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Slamming her bedroom door shut, Ágota tilts her head in a thoughtful manner. “I am willing to try as long as they are not related by blood, do not have a despicable nature, or are hideously ugly.”

“So you do have standards,” I tease.

With a playful snarl, she sits in a chair set near her desk. “This from the girl who has loved only one boy and plans to marry him.”

“My fate was chosen for me when I was young. I am merely fulfilling my destiny.”

“So you do not love him after all.”

“Albrecht is my love. I will never love another,” I vow with the arrogance of youth.

“Yes, you will,” Ágota grumbles, flicking her long fingers at me so sparkles of magic fill the air. “I can see it.”

“No, I will not.” I bestow her with an arrogant smile. “You are wrong. Albrecht is my great love.”

Leaning toward me, Ágota fastens her glimmering green eyes on me in a way that makes me uneasy. Her magic swirls around me before dissipating. I sense she is withholding something from me. “Erjy, you might believe that to be true at this moment, but time will change so much. Which is why I am doing all of this. For you.” Waving her hand toward the top of the table, she slumps down in her chair. “I will always protect you, even if you resist.”

The surface is littered with parchment paper. Curious, I move closer to scrutinize what she has been doing all these days while locked away. The arcane symbols, illustrations, and mathematics confound me, but I piece together bits and pieces of what she is attempting.

My sister regards me with a stare that is a bit intimidating.

“Do you understand any of it, Erjy?”

“These are for the gateway you wish to create.”

With a nod, she leans one elbow on the desk and leans her head against her closed fist.

“I already told you and Balázs it is not necessary!” I glower at her, furious that they are so insistent on controlling my life.

With a grunt, she folds her arms across her bosom and returns my glare. “I do not wish to argue with you again, Erjy. You know why I must establish this doorway.”

“You once admitted that you see all different versions of my future dependent on the choices I make. I am about to be a noblewoman, which is one of the good futures you predicted.”

“That path has grown dark. If I do not open this portal, you may die!”

“Yet you cannot tell me the possible manner of my death,” I say, scoffing at her.

With a hiss, Ágota looks away from me. “No, though I have tried every spell possible to unveil all possibilities.”

Often she disappears for hours into her room clutching my mother’s book of spells. Sometimes she vanishes for the entire day into the surrounding woods only to return disheveled and carrying my mother’s bag. While I have been obsessed with preparing for my new life, she has been equally obsessed with saving mine.

“Did it ever occur to you that I will naturally die before you, Ágota? I am half-mortal. We may have hidden the truth from your father, but we cannot hide it from fate. One day I will die, probably long before you, and it will be in my home in Gratz. Maybe that is what you saw in your portent.”

“You cannot say that with any certainty, Erjy! You are half-witch. And that half is truly powerful. You may have our long lifespan, which means your death could be by more nefarious means!”

“Yet, you cannot say for certain. These are your fears speaking because of what happened to—”

“Do not mention our mother!”

“Why else would you be so afraid? Do you see other futures for me other than the ones that end in death?”

“Yes, but...” Ágota crosses her arms over her breasts, frowning. “I cannot be certain which path you are traveling. Therefore, I must protect you.”

“I refuse to be shackled to the coven,” I retort. “I will come when I can by horse and carriage as any noblewoman would to visit her family. Henrietta is becoming more powerful and can help defend the coven should Fülöp ever be so unwise as to attack here.”

“Why must you be so stubborn?”

“I will not have you risking yourself for a portent you have misread! You are terribly protective of me to your own detriment.”