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“Like hell she will!” I cried.
“Absolutely not!” yelled Zale.
Nova flung out an arm, and we were startled into silence behind her. “You know we can’t just stand by and watch that happen, Bernadette,” Nova said, trying to sound very calm and logical. “Surely you understand that?”
Bernadette’s expression crumpled. Nova went on.
“You’re going to have to stop us from trying to help her. You’ve already threatened to poison us. Is this what you want? Is this really who you are, someone who sacrifices others to the Darkness against their will? Who would kill a bunch of kids, including a member of your own family, to make it happen?”
Bernadette’s whole body trembled as she listened to these words. I watched with almost reckless hope as doubt and fear and sadness chased each other across her features. “I… I don’t… want to hurt anyone… I…”
“That’s right,” Nova said, soothingly now. “Of course you don’t. That’s not who you are, Bernadette. Don’t forget who you are.”
“I…” Bernadette’s voice died on a sudden gasping intake of breath. She flung her hands up over her ears, as though trying to block out a sound none of us could hear. “I didn’t… please don’t be angry… I…” and then she flew to the mirror on the wall, pressing her face right to the glass, tears running over the apples of her hollowed cheeks as she sobbed. “No, it’s not true… I’m sorry… I… maybe we could do it without hurting anyone? Maybe there’s a way to…”
But then she stopped speaking. Her features in the mirror warped and twisted strangely, and though I could hear nothing, a bitter coldness blew through the room like an arctic wind, stealing a gasp right off my lips, and causing the four of us to pull together even more tightly. I threw a terrified glance at the candle still burning fretfully at my mother’s feet. It had not gone out. Yet.
Bernadette, meanwhile, was in the thrall of the mirror—and of Sarah. Hers was the face that was transforming Bernadette’s reflection, here narrowing an eye, here widening a cheekbone, there stretching one side of the mouth, until Bernadette was nothing more than one of her own paintings under a warped and cruel brush, making and remaking her features with every stroke, until I could hardly stand to watch any longer. The mouth of the reflection moved in a litany of silent persuasion that no one but Bernadette could hear. Nova was frozen in front of me, her mouth hanging open in silent horror. Thank God Eva had her shit together enough to realize this might be our only chance to say anything without being overheard.
“We’re going to have to find a way to break that circle,” she whispered. “Anyone have any ideas?”
“I know you’re not asking me.” I muttered helplessly. I could have screamed with frustration at my own uselessness.
“I don’t know what half of these sigils are,” Zale murmured back. “If we could get through the circle, we could protect your mom with a binding or something, but…”
“Yeah,” Eva murmured, and I could practically hear her wheels turning. “We could… could we bind her toherself,I wonder?”
“Would that work?” Zale hissed.
Eva shook her head minutely. “We’re in uncharted territory here, MacDowell. If the Darkness itself is behind all this, we’re probably screwed no matter what we try, so we might as well do something.”
“Please tell me someone has a plan, because I’m not sure how much longer I can spin this out, and I don’t think Sarah’s going to let her listen to us,” Nova whispered over her shoulder. We all looked over at Bernadette, who was now pleading tearfully with the reflection that was both hers and Sarah’s at the same time.
Under cover of her sobbing, Eva leaned forward and whispered into Nova’s ear. I caught the words “binding” and “mom” and something that sounded an awful lot like “last resort.”
“Will that work?” Nova muttered.
“No idea.”
“Awesome.”
At that very moment, Bernadette let out a howl of misery as she stumbled back from the mirror. The heel of one foot made contact with the perimeter of the circle, and I heard a distinct sizzling sound before she howled again, stumbling back toward the wall. She hit the stone hard, all the breath whooshing out of her; and then she slid down the wall, still sobbing, clutching at her foot. I saw that the back of her ivory ballet flat had been burned clean away, and that the skin on the back of her heel was blistered and raw. She couldn’t cross her own circle, I’d realized. Something about the spell was keeping her out. I wondered if she’d even been aware of it until that moment, for her face was eloquent with betrayal.
Under cover of all this chaos, Zale had begun surreptitiously casting the circle. I wondered how that was even possible, until my eye fell on the curve of the outer wall and I realized: we were in a circle already—the lighthouse itself. I watched his hand shoot out behind him, scattering a stealthy handful of salt on the floorboards, and he murmured under his breath.
“Wren,” Eva whispered.
“Yeah?”
“Do you still have that bottle Xiomara gave you?”
I fumbled with my back pocket and drew out the tiny bottle, keeping it hidden in my fist. “How did you know about that?”
“She’s been worried about you since you got here. I saw her preparing it for you. Do you have it?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. When I say so, use it.”
