How had I not realized that last night’s altered dream had been a warning?
Never mind. There was no time to waste on self-recriminations. I turned back to the cabinet and opened the next lock with a vengeful twist of the key. “Just keep my students safe—anddo notallow anyone, no matter how powerful she might be, to wander off on her own for any reason! Annabel may well have summoned this creature herself, but if she didn’t, then the real culprit is still hiding amongst us. She’ll never dare summon it for another attack if she’s surrounded by observers, though. So I’d keep everyone in one place until Wrexham or Mr. Westgate return, and then—”
“Stop!” Amy’s hand closed around my arm, wrenching me around to face her furious expression. “Cassandra,stop. Take a moment to think about what you’re doing!”
“I don’thavea moment to waste!” The words broke out of my chest like a cry of pain, nearly shattering the careful shield I’d built for myself ever since Luton had first spoken. Ineededthat shield to do what had to be done next—but it was nearly impossible to maintain it as Amy glared at me with hurt and fear in her beloved brown eyes.
“Why do you think Wrexham’s trapped in there?” I demanded, flexing my fingers restlessly by my sides. “He went in there because of me. He was trying to protectme!”
I could see it all so clearly. He’d sworn to leave the estate at dawn—so, as soon as I’d fallen safely asleep in his arms, he must have carefully disentangled himself and set off into the woods to investigate our fey menace for himself before the agreed-upon deadline could arrive.
All day, as I’d taught classes and managed one crisis after another, he’d been imprisoned in my woods, tangled and helplessbecause of me.
Westgate had been right about everything.
“He went in there to protect you, you say?” Jonathan’s voice rose from a near-whisper to a bellow. “Then how do you think he’d feel about you running in there after him andkilling yourself?”
“I don’t care!” I shouted back at my brother, as the last shards of my shield collapsed entirely. “I can’t sit here and do nothing while that creature tortures and murders him! Could you, if Amy were the one sitting in those woods right now?” I turned to her, my breath coming in shallow pants. “What of you? Would you sacrifice Jonathan only to keep yourself safe?”
“No oneneeds to be sacrificed tonight! And no one will be.” Amy’s eyes were still wide and panicked, but her voice rang like law through the room. “I mean it, Cassandra Harwood.” She crossed her arms. “I am the head of this family, and Iwill notallow you to throw yourself away like this.”
I gave an involuntary laugh—but it came out as a sob, jagged pain twisting through my chest. In all the years of our sisterhood, we had never once suffered life-altering conflict with each other. No matter what crises we had faced—no matter which blows the external world had flung at either of us—we had always stood unflinchingly by each other’s sides.
“Amy,” I said, “you shouldknowme by now. When have I ever followed any rules I disagreed with?” I took a deep, unhappy breath as I slowly crossed my own arms and planted my feet more solidly on the ground. “And how exactly do you imagine you could stop me?”
Amy’s eyes narrowed. I set my jaw.
“Oh, for...!” Jonathan stalked across the room to step between us with a wordless snarl. “This is an idiotic argument. Cassandra, I’ll lock you up myself if it’s the only way to keep you here—and Wrexham would thank me on his knees for doing it. That man loves you far too much to want to trade your life for his!”
“I can cast a spell no matter where you trap me.” I kept my gaze fixed on Amy’s dangerously thoughtful expression. “No matter what it takes, Iwill notspend the rest of my life knowing that I didn’t doeverything I couldto save my husband.”
“Argh!” My gentle, soft-spoken older brother let out a near-roar of aggravation—and the door burst open behind him.
Miss Birch looked more wild than I had ever seen her. Thin green streaks stretched like veins across the pale skin of her hands and throat, and her hazel eyes sparked with hot golden flecks. No one who saw her now could be in any doubt of the heritage she normally kept so carefully hidden.
“It’s gone,” she said. “That creature took it!”
“‘It?’” I blinked, shifting my attention warily away from Amy’s brooding expression. “If you’re referring to Mrs. Renwick—”
“Nother.” Miss Birch swept her hand through the air in contemptuous dismissal—and staggered heavily, losing her balance.
“Miss Birch!” Amy, Jonathan and I all started forward at once.
“Oh, I’m well enough.” Catching herself without assistance, my housekeeper shook her head impatiently. “That creature crashed through my shields so hard, I was on my back and out of my senses for a good long while. But I’m back to work now, and if he or she imagines I’ll cower away in fear like a worm—!” She glowered fiercely at all three of us.
“Of course not!” Jonathan said hastily. “No one could ever be so foolish. But mayn’t I please pull out a chair for you? Just for a moment, for your comfort?”
“Who cares for comfort? I’ve been trying to tell you, that ring, the one from the cursed altar—”
“Altar?” Amy repeated blankly.
She and Jonathan exchanged a mystified look. He shrugged.
“You hadn’t told them about it?” Miss Birch’s eyebrows shot up. “I thought we were only keeping it secret from those inspectors.”
I flinched as Amy and Jonathan both turned on me. “I hadn’t had an opportunity yet,” I muttered to all three of them.
The fog of disbelief and unspoken reproach that rose around me at that statement was thick enough to choke upon.
