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The woman tsked. “I can hear your heart, you frightened witch. I can also taste your magic, sweet and hot,” she said. “But you need not be frightened. I don’t wish to hurt you.”

Evelyn found no comfort in the haunting woman’s words, and Kade’s sudden disappearance unnerved her. Was he all right? She stepped back again, hoping to find the narrow path, but her back hit a solid wall. She swiveled around, the fog dense and dark. She tried to step out of the perimeter of the cottage but again hit a wall. Goddess, had the fog been enchanted? Who had done it?

Evelyn took a deep breath, stifling her fear. She was alone and trapped, but she couldn’t allow whomever she faced to sense her doubt. She set her shoulders back and asked, “Who are you?”

The woman’s head twitched again, her lips spreading into a frightening smile. Pointed teeth, thin as needles, gleamed. “I’m the White Lady.”

Evelyn remembered McKenna’s journal, along with Aster’s translation. This word here means “white.” She writes it often, followed by another word I can’t translate. The missing word was “lady.”

“You knew McKenna,” Evelyn said. “You taught her magic.”

The White Lady sneered. “Oh, McKenna McCarthy, what a troublesome young girl, but with such gorgeous eyes.”

Her smile sickened Evelyn. How had this woman managed to teach McKenna magic? Had she been the one to kill her? Signs had pointed to a vampyr as the killer, but there had always been a different edge of darkness surrounding the murders, one Evelyn and Kade had yet to figure out. The witches’ creed and missing body parts had stumped them because it wasn’t usual vampyr behavior. What if—

Evelyn assessed the cottage, searching the details more closely. She’d been so busy looking for clues regarding Sheila’s murder, she’d missed the signs. The markings above the door were scorched words of the witches’ creed, and the plants growing around the front weren’t just any weeds, but nettles.

“You’re a witch,” Evelyn said.

The cottage walls shook, rustling the trees inside. The White Lady hissed, baring her needle-like teeth, her eyes blazing with anger.

“You claim to not know my story, Daughter of the Goddess.” The White Lady’s voice boomed.

Evelyn shook her head and took a brave step forward, tired of the woman’s antics.

“I’m not here for your story. I’m here to learn more about the deaths of McKenna, Fiona, and Sheila.”

A sound, much like a wheeze and laugh, shrieked from the woman. “Are you saying you actually care about what happened to them? You’re a liar. Like all witches. From what I hear, you’re a spoiled and selfish runaway witch who abandoned her people. I know what you are, Evelyn Carson.”

The White Lady’s words stung, no matter how much Evelyn tried to ignore the insane woman’s taunts. It was an echo of the beliefs she harbored about herself, rooted deep within her bruised heart.

The cottage shuddered again like something large pushed to be unleashed. The stillness of the cliffs resonated in the thickness of the fog as if the world had transformed to a darker, more sinister dimension far from the cheer and charm of Callum.

Beady red eyes raked over her. “You fail and hurt the ones around you, don’t you?”

Evelyn said nothing, a retort laden on her tongue, but images of her parents’ mutilated bodies haunted her. Kade’s judgement when he’d learned she’d lost her flame yanked at her heart. The hope radiating from her sisters before she ran away sank her stomach. All the deaths of the young women in Callum made her feel worthless.

You’re nothing without your flame.

Evelyn was empty, unable to meet anyone’s expectations. She couldn’t be the daughter her parents believed her to be. She’d never be the partner Kade needed. Or the Daughter of the Goddess her sisters hoped for.

The White Lady’s smile only widened at Evelyn’s internal turmoil. “After all these years, witches haven’t changed, have they? I wanted to save our people, set us free, and defeat the humans long ago, but my people, your people, condemned me. Tried to destroy me.”

Which meant The White Lady was a witch. Evelyn thought of McKenna’s journal, the woman’s sickly appearance, and the wrongness in the air. Witches would only condemn another witch if—

Why hadn’t Evelyn thought of it before? The missing body parts. The possibility of a spell. Vampyrs didn’t have magic, and they’d assumed one had banded together with the faeries to make use of it. She’d never considered those who did have magic.

“You found dark magic,” Evelyn whispered.

The woman tsked. “You catch on quick, Daughter of the Goddess. But yes, my coven called it dark magic, too. You know what I call it? Freedom. I could’ve defeated the humans, even the vampyrs, if my coven hadn’t banished me.”

“You’re lying.”

The White Lady blinked, slow and unnatural, her head tilting to assess Evelyn. “Why would I lie?” She spoke with deadly calm.

Evelyn channeled her magic just to the surface, and it hovered at the ready. Even if her flame did not arise, she at least needed her innate magic. “You want me to doubt my people.”

“But you already doubt your people, or you would’ve told them your secret. You ran from a prophecy that declared you their savior against the so-called ‘darkness.’ I think you doubt quite well enough without me needing to spew lies. What I want is to enlighten you. Show you the possibilities, and that your doubt in your people is not misplaced.”