I blinked. No, I hadn’t considered it. I glanced at Nova, and she looked as surprised as I felt. Everyone in Sedgwick Cove considered the Meyers family outsiders, regardless of who might have married into it three generations ago.
Veronica clicked her tongue. “My, my, how soon we were forgotten. I’d have thought our coven had made a bigger impact than that. After all, the Kildare name once struck fear into the heart of this town.”
A memory stirred. The Keep. The name carved into the stone. Persi’s words echoed back to me:By all accounts, they made no secret of their affinity for dark magic. They rose quickly when they came, gathering allies and challenging hierarchies. Soon, it became clear that they were not content to simply coexist in Sedgwick Cove; they wanted the deep magic for themselves. They even tried to summon the Darkness, like Sarah Claire had once done.
Nova replied before I could. “The Kildare coven was driven out of Sedgwick Cove centuries ago.”
Veronica turned her eyes on Nova, giving her an appraising look. “And who are you?”
Nova swallowed hard but lifted her chin, looking for a moment exactly like her grandmother. “Nova Claire.”
Veronica’s pursed lips widened into a smirk. “A Vesper and a Claire? Well, if this isn’t poetic justice.”
“What do the Kildares have to do with the Meyers family?” I asked impatiently. I was sick of feeling clueless, tired of trying to catch up.
“They are one and the same now. Nova is correct; the banishment of the Kildare coven is common knowledge among the residents of Sedgwick Cove. What is much less well known is that the Kildares came back.”
This pronouncement was met with total silence. Veronica seemed to enjoy the shock she was inflicting on us. She paused a moment to savor our dumbfounded expressions, before continuing.
“The Kildares were patient—their lust for power was for their coven, not themselves; and so, they waited. They knew they would have to bide their time, would have to let generations slip by, before they could dare try to set foot in the Cove again. And so they did. But then my grandmother Paulina, and her sister Valerie, stepped into their power, and it was clear to the entire coven that it was time. My grandmother was incredibly powerful, and her sister almost equally so. Before they had even reached womanhood, they were wielding spells of such power, that even those closest to them feared them as much as they loved them. The coven gathered, calling the spirits of their ancestors, and made a decision. Paulina and Valerie would return to the Cove, and seek the source of the deep magic there.
“They changed their last name to Jaques and invented a back story. They arrived in Sedgwick Cove, claiming to be refugees from a coven in Europe, escaping the devastation and povertythat had laid waste to their homeland after the war. They were accepted with open arms, and spent several years working their way into the community, gaining trust and forging connections. They were very good at their deception. Before long, it was as though the Jaques sisters had always been a part of the magical fabric of the town. Only then did they dare begin their search.
They could only work at night, in secret; and even then, they had to be wary of other witches, and their nocturnal practices. After a few nearly disastrous failed attempts, they managed to forge a connection to the Darkness. They were able to rouse it from its slumber, just enough to gather some clues about the deep magic. And at last, the Darkness led them to the source.”
Here, Veronica paused, her eyes fever bright, ignited with the passion of the tale she was retelling. It reminded me of that night up on the cliffs, when Zale had told the story of the founding of Sedgwick Cove. Veronica knew every syllable of this story by heart, and had probably heard it a thousand times, just like the kids sitting bright-eyed around that bonfire, their lips mouthing the words like the chorus of a favorite song. Another origin story of this place.
“So where was it?” Nova’s voice sliced through the silence like a knife: sharp, quick, and dripping with skepticism.
Veronica raised an eyebrow, looking amused. “You’re looking at it.”
And all three of us together let our gazes drift to the dais, to the pile of rubble that had so captivated me when first I’d seen it. Now that I had turned attention to it, I could feel it again, the lure of it, almost like… an invitation.
“This?” Nova asked, and again, her voice sounded sharp, but this time with badly suppressed fear. “This… pile of rocks?”
“I understand your skepticism,” Veronica said, and her smile twisted into something more vicious. “After all, the SecondDaughters sought this power as well. To know that another coven discovered what you could not… it must be galling.”
“One.” Nova snapped.
“Excuse me?”
“One Second Daughter sought that power. Only one. And she does not define us.”
I reached over and took Nova’s hand. She didn’t look at me, but she squeezed my fingers in acknowledgment.
“Pity,” Veronica said. “To think what you all could have achieved if you’d had the courage to follow in her footsteps. Still, I should be grateful. My grandmother certainly was when she realized that the source of the deep magic had been safe all those years, since our coven’s banishment. But almost as soon as she and her sister discovered this place, that safety was threatened.
“The town was struggling financially at the time. Tourist dollars were being exhausted before they reached Sedgwick Cove, as the southern coast of Maine became more and more developed. I mean, why drive four hours from Boston for some quaint Maine seaside charm, when you can get your fill of it barely two hours away? They had to find a way to bring in revenue, and so they voted that this piece of land could be developed,” Veronica explained. “It was a contentious decision. The population of the town was very divided over it. My grandmother thought it must be the work of adversarial magic. How else could such a decision be made at the same moment she had made this crucial discovery? But she didn’t give up—she couldn’t. She simply needed to find a way to secure the property herself. The prospect seemed, at first, impossible. But my grandmother was a tenacious woman. The only thing that stood between my grandmother and what she wanted, was money. And so, she set her sights on the easiest way for a woman in those days to get some: a man.”
She smiled as though this particular detail of the story was her favorite, like a favorite chord in a familiar song.
“And so, she made her way to the seaside resorts, and started flirting with the vacationing businessmen. It didn’t take her long to catch the attention of Victor Meyers. He was a Broadway producer, with an overflowing wallet and a wandering eye. He fell so hard for my grandmother that the love potion she’d brewed for the occasion was almost irrelevant. She used it as a bit of insurance, but Victor, my grandfather, was smitten almost as soon as he’d laid eyes on her. We’ve always had a certain something, the women in my family.” Veronica tossed her hair, looking matter-of-fact rather than self-satisfied.
“Anyway, he proposed right out there on the rocks, but not before she’d convinced him of the beauty of this place, the potential it possessed, the money it could generate. Victor was more willing than she could have believed, but it wasn’t only his love for her that made him leap at the chance to buy this property. He’d passed over an opportunity to purchase a floundering resort in the Catskills, and the friend who had bought it instead had turned it into a goldmine. Victor was bitter. He wanted to make his mark in a whole new place, somewhere no other producer had been. My grandmother convinced him that Sedgwick Cove was that undiscovered gem. He made an offer that the town couldn’t refuse, and they began construction on the playhouse as soon as Victor and his bride returned from their whirlwind wedding and honeymoon.
“Paulina feigned interest in the theater itself so that she had the excuse to be here on site, overseeing the building project while really trying to unravel the mystery of the source. She was able to use her persuasion and magic to ensure that a secret entrance was created so that she could reach this cavern, while the men who built it immediately forgot about it. Once this had been done, she was free to come and go as she pleased, and shecould begin the grueling work of unraveling the secrets of this place.”
“And how did that go for her?” Nova asked, the effectiveness of her sarcasm marred by the slight tremor in her voice.
