Page 83 of A Time of Witches

Of one thing, the old Puritan had indeed been correct. There was evil in the room that day.

And it was Mrs. Williams.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Lilith

Lilith stepped instinctively back from the man in the entryway of Brackenmere Manor, the man who would kill Sybil. Nausea churned in Lilith’s belly, that awful sense of being sucked into one of her dreams.

Her thoughts swam as the room darkened around the edges.

She clenched her hands into fists. She would not faint, not now.

A nudge at her shin made her look down to where Dragon swept figure eights around her legs. The action broke her gaze from the man, giving her a chance to breathe.

Restored, Lilith looked up as the scene played out in front of her, the birthmark at her arm practically burning as if shouting.

This. She needed to see this.

And Lilith saw it all: Sybil alone with the man in black, the magistrate, how intimately he pressed her until the dagger in her pocket finally made him back away. How the guards were abruptly called into the room and pulled Sybil’s hands forward to clasp in iron manacles.

The weight of those rasping manacles tugged at Lilith’s own wrists.

All at once, a subtle glow around Sybil that Lilith hadn’t noticed before winked out.

Jacinda was there, crying out in protest. The maids went to her, struggling to hold her back at Sybil’s insistence.

Her gaze found Lilith’s, those hazel depths filled with horror, with pleading. And though the other woman did not speak, Lilith heard the words clearly in her mind.

Save her.

The door slammed closed, and silence descended, stark with shock and fear.

A brown-haired maid named Anne led Jacinda upstairs.

The room flickered, like Lilith’s brain was short-circuiting between the past and the present.

The past came back clear once more, and Lilith followed, stopping before a door where muffled sobs were rife with a heartbreak that echoed in Lilith’s soul.

She knew the chasm loss opened inside a person, a yawning gap that couldn’t be filled. She’d experienced that pain when Daddy died.

Unable to stay away, she entered the bedroom, plush with blue velvet curtains framing the bed and a richly polished wardrobe and vanity. A bird sat on a stand near the window, its black eyes drilling into Lilith.

The past dimmed away and the present rose to the forefront, revealing a different four-poster bed, one that sank into itself, posts crookedly leaning to the center while the remnants of a mattress drooped to the floor.

Jacinda was a filmy apparition as she wept into a pillow at its center, back shuddering with the force of her sobs.

A metal bracelet sat heavy and dull on the small table beside her bed.

Another flicker of Lilith’s vision and a dull pain bloomed behind her eyes.

The past came into focus once more and Jacinda sat up, swollen tear-stained eyes fixed on Lilith. “You knew this was going to happen.”

Lilith nodded, knowing she had been lured to the manor for help before even anyone knew help was needed.

“How do I recognize you?” Jacinda bit her lip. “I’ve seen you…” She shook her head as though trying to clear it. “Like in a dream remembered out of order.”

“I’m Lilith and I have spoken with you before.” Lilith hesitated, knowing how strange her words were. “I keep seeing the same day over and over, as if I’m meant to notice something.”