CHAPTER 3

I was dead. That was really the only explanation I had for the sensation that I was lying in a comfy bed, cool, clean-smelling sheets pulled up to my chin, and a soft hand stroking my hair.

That was nice. Being dead seemed pretty sweet, all things considered. Especially if it meant I got to nap for all eternity. I snuggled deeper into the covers. The hand on my hair moved to my back, and I realized someone was singing softly. The voice was familiar, and something about it made my chest ache. Well, that was to be expected. Angels’ songs would be awfully poignant.

“‘I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar, when I met you…’” the voice crooned.

I frowned. Was that really an appropriate song for the Heavenly Host to be—

Realization crashed into me. “Mom!” I cried, sitting up. That was a mistake, because as soon as I did, agony exploded through my head.

Gentle hands eased me back onto the pillows, and suddenly she was there. Mom, leaning over me, her face etched with worry and streaked with tears, but looking so beautiful that I wanted to cry, too.

“This is real, right?” I asked, glancing around the room. It was tiny and dim, and smelled faintly woodsy, like cedar. Other than the bed and the cane-back chair next to it, it was completely bare. Bright golden-red light came in the one window, so I knew it was early evening. “This isn’t a dream or some kind of concussion-related hallucination?”

I felt Mom’s arm around my shoulders. Her lips were warm against my temple. “I’m here, sweetie,” she murmured. “Really here.”

And then I did cry. A lot. Big, wrenching sobs that hurt. Through them, I tried to tell Mom about everything that had happened at Thorne, but I knew I wasn’t making any sense.

When the storm had finally passed, I lay against Mom, taking deep, shaking breaths. Tears were running down her face, too, wetting the top of my head. “Okay,” I finally said. “That’s the story of my crappy summer vacation. Your turn.”

Mom sighed and hugged me tighter. “Oh, Soph,” she said in a very small voice, “I don’t even know where to begin.”

“Where are we?” I asked. “That’s a pretty good starting place.”

“At the Brannick compound.”

Everything came back to me then. Izzy, and the sword, and Elodie turning my body into a murderous puppet.

Elodie? I asked silently. You still there?

But there was no reply. I was the only person in my head for now. Speaking of which…

“What happened to my head?”

“Finley—that’s Izzy’s older sister—went out looking for her. Izzy said you attacked her with your powers. I thought you said you couldn’t do magic anymore.”

“I can’t,” I said. “It’s…I’ll explain it later. So Finley cracked me over the head with what? A baseball bat? A Mack truck?”

“A flashlight,” Mom answered, her fingers delicately parting my hair over what felt like a basketball-sized lump on the back of my head.

We were quiet then, both of us knowing what I was going to ask next: why in the heck was my mom, who’d spent most of her life running from All Things Magic, spending her summer vacay with a bunch of monster hunters?

But something told me that whatever her answer was, it was going to be complicated. And probably unpleasant. And even though I was dying to know what had brought her here, we could get to it later, preferably when my brain wasn’t threatening to launch itself out of my skull.

“It was hot,” I said. There are few topics less complicated and unpleasant than weather, right? “Outside. Where exactly is the Brannicks’ place?”

“Tennessee,” Mom answered.

“Okay, well that’s…Wait, Tennessee?” I sat up to look at Mom. “I used the Itineris to travel from England to here. It’s this magic portal thingie,” I started to explain, but she was nodding like she already knew. “Anyway, I left Thorne at night, and I got here at night, so I couldn’t have gone that far.”

Mom was watching me very carefully. “Sophie,” she said, and something in her voice made my stomach go icy. “Thorne Abbey burned down nearly three weeks ago.”

I stared at her. “That’s impossible. I was there. I was there last night,”

Shaking her head, Mom reached out and cupped my cheek. “Sweetheart, it’s been seventeen days since we got word of what happened at Thorne. I thought…” Her voice cracked. “I thought you’d been captured or killed. When Finley brought you in tonight, it was like a miracle.”

My mind was reeling.

Seventeen days.

I remembered stepping into the Itineris, remembered the crushing, still blackness. But I’d only felt it for a moment or two before I’d found myself flat on my back in the woods. How had seventeen days passed in the space of a few heartbeats?

Then another thought occurred to me. “If it’s been that long since Thorne burned down, you must have heard something about Dad. Or Cal, or the Casnoffs.”

“They’re all gone,” a voice said from across the room.

I whipped my head around, wincing as I did. A woman leaned against the doorframe, holding a steaming mug. She was wearing jeans and plain black T-shirt, and her red hair, darker than Izzy’s, fell over her shoulder in a long braid.

“Vanished off the face of the earth,” she continued, moving into the room. Beside me, I could feel Mom stiffen. “James Atherton, the warlock boy, the other warlock boy, those Casnoff witches, and their pet demon. We figured you disappeared with them until you showed up trying to kill my daughter.”

I’d guessed this badass woman was Aislinn Brannick. Still, actually having her in front of me sent my stomach somewhere south of my knees. I cleared my throat. “In my defense, she pulled a knife first,” I said.

To my surprise, Aislinn made a rusty sound that might have been a chuckle. She handed me the mug. “Drink this.”

“Um, how ’bout, no,” I replied, staring at the dark green contents. Whatever the liquid was, it smelled like pine trees and dirt, and seeing how this woman was Izzy’s mom, I figured it was poisoned.

But Aislinn just shrugged. “Don’t, then. No skin off my nose if your head hurts.”

“It’s okay,” Mom said, never taking her eyes off Aislinn. “It’ll make you feel better.”

“By making me dead?” I asked. “I mean, I’m sure that would make my headache go away, but that’s a heck of a side effect.”

“Sophie,” Mom murmured, a warning tone in her voice.

But Aislinn just regarded me shrewdly, a tiny smile playing on her lips. “She’s got a mouth on her, that’s for sure,” she said. Her eyes flicked to Mom. “Must’ve gotten that from him. You were always quiet.”

I looked to Mom, confused, but she was still watching Aislinn Brannick, her face pale.

“You need to get downstairs in five minutes,” Aislinn said, moving to stand at the foot of the bed. “Family meeting.”

I took a very hesitant sip from the warm mug. It tasted even worse than it smelled, but as soon as it slid down my throat, I felt some of the pain in my skull recede. Closing my eyes, I leaned back against the headboard. “Why do you need us for that?” I asked. “Can’t you guys just…Brannick it up without us?”

A heavy silence fell over the room, and when I opened my eyes, Mom and Aislinn were staring at one another.

“She doesn’t know?” Aislinn asked at last, and a mix of dread and anger rose up in my chest. I didn’t want to deal with this. I wasn’t ready to deal with this, not yet.

But when Mom turned to me, I knew. I saw it in the fear and sadness on her face, in the way her hands were clutching the blanket. And I knew that whether I wanted to face it or not, there was a very simple reason for why she was here.

Still, I heard myself ask, “Mom?”

But it was Aislinn answered. “Your mother is a Brannick, Sophia. Which makes you one of us, too.”