We all turned to stare at her. Lydian snorted.
“The older you get, the less people listen to you. I am convinced that Wren’s actions were not creating a spell. They were breaking one,” Lydian said, speaking too loudly and making everyone jump. She looked around at all of our startled faces, and sighed. “Ah, now I see I’ve got your attention. Ask yourselves this: why could the Darkness manifest in the first place?”
No one answered.
“It ought to have been impossible,” Lydian reminded us. “The Darkness was meant to be Bound, cut off from the deep magic, unable to channel or use it. So why could it manifest in the first place?”
“Asteria’s death?” Rhi suggested, sounding both thoughtful and eager. If this had been school, she would have been vying for teacher’s pet. “With Asteria gone and the new Covenant as yet unsigned, perhaps we were more vulnerable than we should have been?”
But that couldn’t be right, I thought to myself. I’d seen the Darkness in that chosen form before—what I’d taken to be a nightmare all my life had actually been a memory. The Gray Man didn’t only appear after Asteria’s death—he had appeared to me many years before while she was still very much alive. I began to raise my hand again to point this out, but Xiomara was already shaking her head.
“The Darkness has appeared in other forms throughout the centuries. It is not impossible that it could manifest when there is something it really wants.”
Every pair of eyes drifted to me.
“Me. You’re talking about me,” I said.
“We must consider why that is,” Xiomara said. “If we are to understand what happened that night, we must also understand why the Darkness is so interested in you.”
It felt like someone had suddenly shoved me into a spotlight. Everyone in the room was not only looking at me now, but examining me —almost as if they were waiting for me to perform a trick, or explode or something. I thought longingly of the door behind me and how much I’d like to flee through it. Before I could make a break for it, though, Xiomara turned her intent gaze from me back to Lydian.
“My apologies, Lydian. You were telling us your theory,” she said, giving Lydian a respectful nod.
“No apologies necessary, Xiomara. You’ve furthered my point. The Darkness wants Wren. When it has wanted something in the past, something it was desperate to obtain, it has used what little magic it can access. It used it again, this time to take a physical form so that it could communicate with her, and lure her to the ocean.” She turned to me. “I am assuming that The Darkness spoke to you. What did it say?”
I felt every pair of eyes burning into me. I reached back into the memory, feeling my own resistance. I wanted to bury this memory, not relive it. But I dug the words up anyway, knowing I had no choice.
“It told me that it needed my magic. That I was the weapon it needed to break the Covenant,” I said, my cheeks flaming, my eyes on my own violently twisting hands. “And then it told me that when I walked into the ocean, we would become one: the Darkness’ eternal state, and my magic.”
My words seemed to cast a pall of horror over everyone who listened, all except for Lydian, who clapped her gnarled hands together with a loud “Ha!” of exaltation.
“There you have it! The Darkness planned to use magic—some of it Wren’s own—to bind the two of them together. ButWren fought back. She broke the spell—cut it off. When that happened, the Darkness lost its hold on its physical form. It was too weak to remain. Her lightning sand did not contain the Darkness; it simply severed the connection between them.”
Lydian looked at each face in turn, waiting for a contradiction that would not come. Her words made sense to everyone, including me. It had never seemed likely to me that I could have defeated the Darkness so simply. But wielding the elements inexpertly, but effectively enough to destroy something—in this case, some sort of connection? That seemed like something I might be able to stumble my way into doing. The others seemed to agree. Heads were nodding, expressions thoughtful as everyone let Lydian’s words sink in. Finally, it was Xiomara who broke the silence that followed.
“Lydian’s theory is the most likely explanation, and one we will continue to explore. In the meantime, we must assume that Wren will continue to be a target when the Darkness has gathered enough strength for another attack. We have no time to waste. You have begun her magical education, as we discussed?”
My mother looked startled, and then blushed a little as she stole a glance at my shocked face. “Yes, we… well, Rhi has already begun.”
I turned to look accusingly at Rhi, who also had the good grace to blush.
“You discussed my magical education without me?” I asked, looking back and forth between Xiomara and my mother.
“We simply impressed upon your mother the importance of understanding your powers as soon as possible,” Xiomara said, looking completely unabashed. “The Darkness chose you for a reason, and it would be foolish in the extreme not to understand exactly why that is.”
I wanted to argue with that, but I couldn’t. My mom took advantage of my momentary wordlessness.
“Wren, listen to me. We discussed it, yes, but I told the Conclave it would have to be your choice. And I gave you a choice, didn’t I?”
I nodded grudgingly, though I still felt betrayed somehow.
“And now that you know the Conclave wants you to explore your gifts, does that make you feel any differently about your decision?”
I sighed, all the sudden anger and indignation draining out of me. I felt suddenly tired. “No. I still would have chosen to stay in Sedgwick Cove, and start learning witchcraft.”
“And have you made any progress yet?” Xiomara asked, looking back and forth between Rhi and me.
“I… I burned some scones,” I volunteered.
