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It had a false bottom.

She quickly threw the contents of the trunk out onto the floor and removed the bottom altogether. There, underneath, was the wooden box from her vision. She quickly went to open it, but found it was locked. Quietly, feeling for the metal components she Knew were inside, she whispered her spellword.

{ Clavis }

The box opened in her hands, and there, laid in the center, was the amulet.

The description of it provided to her by Ty did not do it justice, nor what she’d seen of it in her vision.

It was beautiful. The uncut amethyst in its center was a deep purple, so dark it was almost black.

Looking into the stone, it felt endless.

Like she could fall into its void and keep sinking, sinking, sinking forever.

The color drained from the stone as it reached the edges, leaving it a pale white-purple where it met the circular silver setting that surrounded it.

The setting shone as if it had been recently buffed, and was etched with those four confusing symbols, just as she’d seen in her vision.

The braided silver chain it hung on was long and intricately made, and if she were to touch it, she Knew it would feel as delicate as hair.

Ena was so enthralled by its beauty and power, she did not notice that the sounds of Ty frantically searching the room had stopped. As she moved to touch it, his voice jolted her out of her trance.

“Ena,” he said quietly behind her. “You found it.”

She turned around to face him, still holding the box. She stared at him, and he at her. Some unspoken communication transpired between them, and his brow furrowed. He looked down at the box in her hands and extended his hand towards her.

“Give it to me, Ena,” he said, his voice low with warning. Then, after a beat, he added gently, “Please.”

Fear and vulnerability shone in his eyes. His beautiful eyes. Ena stared at him for a moment, frozen. Part of her wanted to give him the amulet, despite everything, if only to see him happy. If only to wipe away that deep look of concern and desperation that had settled on his face.

But she knew she couldn’t do that. She couldn’t stray that far from Gaia, not after everything she’d already done. This was the end of the road for them. She couldn’t let him and his people take the amulet. She had to protect her Coven, and everyone else, from them.

So she picked up the amulet, and slipped it around her neck.

She couldn’t exactly say why she did it.

She figured Ty could overpower her and take it if he really wanted to, but somewhere in the back of her mind, she also knew that amulets were made by witches, for witches, and that they held enormous power.

And something about this amulet seemed to recognize her as one of its own.

It called her to use it, wear it, own it.

Putting it on felt as easy as breathing.

The instant the stone fell upon her chest, Ena’s vision went white.

***

Images came to her, quick and disjointed.

She saw faces she didn’t recognize. She saw a moonless sky and a darkened forest.

Three women were holding hands, standing in a sacred circle. They chanted spellwords she’d never heard as they surrounded another woman kneeling on the ground.

The kneeling woman was bloodied and weeping. Ena felt her fear and her guilt. She saw the tears track down her face, leaving lines in the dried blood there.

She saw an athame drag across someone’s wrist—she couldn’t tell whose. Then she saw the blood collecting in a golden chalice. Ena’s wrist burned as if her own had been slit. It hurt , and her vision was blurred.

She saw the amulet. It somehow seemed to glow in the moonless night as one of the women, one of the witches, held it by the chain and dipped into the chalice until it was covered in blood.

She heard the kneeling woman beg for mercy as the amulet was placed over the head of one of the witches—a brown-haired woman with gray streaks, her blue eyes impassive and cold. She felt the woman’s disdain and hatred for the kneeling woman as if it were her own.

Then the kneeling woman screamed as if her heart was being ripped from her body, and Ena screamed too. She watched the woman collapse on the ground as the amulet stopped glowing.

The brown-haired woman smiled as she removed the amulet from around her neck, and Ena felt her satisfaction. She turned to hand it to one of the other women who’d been chanting. She had pale-blonde hair and hazel eyes. Ena felt her wariness and concern.

She saw the three women leave the forest, abandoning the body of the woman who had kneeled. The woman was still alive, she was breathing, but something seemed…different about her. Something seemed less .

Finally, she saw the amulet, sitting innocuously in the box she’d found it in, and as the lid snapped closed, Ena’s reality returned to her.

***

She lay on the floor, staring up into Ty’s face.

“Ena?” he asked frantically, his voice tight with fear. He stroked her hair from her face. “Can you hear me now? Are you okay?”

Clutching her head, she sat up and looked down at her chest to find the amulet gone.

“What the fuck was that? What happened?” Ty asked, still searching her body as if he could find a physical wound.

“I—I don’t know,” Ena said as she looked around. They were still in the altar room. Everything had been turned over, and she lay on the ground next to the trunk she’d found the amulet in.

“Did you see something? Your eyes they…went white. And you were screaming. You didn’t respond to me and then you collapsed on the floor.”

“I… Where’s the amulet?” she asked, suddenly realizing that it was gone.

“I took it off you,” Ty said harshly, as if this was obvious. “It was hurting you.”

Ena’s mind frantically tried to understand what had happened, what she’d just seen.

It must have been a vision, triggered by the power of the amulet.

She knew that visions were possible, but extremely rare.

