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There’s a knock on the door, and Jesse tightens his grip on me for two beats before releasing me to go answer it. When he swings the door inward, Steph marches in with Erik hot on her heels. Leif trails them, and the vampires circle around as she pulls me into her arms.
“Are you okay?” she asks, then leans back to study my face. “Jesse said you passed out and had another vision.”
Jesse texted Erik while I recovered from the shock of seeing myself being born, telling him to gather the others and meet us in here. I open my mouth to respond to her questions, but she holds up a hand and digs her phone from her pocket.
“Wait. Let me get Aunt Bernie on the phone so you only have to explain once. She’ll help us figure out what it means.”
I already know what it means, but I simply nod and wait while she calls Bernadette. Even if I don’t need her help deciphering the vision, she may be able to help us figure out why the necklace called to me and why it showed me that particular event.
“Stephanie? Are you okay?” Bernadette’s voice echoes through the phone’s speakers after two rings.
“I’m fine, Aunt Bernie,” Steph says quickly. “You’re on speaker, and everyone is here.”
“Hello, everyone,” Bernadette says, her tone brusque. “What happened?”
Steph nods at me, and I clear my throat. “We went back to Terremagie yesterday. To the Grundelier village.”
“Yes, I know,” Bernadette replies. “Stephanie sent me some pictures of the sigils you found, and I’ve been researching their meaning. I only recognize a few of them, but the others…I don’t know. They look very old, and no one in my coven recognizes them. But I’ll find something. Worry not.”
“Did she tell you about the pendant?” I ask, lifting my gaze from the phone to meet Steph’s.
She shakes her head as Bernadette asks, “What pendant?”
“It wasn’t my place to say,” Steph says quickly. “I didn’t want to say anything if you wanted it kept secret.”
I nod at her in thanks, then look back down at the phone in her hand. “I felt it calling to me. Something irresistible and unavoidable. It was under a floorboard that looked like it had been replaced sometime in the last century. Like someone put it there for me. A large ruby set in filigreed silver, surrounded on one side by tiny diamonds. It looks really old, and when I touched it…”
Silence hangs for a beat as my words trail off, prompting Bernadette to ask, “What happened?”
“I knew it was mine,” I whisper.
Jesse’s hand slides into mine and he squeezes it while saying, “I think it’s spelled to attract her. She can’t stop obsessing over it, and when I left the room, she put it on and had another vision.”
“What did you see?” Bernadette asks, her voice low and raspy.
I explain the scene, the modern touches, the Green Day t-shirt. That the man called the woman Evie, and what the midwife said about the hospital being too dangerous. When I finish, Bernadette remains quiet for a few moments. The others crowded around watch me while we wait, then glance back down as Bernadette clears her throat.
“So, you saw your own birth.”
“That’s the conclusion we came to, yes,” Jesse says after Steph’s gasp echoes off the walls around us.
“And your parents were fully aware of what they were, or what your mother was, at the very least, and what you would become.”
“But…why?” I ask, my voice edged with hysteria. “Why would they do that? Why would they abandon me like that?”
“I’m sorry, Eden. I do not know,” Bernadette replies in a soft, comforting voice. “But we will figure it out. And we’ll also figure out who left the necklace in that cabin, and if it is actually spelled to attract you, or anyone of Grundelier blood. I will not rest until we solve this. I promise you that.”
I swallow against the lump in my throat and nod even though I know she can’t see me. Steph thanks her aunt before assuring her we’re being safe. Jesse pulls me into his arms, hugging me close as Steph wraps up the call, then I see her freeze in my peripheral vision as she sucks in a sharp breath.
“Oh, wait. I need to tell you something else.”
I pull out of Jesse’s embrace to look at her, and she shoots me an apologetic look.
“What is it?” Bernadette asks.
“We had some visitors earlier. Two teenage witches from the Sabledown coven. They said they overheard the elders talking about us being in town and searching for answers about the Grundeliers. They warned us to watch our backs. That the Brimmwise coven isn’t too happy with us being here, or that a witch is helping a bunch of vampires. And when they realized Eden is a hybrid, they called her an abomination.”
“You should come home,” Bernadette says, and I can hear the panic and fear in her voice.
