The Amalfi Curse

The narrative moves back in time. From the witches’ hiding place in the cave, Mari spots Matteo’s ship at twilight on Friday. Ami delivers Holmes’s final letter to her, and Mari is horrified to learn that he is on the same ship as Matteo. Holmes reminds her that the Aquila doesn’t have cannons and urges her to flee from Positano. The other witches don’t know the contents of the letter and want to enact Mari’s plan, but she is no longer certain what to do.

The narrative shifts to Holmes’s perspective and moves several hours back in time. Holmes’s cell in the cargo hold is directly below the cabin where the Aquila’s officers are “keeping something of unspeakable value” (225). Early on Friday morning, a woman being held prisoner in the cabin speaks to Holmes through a crack in the planking. She’s found a way to sneak out of her cabin at night and is responsible for the items that have gone missing on the ship. Holmes tells her about his feelings for Mari and how she hates the sea because her mother drowned 12 years ago, and her sister drowned two years ago. The woman begins weeping and says, “Sofia and Mari, they are my daughters. I am…Imelda. I am Mari’s mother” (230).

The narrative returns to Mari’s perspective. Paola senses her stepsister’s indecision and snatches the letter. She berates Mari for having a secret lover and is deeply jealous of Corso’s affections, which Mari spurned. Although Mari is devastated by the thought of sinking Holmes’s ship, she’s certain that he would want her to protect the village and end Matteo’s wickedness. Paola accuses Mari of keeping other secrets and reveals that she knows Imelda didn’t drown.

When Mari was eight years old, she saw her mother slip out of the house in the middle of the night and followed her. Imelda departed Positano in a boat with two strangers, and she used her magic to prevent her daughter from following her. The distraught Mari decided that it would be easier on her sister and father to believe that Imelda had died rather than choosing to leave them. Cleila and Paola concealed their knowledge of the truth because Cleila wouldn’t have been able to marry Mari’s father if people knew his first wife was still alive. Along with four other witches, Mari goes to the shore and begins reciting a curse.

The narrative shifts back to Holmes. Imelda explains that Matteo and Massimo saw her work magic, but she convinced them that she was the only sea witch in Positano. Over the last 12 years, she’s used her power to guide them to “countless piles of sunken loot” (241). Holmes informs Imelda that Mari killed Massimo and that he sabotaged the ship in the hope that his letter to Mari would arrive before the Aquila. Imelda tells him that he is a good man and warns him that the ship is only an hour from the village. Holmes is frightened because he knows that he will be arrested and put to death once the ship reaches land.

The narrative moves forward in time. After overhearing Savina’s conversation with her friend, Haven discovers that the 1821 article mentions witchcraft as a possible cause of the Aquila’s wreck and wonders why Enzo didn’t mention that when he translated it for her. She conducts some research about Italy’s legends about sea witches and modern witchcraft practitioners, but finds little concrete information tied to Li Galli. Haven continues reading Holmes’s diary, learning more about the Mazza brothers’ unscrupulous business practices and Holmes’s love for a woman from Positano named Mari DeLuca.

To Haven’s astonishment and joy, Mal returns to the villa. Her boss has given her permission to stay in Italy a little longer, and she’s determined to help her friend complete her mission. Haven tells Mal everything she’s learned about Li Galli, the Aquila, and the sea witches. The news reports that two boats collided near Li Galli during the memorial for the people who died on the yacht, and Haven remembers what Savina and her friend discussed at the cafe.

The narrative moves back in time. Imelda saws a hole in the cabin’s floor big enough for Holmes to climb through. She urges him to find Mari and gives him a glass flask filled with seashells for her daughter. Holmes wants to repay Imelda, but she doesn’t believe that she will ever be free. Holmes injures his knee during his escape but manages to dive overboard.

The narrative moves forward in time. Haven and Mal go to Savina’s villa and find her surrounded by candles, books, and occult objects. Savina admits that she and her friend, Renata, are sea witches. Their mothers and grandmothers tried to instruct them in witchcraft and warned them that misfortune would befall them if they rejected their heritage, but neither of them wanted anything to do with magic. During her adult life, Savina suffered many hardships, including her husband’s death and frequent unemployment. After Bria died, she and Renata began practicing magic: “Neither of us want to resist the curse of this lineage any longer. Neither of us want to lose anything more than what we already have” (263).

The villa has belonged to their families for centuries, and its view of Li Galli helps them disguise their witchcraft as the area’s natural disturbances. Haven deduces that Savina and Renata are responsible for the yacht’s sinking and for the strange data that is convincing people that the volcano will erupt. She demands to know why they are using their magic in such harmful ways. Savina furiously answers that she has “much to prove, to fix” after a lifetime of denying her power and says that she will do anything to ensure that Enzo doesn’t meet his sister’s fate (264). She urges Haven to marry her son and offers to use her magic to help Haven find what she’s seeking in Li Galli.