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I sprinted back to the car and threw myself through the still-open door.
“Nobody’s here, let’s go!” I gasped.
“Shouldn’t… shouldn’t we wait for—” Eva began.
“No! We’ve lost enough time as it is! I texted them to meet us there. Just drive, Nova, please!”
Nova didn’t argue but threw the car into drive and peeled out into the road again. The gravel crunched under the tires, and the rain began to pick up, battering against the windshield as the lighthouse came into view.
I’d half-expected to see the painting come to life, with Mom, Bernadette, and the Gray Man standing on the rocks at the base of the lighthouse; but of course, they weren’t there. The only signs of life, as Nova slammed on the brakes and threw the car into park, was a flickering golden light from the windows—someone had lit the lamps.
I leapt out of the car, and was halfway to the lighthouse’s door, when I stopped suddenly, and turned.
“You… you don’t have to come in with me. I don’t know what’s—”
“Obviously we’re coming!” Zale said.
“Yeah, we didn’t come all this way to abandon you!” Eva said, sounding almost offended.
I looked at Nova, who lifted her chin, marched right past me, and shoved open the lighthouse door in reply.
We all gaped around at the intricacies of the circle, of the sigils and markings that had been scrawled all over the inner walls of the lighthouse.
“This is some seriously dark shit,” Eva muttered, and I could hear a tremor in her voice. She caught my eye, and I saw the fear reflected there. “We shouldn’t be here.”
Even as she said it, I could feel it: a low hum of energy that sent goosebumps skittering up my arms and made my palms clammy with sweat. She was right; we shouldn’t be here, and yet, here we were. Everything we’d found, everything we’d done, had led us here—for better or for worse, and there was no turning back now, at least not for me.
“I can’t leave, Eva,” I said, hardly knowing how true the words were until they fell from my lips, so heavy with intent that I could not take them back again. “You guys go if you want to. I dragged you into this, there’s no need for you to—”
“Hey, wait just a damned minute!” Zale snapped, looking frankly offended. “None of us got dragged here, we chose to be here!”
“That’s right!” Eva said, firing up as well. “You think we’re just gonna leave you here to face…whatever the hell all this is? You must be out of your mind.”
“Look, no offense, seriously,” Nova added quietly, “but you have no idea what you’re doing. You’ve never properly worked magic before. You need us. And besides,” she added, taking a deep breath, “this is partly my fault. I knew Bernadette was up to something, and I let my own complex about the Second Daughters cloud my judgment. I could have stopped this, and I didn’t. If anyone should stay, it’s me.”
“Why are we even still talking about this?” Eva hissed, exasperated. “We’re sticking together, okay? None of us is going to leave now, not after what we’ve seen.”
“My thoughts exactly,” said a quiet, cracked voice behind us.
We whirled around. While we’d been arguing, someone had been slowly and silently pulling the door shut behind us. As we turned, it slammed into place, making all of us jump and cluster together like frightened animals. The speaker was still somewhat obscured in the shadows of the doorway, but then she stepped forward, white-blonde hair wild and wind-tangled about her face—
“Oh, Bernadette,” Nova murmured beside me, and I stole a glance at her heartbroken expression before turning back again to Bernadette, who was gazing at us with the strangest look on her face—one in which grief and triumph were at open war on her features.
“You found me. I knew you would. I knew…” she made a strange sound, half-gasp, half-giggle. Then her wide eyes filled slowly with tears. “You shouldn’t have come here. It’s very dangerous, you know.”
“You left us no choice,” I said, fighting to keep the tremor out of my voice.
“There’s always a choice,” she said, the words snapping out fiercely, almost defiantly, and I flinched back from her. Then she started, as if the words had surprised her, and more tears welled up into her eyes. “It’s true, you know. I did have a choice. Part of me had to decide.”
“Decide what?” I asked. “What are you talking about?”
She skittered forward on bare, bleeding toes, until she stood mere inches from us. I could have raised a hand and brushed the spray-dampened tendrils of hair from her face.
“I had to decide to serve him. To serve the Darkness.”
A wave slammed into the rocky skirt of the island, and the whole tower seemed to groan in protest. Nova shrieked. Zale let loose a string of expletives. Grit and dust were shaken loose from the wooden boards high above our heads, raining down like a storm.
“He is waiting,” she said, shuddering with something that might have been a thrill, and might have been fear. She gestured, and we turned to see the staircase leading into the upper chambers of the lighthouse. Zale let out a slightly hysterical bark of laughter.
