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“They motioned and lured,” Kit says. “So we need to make sure we hear something before we follow.”
“Also be aware there might be more to it,” I say. “Going after Kit on the bluff made sense, but for Sadie to honestly have thought Kit wanted her to run away with him seems a bit…”
“Delusional?” Jayla says. “And Garrett not questioning why Sadie was suddenly fine is definitely delusional. Seeing what they wanted to see, and some magic preventing them from questioning it.”
“So there are illusions that will lead us away,” Kit says. “Also the dead aren’t dead. Was Sadie dead? Could anyone tell?”
“We saw her breathing near the end,” I say. “I also caught a glimpse of her—the real her. She snapped back after attacking Madison, and she was horrified. That’s why she ran.”
“So something was possessing her when she attacked Madison?” Jayla asks.
“I think so,” I say. “I saw it in the forest too, before Sadie threw me into that tree. She had a dislocated shoulder, yet she grabbed me hard enough to leave these.” I show the bruises on both my forearms. “Then she threw me into a tree with enough force to embed a branch in my shoulder.”
“Superhuman strength,” Kit murmurs.
“It talked to me,” I blurt.
Both Kit and Jayla’s heads whip my way.
“I—I know I should have mentioned it,” I say. “I thought it was Sadie speaking. Then after I found Sinclair and Rossi, I realized it might have been whatever… entity is doing this. I was going to say something, and then Garrett was here, and I… didn’t need that.”
“What did it say?” Kit asks.
“That I owed it. I’d made an oath and broken it. I knew if I saidthat in front of Garrett, he’d have…” I flail. “Thrown me out the door to appease it. He already thought someone summoned a demon. And before either of you asks—”
“You only summoned a tiny demon?” Jayla says. “In return for publishing your book?”
“If I’d made a blood oath for that, I’d have asked for a helluva lot bigger advance. But that’s exactly the kind of thing Garrett would have thought—that I made a deal with the devil for literary fame and fortune. Or I summoned a demon to torment my ex-husband.”
“I have been tormented,” Kit says. “Company profits post-pandemic are down five percent. The shareholders are not happy.”
Jayla shakes her head. “If Laney ordered demonic torture, it’d have been that every instrument you touch is out of tune forever. Or that your underwear is permanently itchy.”
“True,” Kit says. “Although, if she wanted me to pine for her eternally, that might explain a few things.”
Jayla rolls her eyes. “That’s just you, goof.”
“No demon summoning or deals with the devil,” I say. “In case that isn’t perfectly obvious.”
“It is,” Jayla says. “You wouldn’t do anything like that even if you believed it was possible. But what about other kinds of oaths or promises? To what seemed like an ordinary person? Or shouted into the universe, where some entity heard and took you up on the offer.” She pauses and mutters, “I can’t believe I just said that.”
“I can say, with absolutely certainty, that I have not made any promises that might have landed in the ear of an evil entity.”
“Wishes?” she asks.
“No wishes to a monkey’s paw. No wishes to a djinn. I do wish on falling stars and birthday candles and wishing wells. And I have wished to be published, many times, but in the last few years…” My tone drops as I shrug. “All my wishes were for Anna, which obviously didn’t come true.”
Kit moves to sit beside me, and I lean against him.
Jayla shakes her head. “If falling-star and wishing-well and birthday-candle wishes could summon demons, I’d be one of the few people left alive. I don’t believe in that shit.”
“I’ve been racking my brain for hours,” I say. “Even before I realized it wasn’t Sadie talking to me. But it’s not as if I randomly go around making rash promises to strangers or setting up hex circles in my basement.”
“Oh!” Kit says, straightening. “What if it’s not about Laney? It’s about her house. This is her house, her island. Those idiots copied hex circles and other nonsense they found online. But it really did something, really did summon or wake something—and, yes, I also can’t believe I’m saying this—but it summoned or woke some dark entity, and that entity thinks Laney is responsible.”
“Because it’s her property.” Jayla looks at me. “You researched the stagings. The one on the crawlspace hatch was a real hex circle.”
“Real in the sense they didn’t make it up,” I say. “It came from some old grimoire, but it was just meant to ward people away. Bad luck to those who trespass.”
