Page 85 of Daughters of Sea and Storm

“Use it how? What am I supposed to do with it?”

“Drink it. I… think it should protect you.”

“Protect me from what?”

“Bernadette can’t get into that circle. But you can. Drink that—not all of it, save some for your mom—and step into the circle when we distract her. Once you’re in there, give the rest to your mom, so you can both step back out safely.”

“What are you going to do?”

“We’re going to try to distract Bernadette and Sarah.”

“But how… and what if it doesn’t work?”

“Let us worry about that. You have to try to get your mom out of there. We’re running out of time.”

I looked down at the guttering candle, little more than a pool of wax at this point. She was right. It was the only chance we had.

“It’s all too late now!” Bernadette’s voice shouted suddenly, and my head snapped back around to look at her. She hadn’t noticed our near-silent scheming—she was looking down at her own hands with confusion, as though she had suddenly noticed that a stranger’s hands had been sewn to her wrists.

“It’s not too late,” Nova whimpered. “You don’t have to go through with this.”

“Oh, yes, I do,” Bernadette said, nodding her head violently. “It was set into motion by hands other than mine, and I am powerless to stop it.” She looked up at Nova with a sad smile. “I belong to Sarah. To the Darkness. I chose.”

“You can change your mind,” Nova pleaded.

Bernadette laughed, a dark and twisted sound, and as she laughed something rippled over her face, and beneath it, for just a moment. A different face looked out at us, a face hundreds of years dead, a face wild with triumph. “I cannot change my mind. I do not want to change my mind. I could have turned back when I realized who we served, but I didn’t. I didn’t.”

“So what are you going to do, then?” Nova asked, her voice breaking. “Kill your cousin? Kill all of us? And then what? How do you propose to get away with it? Or did Sarah and the Darkness forget that tiny detail? That you’ll be the one taking the blame?”

I watched with fascination as the fear kindled in her eyes was washed away, like a footprint in the sand under Sarah’s power, as she poured her poisonous lies into Bernadette’s head. Bernadette’s voice and expression were calm as she replied. “They will look out for me.”

Nova barked a dark, bitter laugh. “Yeah, because the Darkness has a reputation for loyalty and mercy. I’m sure that’s gonna work out just great for you.”

Behind me, I heard the whispered words from Eva, who was completing the spell. “With these elements together under spirit, I cast a circle of protection above, below, and within.”

The whole lighthouse seemed to shake on its foundation, a strange light suffusing the stones where the walls met the floor. At the same moment, the inner circle, the one Bernadette had cast, began to glow red, strange sparks emanating from its perimeter, and a foul wind blew out from it. It smelled of smoke and sulfur, and something sweetish and rotting that turned my stomach.

“What the—” Zale muttered.

“Is that…bad?” I whispered.

“I have no idea,” Eva said.

“What have you done?” Bernadette shrieked. Whatever was happening, she hadn’t expected it. Was Zale’s protective circle working?

Through the haze, I saw my mother stir, trying to lift her head before letting it droop again onto her chest, and it was all I could do not to leap through the circle and burn myself to a crisp to get to her.

“Wren, drink it now!” Eva whispered.

The air around us shimmered with a heat haze, and suddenly I could see another figure within that inner circle—a figure I knew, one that was both familiar and terrifying. The Gray Man reached out and beckoned to me, inviting me in. No one else seemed to have noticed him—perhaps I was the only one who could see him. I pulled the tiny stopper from the bottle, and drained half of the contents.

“I’m ready,” I whispered, but whether the words were meant for Eva or the Gray Man, I couldn’t have said.

“Now!” Eva shouted.

Utter chaos broke out. Zale ran for the mirror, plucking it from the hook and smashing it on the ground. Bernadette screamed, dropping her knife in her desperation to get to the mirror. Nova dashed forward and kicked the blade clear across the room, while Eva dove at Bernadette, trying to wrestle the ring of keys away from her.

And as all of this unfolded around me, I closed my eyes, held my breath, and stepped over the circle’s border.

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