Chapter 21

21

I looked at Veronica. She looked back at me. I’m not sure what was on my face, but hers was alight with triumph.

“I knew I had to be careful. I didn’t want to be hasty and squander the opportunity to get you on your own. The first step was to offer the theater as a rehearsal space for the pageant. I knew all the covens would participate—it’s a Sedgwick Cove rite of passage, and so I thought the chances were good that you would be involved. And sure enough, when I checked the sign-in log the day after the first rehearsal, there was your name. I can’t tell you what a thrill it gave me to see it there. To know that you had been here, so close to where I needed you to be.”

This knowledge that had so thrilled her sent a shiver of horror up my back. Beside me, Nova had gone statue-still with stress. I’d now lost all feeling in my fingers, and had to gently pry her hand away from my upper arm. Veronica was too caught up in her own story now to notice what we were doing. It was clear, now that she had a captive audience, that she was enjoying herself. This story was centuries in the making, and she was the one who got to tell it.

She went on, “The more I considered it, the more I thought the pageant was the key to everything. It would bring the entire town together. If I could separate you from all those who might be able to protect you, I would have a better chance of success. And so, I put the pageant at the center of my efforts. I also wanted to meet you, and so I suggested to Luca that we do some sightseeing in town. It was strange seeing you for the first time and realizing how… insignificant you were. How unimpressive. Just a little mouse of a thing, aren’t you? Just utterly forgettable.”

She laughed, and there was no malice in her voice. It was more… incredulity than anything else.

“And then you told us about the script, how it was so terrible, and that you were looking to improve it somehow. That provided the opening I’d been looking for. The next step was planting the book. It was almost ludicrously easy, with Luca working here every day. I simply told him that his uncle had found the book left behind on the stage and to put it in the prop box. He did so gladly, unaware of the magic the book contained.” She sighed. “I had to put a spell on it so that it would make its presence known to someone. Imagine my delight when that someone turned out to be you.”

Guilt, sharp and hot, bubbled in my stomach. I was so stupid, so gullible. I’d played right into her hands, and delivered the one thing she needed to carry out her plan. I wanted to scream. Sure, Zale had been immediately on board, but he had been desperate to make his mark on the pageant. He would have done anything, even ignore the most basic of magical safety guidelines, in order to make that happen. And I was too ignorant to warn against it.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” Veronica said, as though she could hear what I was thinking. “You really didn’t have a hope once you opened the book. It would have ensnared you all at once.”

We’d all been ensnared, I thought. After the cheesy, hackneyed lines of the old script, the book had breathed fresh life into the pageant. We’d all agreed to use it. Perhaps if Nova hadn’t been grounded, she would have had the good sense to stop us, but somehow I doubted it. We were damned from the moment we opened it.

“I’d enchanted the words so that when they were spoken on the solstice, they would turn every witch within its hearing into a waking dreamer. All except for one.” She smiled at me again, a smile that seemed almost… loving. Like she somehow thought she was doing all of this for me instead of for herself. It was the most disturbing thing I’d seen from her up until that very moment. She went on, “But once everyone who could protect you was neutralized, how to lure you here? I toyed with the idea of asking Luca to do it, but in the end, I decided against it. That boy is not as obtuse as his father, a trying complication I hadn’t considered when I married the man. Men usually can’t seem to help but love me, but Luca… well, he never really warmed to me.”

Despite my terror, a bubble of hope rose in my chest. “Luca’s… not your son?”

“Surely you knew that,” Veronica snorted. “I was under the impression he couldn’t wait to out me as the evil stepmother.”

Relief flooded through me. Luca wasn’t a Kildare. Luca hadn’t known anything about this. He hadn’t been a knowing participant in this plot to lure me here. I was so relieved that I almost missed what Veronica said next.

“…like I said, too perceptive to be useful. He would question me. I couldn’t risk it. But then I thought, hmmm, maybe I could use him in a different way.”

My breath froze in my lungs and the relief drained away, to be replaced with an icy fear. “What do you mean, use him?” I asked. “You better not have… if you hurt him…”

Veronica laughed, a high, tinkling sort of giggle that made me shudder. “For goodness sake, stop being so melodramatic. You’d almost think I was some kind of villain; but I’m not a monster, Wren, whatever impression you might have of me right now. I’m explaining all of this to you so that you can start to understand your place in all of this—how we got here. No, Luca is just fine. Working on his car out in the garage when I left. It’s a very powerful spell, the glamour I used to create the illusion of him. If you’d touched him, he even would have felt real to you. But in order for it to work, I needed his essence. A hair or two taken from his hairbrush was enough.”

“What about Bea?” Nova asked. I jumped, having almost forgotten she was right beside me. “How did she get wrapped up in all of this? How did you get her essence? Felony kidnapping?”

