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Thick branches encased the church like a cage. Its walls bowed in, splintering from the trees’ tightening grasp.
“We have to hurry,” Evie said.
Evie and Theta climbed the church steps and let themselves inside. The place had the feel of memory, too. Its existence was unreliable. One minute, there were ten pews; the next, there was only one. The pew had three blue hymnals stacked at the end, then they were all gone. Evie feared that if Addie stopped dreaming of this church, it would go up in smoke, and Evie and Theta with it.
An enormous oak had pierced the front of the church. Its muscular branches embraced Adelaide Proctor, holding her fast. They could see the pointed end of one poised above Miss Addie’s heart, ready to impale her if she moved.
“Miss Addie?” Theta said into the dark. At the sound of Theta’s voice, sun began to filter along the sides of the church through long, tall windows that had not been there before.
“Theta?” Miss Addie said on a thinning rasp.
“It’s me, Miss Addie. I’m here.”
“Theta, you… you must defeat him.”
“We’re trying, but we don’t have much time. We need your help.”
“If you destroy him, you destroy it all. He is the key,” Miss Addie said with great effort.
“So Sarah Beth wasn’t lying about that part,” Evie whispered to Theta.
r /> “Theta!” Miss Addie cried. “You must release me.”
“That’s why we’re here. Just tell us how.”
“You must perform a spell.”
“No, Miss Addie. I told you, I’m not a witch. I tried to bind Elijah and just made it worse.”
“But you are!”
“You’re the witch, Miss Addie. I’m a dancer who sometimes catches things on fire. We all have our gifts. I gotta learn to use mine. Okay?”
The trees roared. The church walls buckled from the pressure. The branch tip pressed against Miss Addie’s chest and she cried out.
“Memory, memory, memory,” Evie murmured, thinking. Her head snapped up. “What was this church to you, Miss Addie? What is its significance?”
“It was the place where we buried our dead,” Miss Addie said after a moment. “Elijah. My mother and two brothers. It was here that I realized fully what I had done. And now it is where he has me trapped. If I try to move away from it, it will come for me, and I shall be pierced through the heart.”
“She’s trapped herself here,” Evie said to Theta. “She’s built a prison from her guilt.”
Theta thought of Miss Addie wandering the halls of the Bennington, spreading salt in the hopes that she could protect everyone from some unnamed evil. But she’d also been trying to protect herself from her own regret and loss.
“Miss Addie. You can leave this place. You don’t have to stay,” Theta said to the older woman.
“But Elijah…”
“Elijah’s gone. He’s not coming back. And I’m pretty sure the Elijah you loved wouldn’t want you to keep suffering forever for what you did.”
“I never should’ve done it.”
“Time to let it go,” Theta said.
“How?”
Theta’s hands glowed orange. “Sometimes you just gotta burn something down so you can build something else in its place.”
The trees groaned in protest and squeezed, refusing to let go. A rafter fell and smashed a pew. The church would be crushed and Evie and Theta with it. But Theta Knight did not waver.