They were usually sent by Gaia herself and would occur in sacred spaces or when someone came into contact with a sacred object.

But what had it been a vision of? The past? The future? Because she saw the amulet end in the box she’d just found it in, she had to assume it was the past. What had they been doing? Ena wasn’t entirely sure, but whatever it was had felt…wrong. So wrong.

Whatever it was, she Knew it was an abomination of Gaia’s power.

Ena looked up at Ty again. “Tell me why you need the amulet, Ty.”

Ena had never asked him directly, not since that first night. But after everything she’d just seen, everything she’d just felt, she needed to know. Something horrible had occurred, and Ena had a feeling there was much more to this amulet than she had originally assumed.

He shook his head. “Now is not the time. We have to go. You made a lot of noise when you screamed, and we need to get out of here before we are found.”

At that moment, Steig and Turner came bursting into the room, weapons drawn.

“What the fuck is going on? Did you find the amulet? We heard Ena scream.” Steig glanced furiously between the two of them, his brow furrowed in confusion.

“Yes, I have it, but we can talk about it later. We need to move now before we’re discovered,” Ty replied, dragging Ena to standing.

With Ty’s arm around her waist, they fled the room. As they ran through the hallway, Ena caught a brief glimpse of the girls in the sitting room, still peacefully asleep on the floor. They flew down the stairs into the cellar, then erupted out of the door and into the night.

Worrying less about keeping to the shadows, they moved as quickly as they could back through the village the way they had come.

Once they hit the sand past the village, they started running. They tore over the dunes they had crossed coming here, their energy renewed with adrenaline. Ena’s mind whirled, trying frantically to process everything she’d seen in spite of her fear.

They were all thoroughly out of breath by the time they reached the cliff above which they’d tethered their horses.

Ena struggled to scramble up it, sliding down several times, until Ty, already at the top, offered a hand to pull her up.

Steig and Turner quickly mounted their horses as Ty turned to Ena, reaching for her to place her on the horse, but she backed away.

“I’m not going any further with you until you tell me what in the Underworld is going on. Tell me why you all want the amulet.”

“I’m not leaving you, Ena, but we can’t talk about this here. Get on the horse,” Ty said, his tone brooking no argument.

“No!” Ena erupted. She was far too confused, too afraid. Her plan had fallen apart, again, and she didn’t have the amulet. There was no way she could get it from them now. But she needed to know what they wanted to do with it. Something was horribly wrong here. She needed to know now .

“Leave her, Ty. We need to go now!” Steig said, his horse stamping around, sensing his impatience.

“No!” Ty growled at him. “I said I’m not leaving her. She saw something back there when she put on the amulet. We need her.” He turned to Ena once more and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Ena, I promise I’ll tell you everything, but we need to get to safety first.”

Just then, they heard a commotion coming down the beach. Voices. Shouting. Ena saw torchlights coming over one of the dunes in the distance approaching them.

“Fuck!” Ty said. He pulled the amulet from his pocket and handed it to Steig. “Take this and go. Both of you. Now!”

Steig didn’t hesitate—he shoved the amulet into his own pocket and spurred his horse instantly into a gallop.

Turner glanced back at them, his face filled with unease, but then he, too, took off after Steig.

Ty moved to lift Ena onto the horse once more. She didn’t fight this time, and once she was seated, he climbed up behind her.

The sounds of pursuit were getting closer, but it wasn’t just the pursuers on the beach anymore. Ena turned to see several witches emerging from the woods around them. Then she heard a deep male voice speak.

{ Spiritus }

She felt the air leave her lungs in one fell swoop. She couldn’t breathe. She bent forward on the horse, panic setting in. She couldn’t breathe .

“Ena!” Ty shouted, his voice filled with fear.

{ Aqus } another voice said, and the horse collapsed underneath them, water sprouting from its nose and mouth as if it were drowning.

Ty leapt from the horse, removing his dagger. “Let her go right fucking now,” he said, his voice more menacing and dark than she’d ever heard it as he approached the male witch who had her under his spell.

“What did you do to my family?!” the male witch screamed.

Quicker than she could blink, Ty threw his dagger at the man. It struck him in the shoulder, causing him to fall to his knees and breaking his concentration on her. She felt her lungs fill with blessed air once more.

Ty removed the ax from his back as another female witch threw out her hands. The ground around them began to shake as the roots of the nearby trees grew and stretched like vines, reaching for Ty’s feet.

As they touched him, they turned to dust.

“He’s a daemon!” one of the other witches shouted.

{ Aeris } another one spoke, and the leaves began to swirl around them as the wind picked up into a fierce tempest. Ena could barely see in the dark as branches and rocks hit her face, scratching her, bruising her.

“Ty!” she yelled. She couldn’t see him anymore, but she could hear the sounds of a fight. Grunting and yelling. Someone screamed in pain.

She ran blindly toward where she’d seen him last, but a gust of wind threw her back. She felt a sharp pain at the back of her head and the cold earth on her cheek before everything went black.