bench, her whole body rigid, the small leather book still clutched tight in both hands. "You shouldn't be able to find this place," she says, her voice unst

I stare at the words until they blur.*Elena Vane.*"That's not possible," I whisper, though I've said that sentence so many times in the past week it barely means anything anymore. "My parents were Marchetti. My whole life, in both lifetimes, I've been a Marchetti.""Your father may have believed that too," Vittoria says quietly, stepping closer, studying the ink with something almost like fascination. "Blood doesn't always follow the name a person carries, Elena. It follows the line it actually came from.""Explain it," Matteo says, his voice tight, his hand not leaving mine. "Now. All of it."Vittoria's eyes move to Cassia, a silent question passing between two women who, until tonight, considered each other enemies across two centuries of buried history."There's only one way this makes sense," Cassia says slowly, working through it out loud. "If somewhere back along your father's line, a Vane married into the Marchetti family and the connection was hidden. Deliberately, probably.

We tell Sal everything the next morning, gathered around his hospital bed for what the doctors have finally agreed will be his last week there before he's allowed home.He listens in silence, his face growing graver with every new revelation — Vittoria's release, the binding ritual, Elena Vane, Giulia's hidden bloodline, the full moon deadline drawing closer with each passing day."You're all insane," he says finally, when Matteo finishes. "You understand that. Every single one of you, walking willingly toward something none of you understand, based on the words of a woman who's spent fifty-eight years lying for a living.""We don't have another option," I say. "Matteo's name is already written. If we do nothing—""If you do nothing, you buy time," Sal snaps, more forceful than I've heard him since before the shooting. "Time to actually understand what you're agreeing to, instead of racing toward a ritual because a full moon happens to be convenient.""Sal—""No, listen to me." He str