Page 97 of A Time of Witches

Sybil had asked then if the shackles remained clasped around her friend’s ankles. The guard confirmed those heavy iron cuffs had been removed.

At this, Sybil’s spirits lifted somewhat.

Edith had died with the hum of the earth in her heart, radiating in her soul, drawing her into an eternal embrace. In these last moments before Edith’s death, she had been allowed to revel in life.

Even with such knowledge, Edith’s loss was a blow. To the entire prison, but especially to Sybil. She had lost one of her dearest friends, a light in a world of darkness. Whatever future Sybil faced was mean and bleak and empty.

In the quiet hours of early morning, when the ember of loss burned in Sybil’s chest, something warm slipped into her hand. She looked down and found the little girl had clasped hands with her and gazed up with large, sorrowful eyes.

That comfort, given by a child who had so little consolation of her own, was nearly Sybil’s undoing.

Sometime in the night, Sybil finally drifted off to sleep, but was awoken by a tingling at her right arm.

Her awareness pricked with recognition, with understanding that, despite the barrier of the iron shackles, her body had been imbued with the power of the earth.

She pulled up the sleeve of her shift where a beam of moonlight revealed a strange mark on her forearm, just below the crook of her elbow. A strawberry-colored crescent moon.

In the back of her mind came the clang of a warning bell.

This was no ordinary enchantment. Not when its power transcended the iron dulling the earth from reaching Sybil.

This was something that went against the earth’s gifts.

Something forbidden.

Something only a daughter of the earth could accomplish if she had extraordinary power.

Jacinda.

What had she done?

Chapter Forty-Six

Lilith

The hairs on Lilith’s arms rose as she read the next passage in the grimoire.

What I have done is forbidden.

I embarked on my endeavor knowing its wrongness, both through what I have read here in the grimoire and the stark emptiness inside me when I created the enchantment. My request was too great.

And yet, my power is also great.

Was great.

I defied the bounds of our gifts. The power in me wanes already, an atrophy that began the moment the incantation left my lips. It is the cost of my actions.

And yet, seeing Edith die… I could not allow such a fate to befall Sybil.

Lilith, if you read this, you were correct: You must save Sybil.

This is your destiny. A path laid out before you by me—a path you marked as surely for me to find when you led me to this hidden room. An endless spiral through time, the two of us tangled in the same fate.

One where I lose the earth’s power, a worthy sacrifice to save Sybil. One where you must save a life or risk your very existence.

One where our legacy is at risk if I have set you up to fail.

Lilith, I am aggrieved that you must be ensnared in this destiny with me. It is my hope that you will someday read this passage.