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Was I simply picturing the scene as he spoke, or did I remember it? I couldn’t be sure, but I was mesmerized just the same. The Gray Man held out a hand, and I could feel the magnetic pull of it, the inherent temptation of the invitation.
“She—or should I say,you—came so willingly. No trace of fear, no hesitation. It was truly too easy. I did not lie to you, to convince you to accompany me. I did not have to. I whispered to you of your power, of the great things we could do with it together, and you whispered back, alight with possibility.”
“I was a child,” I finally managed to choke out. “Practically still a baby. I had no power then, only the potential for it, a potential I never reached, by the way. I’ve never successfully cast a spell on my own.”
“Children have much more knowledge of themselves and their potential than their elders do. You doubt and scoff now, but that is the effect of the world upon you. Once you whispered of your effect on the world. Once you knew your own power.”
I shook my head. “This is wrong. This is all wrong.”
“That day, you knew better. You came with me to the shore, hand in hand, with a single purpose. We would walk into the water together and we would emerge again as one.”
My stomach roiled at every twisted implication of his words. For a moment, I thought I might be sick, but then I barked out a hysterical laugh. “And then what? You and the super-charged toddler would rule the world? I didn’t realize one of the side effects of binding you here was insanity.”
My snark and skepticism did not even seem to register, as he plowed relentlessly on. “We would have succeeded were it not for your grandmother. Not only did she snatch you from the maw of the ocean, but she placed upon you a powerful spell of protection. I could not touch you then… could not find you.”
And it was my mother’s words that echoed through my memory now:When I came back, she had you in your own protective circle. You were soaking wet and smelled of the sea, and you were sound asleep. She wouldn’t tell me what happened, only that you were safe now.
“The protection would last as long as the witch who cast the spell lived. And then, your grandmother knew, you would be on your own.”
I didn’t want to believe him, but everything he was saying made terrible sense. Still, I shook my head. “No,” I whispered. “No.”
“You do not have to take my word for it—”
“Like I’d take your word about anything—”
“—because I am offering you the same choice tonight.”
The words buzzed around inside my head like a horde of burrowing insects. I swallowed, my mouth and throat suddenly desert dry.
“What do you mean?” The words were less than a whisper, but the Gray Man heard them nonetheless. I don’t even think I needed to speak aloud.
“I am offering you a choice. A trade if you will. I will release your mother. You will remain here with me.”
Where my heart had been pounding wildly a moment before, there seemed to be nothing but a cavernous emptiness inside my chest. “You’re lying,” I whispered. “If you let my mother go, the Covenant of the Three will be renewed. There will still be three Vesper witches in Sedgwick Cove. You will still be bound.”
The Gray Man’s face stretched into that warped suggestion of a smile again. “But I will have you, Little Bird: you are the one weapon I need to break that Covenant. With your power in my service, the Covenant will crumble regardless.”
“No, Sarah is the Daughter who tried to help you rise. She’s the one you want—”
“She is nothing. A lingering wraith of the veil. She has served her purpose, and now she will drift back into the obscurity she came from.”
I could have laughed. Sarah had put her trust in the Darkness, and Bernadette had put her trust in Sarah. And they’d both been used—betrayed—as anyone but they could have predicted. Sarah would not rise again to serve her master. Her service was over, and he would not reward her for it, especially now that he had what he wanted.
Which was… me? My head was spinning, my heart pounding. I couldn’t believe it, and yet all the details kept falling into place, like missing pieces of a puzzle—each one fitting perfectly to plug the gaping holes in my life. All but one: this great power he spoke of—how could that possibly be? I knew nothing of witchcraft. I’d never cast a single spell, and everything I’d tried to help my friends with, I’d only bungled and stumbled my way through. But maybe it didn’t matter because what choice did I have? If I refused, my mother would die. Sarah would take her over, and the Covenant of the Three would be broken. Sedgwick Cove would fall to the Darkness, and it would be all my fault. If I went with him… well, I couldn’t be entirely sure what would happen to me; but at least my mother would be safe, and Sedgwick Cove, too, because whatever he said, the idea of me having some great hidden power was the one piece that didn’t fit.
It wasn’t true. It couldn’t be. Every moment of my mediocre existence flew in the face of it.
My decision was made. I only had one question, and it fell from my lips in despairing tones. “How did you know I would come?”
“Mortals are slaves to the weakness of love—controlled by it like puppets on strings. What could be more predictable?”
“Love is not weakness,” I whispered.
He did not answer, his blank face merely tilted slightly, waiting.
I looked down at my mother’s soot-streaked face. I planted a tremulous kiss on her forehead. Then I turned back to him. “Let her out,” I said.
He inclined his head, and I felt the intense heat of the circle cool slightly. Trusting this meant she would be safe to pass through it, I swallowed a sob and, with a grunt of effort, heaved my mother’s weight away from me and right through the barrier. It swallowed her like a stone dropped into deep water. If I squinted, I thought I could see the shape of her, a dark heap on the ground just on the outside of our strange and silent cocoon. I turned back to the Gray Man.