Again, Veronica laughed. “My goodness, you are determined to think the worst of me, aren’t you? As the day of the festival grew nearer, I saw that Wren was much more involved in the production of the pageant than I had originally thought. She had all but taken it over. I thought it unlikely that Luca would be able to pull her away with a simple invitation to walk the beach with him, even if she did have the crush on him that I suspected she had.” She raised her eyebrows at me, as though asking the silent question.

I kept my mouth shut, but the blood flaming in my cheeks answered for me.

She looked gratified. She turned back to Nova, and continued to answer her question. “Well, as I said, I couldn’t count on her going with him. She’d put a great deal of effort into the pageant. She’d likely want to stay and see the fruits of her labors. And so I had to think of another way, something more compelling. And then she showed up at the theater with Beatriz. I had to assess the relationship quickly, but I’d always been gifted when it came to understanding the ties that bind people. I could see that the girl was very timid, and painfully shy. I could also see that Wren felt protective of her. Something had formed there—a kinship of sorts. I knew I could use that to my advantage. I offered to let the girl try on some wigs and hats, and in the process, I procured the necessary hairs. Of course, I had to make sure to find a way to keep Beatriz from the festival, or Wren might have seen her in the crowd and ruined everything. A simple charm cast while picking up some lunch at the restaurant that day did the trick.”

Anger flared in me as I remembered that moment in the cafe, and Veronica, sensing it, turned her attention back to me. “I already told you, Wren. Beatriz is perfectly safe. I wouldn’t harm a hair on that girl’s head… though I might steal one or two.” She smirked wryly. “Beatriz simply will have found herself unable to keep her eyes open as the afternoon went on; and by evening, she will have been so tired, she would have no choice but to go to bed. She had expressed a dislike for the noise and crowds of the festival, which led me to believe that no one would be too suspicious if she didn’t want to go. She is no doubt sleeping soundly, and will wake feeling refreshed and perfectly herself.”

Nova looked like she wanted to say something, but she just chewed viciously at the inside of her cheek. I could tell she still wouldn’t trust Veronica as far as she could throw her, no matter how Veronica tried to make herself sound like the rational adult in the room. Veronica was in league with the Darkness. That was all either of us really needed to know.

“And so, with the real Luca happily building his car, and the real Beatriz enjoying sweet dreams, there was nothing left to stand in my way. It all unfolded smoothly. The pageant began. The spell took effect. My one moment of fear came when I thought you might turn to an outsider for help—so recently returned as you were, I wasn’t sure if you knew better than to betray the magical population to the outside world; and even if you did, I thought there was a chance you might be desperate enough to do it anyway. But again, my luck held. You were braver and smarter than I had given you credit for. You chased after Beatriz alone, isolating yourself from the others. Then I sent the Luca glamour to meet you, and lead you in the right direction. The only complication I hadn’t foreseen was you.” Veronica turned to look appraisingly at Nova, as though she still hadn’t decided just how big of a complication she was.

“So sorry to spoil your plans,” Nova said, a sneer in her voice.

Veronica smiled pleasantly. “You haven’t spoiled anything as of yet,” she said.

“I’ve only just arrived,” Nova said. “Give me time.”

Veronica’s smile widened. “Oh, I will. And I’ll give you a choice. What you do with that choice will be your own business. You will decide your fate, Second Daughter, not me.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Nova shouted, and though her tone was angry, I knew that it was actually fear that was driving her words.

“What I mean is that I’ve told you all there is to know. There is no more reason to delay. We’ve reached the moment when we all must decide what part we will play,” Veronica said. “Wren is here. She is the pentamaleficus of the first blood, the long-awaited key to opening this lock. So now she has a decision to make.”

“You’re saying I actually have a choice?” I asked, incredulous.

“Of course you do,” Veronica said, and then turned her attention to the dais in the middle of the room, her eyes sparkling with a covetous light. “But surely this place has been calling to you, as deeply and consistently as it has been calling to me. You are the only one who can accept its invitation. You must have been longing to find it from the moment you knew of its existence.”

It seemed pointless to contradict her. The truth was that I had never given the source a second thought. I’d had a little too much else on my mind since arriving in Sedgwick Cove. Even Nova, who had known about the deep magic all her life, looked skeptical and a bit wary.

“My grandmother spent the better part of her life trying to understand it. My mother did as well, though in the end, she despaired of ever comprehending its true nature,” Veronica said, her voice little more than a murmur that nonetheless carried in the echoing cavern. “But like both of them before me, I must admit it is a mystery to me. Still… can you feel it?”

