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I rip off the bandage. “All of these things are related. The box? Littered with the same symbols etched into my skin. The Grimoire? Back cover. Same as my fucking skin. Whoever came after us that night is back. We’re in danger.”

Vivian shudders. “How do you know?”

“After asking me about the book, Stafford was worried that someone might realize I was connected. I need to know what happened that night, Viv.”

After a long pause she speaks. “That night was so crazy that at first, I thought I was actually having a nightmare. It was so cold. I couldn’t breathe. When Killian hugged me and told me not to let your hand go, that’s when I knew it was all real. That’s when I knew they were going to die. That he wasn’t coming with us.”

I feel angry tears welling up in my eyes. “Killian said that?” He lied to me. He acted like he was right behind me, and when I saw him still at the house I tried to tell myself he went back. But the entire time Vivian knew he was staying behind. “You lied to me.”

“No, I was scared, and the only person I have is you. I knew he was going to die, but I also knew if I said something you would leave me, too.”

“I wouldn’t have.” I would.

“Quit, Josie. You’re hardheaded and you’re brave. You would have been right there with him trying to save the boy who told you he loved you.”

I want to argue and say she’s wrong, but she’s not. “I’m sorry, Viv. You’re right. You did the right thing.” I look into her eyes. I want her to know that I mean it. There was no way I could have saved them. I didn’t know what I was capable of until it was ripped out of me.

“We took that tunnel, and all I could think was ‘They’re going to die. Don’t stop. Don’t look back’. Then you did because you’ve never listened to anyone except yourself. I’m not angry with you. It’s just a fact.”

I nod in agreement.

“I was so horrified and sickened when Kate’s throat was slit, but I’ve already lost the person I loved most. I watched my mother die. So when I saw that Killian was going to be murdered, I was desperate to keep you from seeing it, too.” Tears begin to slip from her eyes.

“You fought me so hard. When you looked at the aftermath, I did, too. It was so gruesome and disturbing. I tried to get a grip and bring myself back to reality to console you and urge you on. Then you started laughing. Grief does weird things to people. I know that. But your laugh was so unnatural, ethereal, even. The earth started shaking, and the ground beneath you cracked. I covered my ears because I didn’t know what to do, and it was all too much.” Her voice is full of anguish, and her tears drip onto the counter.

“When the fire started, I knew it was you. I screamed. I begged you to stop, but you couldn’t hear me. Then you…When you turned to look at me… I saw…I saw a monster,” she admits, losing her resolve. “Your eyes were just two shiny black holes in your head, and blood was streaming from them like tears. Your scars had torn open and were bleeding. When you collapsed, I thought I’d lost you.”

“Are you sure that’s what you saw?”

“Yeah,” she sneers. “I’m sure.”

“I mean the eyes.” The dread has twisted through my chest and is creeping up my neck. The man’s eyes that have always been in my nightmares. Terrifying eyes. The same sharp beady eyes in the drawing of the Leviathan.

“Yes, it haunted me for a long time after that.”

“Was that…” I hesitate but decide to push on. “Was that Magic?”

“I’ve seen witch Magic, Jo, and that wasn’t it.” She reaches across the counter, and instead of taking my hand she traces the scars on my arm. “All those nights I overheard my mother and Kate. Their arguments were almost always the same. I was a little kid and kids don’t understand the shit they overhear.”

“What did they argue about?” I prod her. She pulls her hand away and sags against the counter, looking into my eyes with worry.

“I think it was you.”

“Why?”

“She said the Hoyas would return and give us Hope. That they would bring about a new age and save our people. Kate insisted that the last oracle told it.”

“What did your mom say?”

“She would tell Kate that we were better off leaving them in the deep.”

“That’s what she said?” My mind has snapped back to reality, erasing every thought about Aedon or anything else for that matter.

“She said it a dozen times. The Lethe, Jo. The deep. You came from the deep. Maybe…”

Vivian’s mother clearly had her own interpretation, and it wasn’t good. This just proves that Kate knew what she was doing all that time. I have a feeling Viv will dress it up. She’ll romanticize it. I’m nothing more than some sort of key to the box, and I don’t want to open it.

“Don’t you see?” She implores me when she sees I don’t agree. She can develop her own ideas and feelings. Who am I to control her mind? But it doesn’t mean that I have to join her.