Emilia and her twin sister, streghe witches, have been cautioned their whole lives regarding the dangers of attracting the attention of or interacting with the Wicked, or seven Princes of Hell. Each twin was gifted with the mysterious cornicello, amulets of protection, and advised never to remove them. While Emilia prefers creating recipes for their family restaurant in Sicily, the more daring Vittoria disappears one evening only to be later discovered by her twin, gruesomely murdered. With her twin’s death one in a series of similar witch killings, Emilia summons a prince of Hell, Wrath, in her quest to discover what happened to Vittoria and in her need for vengeance. In an uneasy alliance to seek the truth of the witches’ deaths, they travel through Sicily, encountering other Malvegi or Wicked.
While Emilia is not always a sympathetic character, recklessly acting out and making questionable choices in her grief for her sister, I did admire that she is not afraid to speak out against those with potentially greater power or authority in her commitment to her mission to avenge her sister. The exchanges between Emilia and Wrath were usually entertaining, but the plot did occasionally lag in story-telling. The cliffhanger ending, however, did create a desire to see what’s next in her and Wrath’s story.