Nova and I turned, almost simultaneously, to stare at the dais. The longer I concentrated on it, the more attuned I became to the energy that seemed to roll off of it in waves. There was a lure to the stones. I could almost—no, not almost. Undoubtedly. I could undoubtedly hear them whispering to me, like each tiny chip of rock was calling my name in an irresistible tone that I could not ignore. It felt like a string tied to my ribs, trying over and over again to tug me forward, to answer this call that I didn’t comprehend, and yet wanted desperately to. It begged to be answered. I turned to Nova, the question on my face, but her expression was puzzled, almost frustrated. It was at that moment that I understood: it didn’t call to her the same way it called to me, the way it called to Veronica. What did that mean?

Rather than shying away from the call, I leaned into it, focusing every particle of my being on the steady, bone-deep pull of it, the way it ached and soothed all at once. It was like something inside of me already knew it, and had been waiting to answer it since the moment I’d begun my existence. I wanted to laugh and cry, to run far from it and right into its arms at the same time.

“Wow,” I whispered.

“What’s wow?” Nova hissed. “What are we supposed to be feeling?”

I tore my eyes from the stones to stare at Veronica, whose eyes gleamed with the depth of her understanding.

“What is it?” I asked her.

Her eyes flashed. “Do you not know?”

“No. How could I? I’ve never felt… it’s so…” I shook my head, utterly incapable of finding the words.

Veronica’s expression fell. “I was so sure you’d understand.”

The people-pleasing part of me wanted to apologize, but I bit back the words. I had nothing to apologize for, certainly not to the woman now standing eloquent with disappointment in front of me.

“So you can’t tell me anything at all about these stones?” Veronica asked.

“No,” I replied. And I wouldn’t even if I could , I added silently.

Veronica’s bottom lip began to tremble. Was this grown woman about to burst into tears, like a child denied a treat? I felt an edge of anger in my thoughts again, and welcomed it. Whatever was happening here, I should be focusing on finding a way out of it. There would be time for understanding later.

“It’s no matter. The Darkness will know what we must do. And that is why you must call it.”

Every particle of air in the room seemed to crystallize. “What?”

“You must call the Darkness. Summon it here, to this place,” Veronica said, more loudly this time, as though the problem was that I simply hadn’t been able to hear her.

“Why the hell would I do that?” I asked, panic dragging my voice up half an octave.

Veronica blinked. “Because we’ve found it. The source of the deep magic. The very thing that has drawn our ancestors to this place over the centuries, the thing that strengthens our gifts. The Darkness knows how to draw upon it. We need that knowledge to do the same.”

She said the words so matter-of-factly, as though stating the solution to an equation. She could comprehend no differing opinion here, no hesitation or uncertainty. To her, it was a foregone conclusion that we would want this power for ourselves, just as she did.

“I don’t want to draw upon it,” I said, speaking slowly and clearly so that there could be no misunderstanding. “And I don’t want the Darkness to draw on it, either.”

Veronica’s eyes went flat. The change was immediate and startling. A moment before, she’d been alight with a kind of euphoric fervor. Now, she looked as empty and hollow as the glamours she’d used to bring me here.

“Don’t be a fool, Wren Vesper. Ask your friend here. A Second Daughter would never pass on an opportunity like this, isn’t that right, Nova? After so long in the shadow of the Vespers, surely you cannot pretend this magic isn’t everything you’ve dreamed about?” And Veronica actually reached out a hand to Nova, expectant.

I glanced at Nova. A muscle was jumping in her jaw, and her hands were clenched into fists at her sides. For one wild second, I thought she was going to reach out and take that hand. I thought I saw her finger twitch. But then she shook her head. “I will not deny that there have been Second Daughters who have dreamed of it. But we all woke up. All except one, and I assure you, that one is not me.”

Veronica’s hand lowered slowly, until it hung limply at her side. “Very well. If you insist on being ordinary, that is your choice to make. But you,” she turned to me now. “I’m still going to need you to summon the Darkness.”

I laughed a sharp, short bark that tore at my throat on the way out. “Look, I know everyone’s got this impression that I’m some powerful elemental witch, but I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m failing Witchcraft 101, okay? I don’t know how to summon the Darkness, and even if I did, I’d probably just screw it up.”

“Don’t downplay your powers. I heard about what happened on the beach. You clashed with the Darkness, and you won. That is not the work of some clueless novice,” Veronica said, impatient now.

“That’s exactly what it was!” I cried, feeling a week’s worth of frustration at my own ignorance bubbling over all at once. “I have no idea how I did that! I’m not… I don’t… it was just instinct!”

“Well, then, use your instincts now!”

“It’s not the same! I was in fear for my life! I… it was probably just adrenaline and luck and…”

But Veronica’s face brightened with understanding. “Yes, of course. The circumstance triggered the magic in you. I should have… well, never mind. That is easily remedied.”

And before either Nova or I could do more than yelp, Veronica had lunged forward and caught Nova by the arm, simultaneously pulling a small handgun from her coat pocket. She cocked the hammer and put the gun against Nova’s temple.

