“What do you want?” I ask and glance toward the hearth. The fire is beginning to turn white.
“You will know when it’s time,” she says and waves her hand toward the flames.
I flinch back when it opens to a portal—straight home to the inn.
Looking back at her, with new questions forming by the second, she laughs. “He did not just abandon me. Hestolefrom me,” she says again before gesturing toward the fire.
“Thank you,” I say with sincerity. “I feel both confused and closer to the answer than ever before.”
Her lips tilt up. “You have all the information you need, if you’re as smart as I think you are. See you soon, Archer Vexley.”
I’m about to turn away when she lifts a finger to her lips, kisses it, and sets it on my frowning ones.
“You may tell your coven everything we have talked about today except for anything regarding my garden. That’s our little secret, yes?”
I try to swallow down the words, but an unseen force pushes them out. “Yes, I understand.”
As the words settle in the air between us, it’s like a brand on my soul. Burning until the oath takes hold, I know it’s a secret I can’t share. Not even death would break this.
She turns on her heel, going back outside where she found me. I watch her retreating back until the door shuts, then I step through the portal, ready to be back with Renata and the coven.
Until I step inside and find the mess she and my sister made.
Chapter 45
Archer
When I step out of Calista’s portal, it is mid-morning. The birds are singing in the trees and the sun is warm against my skin. The lingering cold that held spring in its clutches is finally beginning to fade.
Everything seems okay. Normal even.
However, my magic is on high alert, and I knew I needed to find Renata now.
Standing outside her door, I swallow down my fear when Rowyn walks out. She bumps into my chest, dropping the full cup of tea at our feet.
“Oh,” she sighs. Once her eyes see my boots, she slowly looks up and lets out a quiet, surprised, “Oh.”
“Is she inside?” I ask, guiding her out of the way by her shoulders.
“She is, but—” she says and tries to catch my arm.
I’m already stepping inside, trying to make sense of whatever is happening in front of me.
My sister is sitting in the armchair with wide-eyes full of guilt. They are so unfocused I know she isn’t really here. Clover is wrapping a blanket around her shoulders, and Clementine is sitting on the bench, knees folded to her chest. She looks so small—so young—and my heart breaks a little, thinking about my youngest sister who is only a few yearsolder than Clementine. I couldn’t imagine her having to deal with the shit Clementine is.
It takes me a second to find Renata, not expecting her to be passed out on the ground.
She’s lying next to a table set up with three chairs and a ouija board. From the awkward angle of her body, it looks like she fell out of her chair and no one has moved her. Esme’s less than two feet from her, staring helplessly.
“What the fuck is going on?” I snarl. “How long has she been there?”
I step toward her, wondering what the hell happened in the few hours since I last saw her in our dreams.
“Archer, wait,” Rowyn calls and tries to catch me again.
I shake her off and step over the salt circle, dropping to my knees next to Renata. Wiping a hand down her forehead, a sigh of relief leaves my lips when her skin is warm and clammy. It’s probably a bit cooler than normal, but not so low I have to worry.
“How—” Esme asks, leaning forward on her knees now. “How did you do that?”