“No, stop, stop!” I cried out, raising my arms over my head like she was pointing the gun at me. “What are you… leave her out of this, okay? Nova has nothing to do with this. You should be pointing that gun at me, okay?” My voice was shaking so badly I could barely understand my own words.

“Oh, no, I’m afraid that won’t work, Wren,” Veronica said, pulling Nova slightly closer to her. “You know I can’t kill you. I need you. But I don’t need her.”

“So much for not being the villain,” Nova said, and though her voice was calm, her eyes were wild with fear.

“An utterly unnecessary escalation, born of your own stubbornness. I was perfectly happy to ally with you, but I will not let you stand in my way,” Veronica hissed at Nova before turning back to me. “Now summon it, Wren.”

“I don’t… I… why don’t you do it?” I blurted out, desperately playing for time. “Your grandmother and your mother convened with the Darkness! Surely, they must have taught you how to do it!”

“Of course they did!” Veronica shrieked, the final threads of her composure snapping and startling us all. Her face contorted. “I followed their instructions to the letter. I did it over and over and over again. But my grandmother’s spell won’t work. Your protective spell is getting in the way.”

“What protective spell?” I asked, pulled up short. I dropped my hands from above my head. Nova gave a little whimper.

“The magic you used to escape the Darkness. You thought you trapped it in the sand, but you know now that that’s not true. No doubt your Conclave told you that.”

“I… how do you know all of this?” I gasped.

“Davina. I visited her shop and performed a bit of… persuasion. She doesn’t remember that she spoke to me, let alone all the details she’d given me. I know all about the night on the beach, the lightning sand, the fact that it’s empty, even the form the Darkness takes when it comes to you. It’s how I was able to make my glamour so effective—producing the very Gray Man that lured you to the ocean, twice.”

I wanted to scream. No one had suspected her, an outsider. Everyone’s guard had been down.

“Does it really matter how I know? It is enough that we understand. What you did that night was protect yourself. You created, unintentionally, it seems, a barrier between yourself and the Darkness. Haven’t you wondered why you haven’t felt its presence? Why the Gray Man hasn’t been standing under your window every night?”

Yes, I’d wondered. But I’d never thought… never stopped to consider… that I’d been protecting myself all along, without realizing it.

The play of these thoughts across my face was evidently answer enough. Veronica went on. “What your grandmother had done for you, you have unwittingly been doing for yourself. But that must end now. Your spell is standing between the Kildare coven and what we want. And that is a very, very dangerous place to stand.” She shook Nova by the arm, and her resultant whimper snapped me back to the reality of the situation we were in. To the reality of a gun against the head of my friend. Despite my best efforts, my eyes began to fill with tears.

“Veronica, I am not trying to play you. I am very, very serious when I tell you that I don’t know how to do what you’re asking me. I didn’t even know that I had cast a protection spell.”

“And yet you did it,” Veronica said, the words tight. “And so, for the sake of your friend, I suggest you try .”

I swallowed hard. I looked at Nova, who shook her head, even as tears streamed down her face. “Don’t do it,” she whispered. “Don’t let the Darkness free.”

“Shut up!” Veronica screamed, and for the first time, her expression matched the madness of her scheme. She looked deranged and unstable—centuries of generational trauma coming to a head before my eyes.

“Okay, I’ll… I’ll try,” I gasped, raising my hands again. Veronica pressed her lips together, making a clear effort to calm herself again.

“Go on, then.”

Heart pounding in my chest, I closed my eyes, trying to reach back into my memory, to the night of the lighthouse. What had I done? How had I called my power? The details of the night swirled and blurred, spinning like an out-of-control carousel. I was panicking. I was failing Nova. I didn’t know how to…

Wren.

My eyes flew open. I knew that voice. And I had never been more grateful to hear it. But though I scanned the room eagerly, I did not see Asteria.

“What? What is it?” Veronica asked eagerly, craning her neck to look around as well.

“I… nothing. I’m just… I’m trying to focus,” I mumbled.

Wren. Listen to me.

This time, the voice came distinctly from the center of the room, from the dais itself, or at least, the space around it. And I was the only one who could hear it.

Wren, the source of the deep magic is not safe, came Asteria’s voice, urgent as a scream, yet quiet as a whisper. You must protect it.

“I don’t know how!” I whispered.

Help is coming.

“What do you mean?” I asked the question inside my own head, so that only Asteria could hear it. “How do I get out of this? I can’t summon the Darkness, but I can’t let Nova die! What do I do?”

There was a pause, then I thought I heard a ghost of a laugh.

Duck.

“Huh?”

DUCK.

My brain was still questioning her, but my body obeyed. Without warning, I threw myself on the ground, covering my head, just as something large erupted through the wall behind me.