Hours later, when the sun was close to making its appearance in the eastern sky and the scent of smoke still lingered in the air, Brooke and I made our way back inside the house Priestess Evers had called home.

The local hospital in this small town didn’t have enough room for all eighty-three of the girls, so they had been separated and transported to three different facilities in the area. For now, all I had was a handwritten list of their names and the determination to somehow get each one of them home where they belonged.

Did they all come from the same time as Brooke and me? Or had they been captured from different decades and brought here by the priestess? Until their memories were restored to them, we had no real way to know.

I was too exhausted to make sense of all of it tonight. I needed a few hours of rest before I could face the repercussions of everything that had happened.

“How are you feeling?” Brooke asked. “I don’t know about you, but at this point, I feel like I could sleep for a week and still not be rested. Do you think it’s safe to drop this glamour?”

I closed the door behind us and locked it.

“There are too many windows down here,” I said. “And too many unknowns. We have no idea who is working for the Order or watching the house right now. I was really hoping to be able to search the house tonight for any sign of a portal, but I’m so tired, I can barely find the energy to take another step. I think we should both go upstairs, lock ourselves into a room, and get some sleep. We can get up in a few hours and make a plan.”

“I like the idea of sleep,” Brooke said. “I don’t even think I have the energy to jump in the shower and wash the smell of this fire off my body. I just want to pass out and forget this mess for a little while.”

We both headed up the stairs and chose a pair of bedrooms next door to each other.

“If you wake up before me, come wake me up, okay?” she asked.

“Same for you,” I said. “Get some rest. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Brooke threw her arms around my neck, and we stood in the hallway for a long time, holding each other. There were no words to express everything we’d been through over the past several months, and we both knew that there was still a long journey ahead of us. And no matter how much she had once seemed like my enemy, I was so grateful to have her here with me now.

As we parted, my knees buckled slightly, and Brooke grabbed my arm.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

I put a hand to my forehead, a sharp pain tearing through me. My glamour flickered, and I suddenly felt sick to my stomach.

“I think I just need to drop this glamour and crawl into bed. My magic is completely spent,” I said. “I’ll see you in the morning, okay?”

“Okay,” she said, frowning. “I’ll check on you as soon as I wake up.”

I nodded and stepped into the darkness of the nearest bedroom. I closed the door behind me, and let the glamour fall from my body, as if I were releasing a breath I’d been holding for hours.

My shoulders relaxed, and I leaned against the door, just enjoying the release. It had taken everything I had to keep the glamour going throughout the night. Between my mad run through the institute to try to escape Priestess Evers and our fight in the basement, I was drained.

I didn’t even bother turning on the overhead light. There was enough light coming through the curtains from a streetlamp outside for me to make my way to the bed. There was a small lamp on the bedside table, and I flipped it on, realizing for the first time that I must have chosen the priestess’s bedroom.

I ran my hand along the beautifully embroidered comforter on her canopied bed before I pulled it down and started to climb inside.

Movement on the other side of the room stopped me cold, and chills of terror ran down my spine. I wasn’t alone, but the small sitting area on the far side of the large bedroom was drenched in shadows.

I stared into the darkness, feeling that I was looking into the dark moments of my own fate.

“Show yourself,” I said.

Another lamp clicked on, and there, sitting in a high-backed chair covered in green velvet, was a woman with dark blonde hair that fell to her waist in delicate waves. Her long, red skirt billowed around her legs and pooled on the wood floor. She wore a pristine white blouse, and there, at her neck, was a gold chain that dipped low against her breasts.

Every muscle in my body tensed. I reached for my power, only to find that there was nothing left.

“Hello, Harper,” she said, her crimson lips spreading into a sweet smile.

She absently lifted a hand to touch the pendant hanging from the gold chain. The stone in the center glittered as it caught the light, and I felt the blood drain from my face.

The pendant was a snake made entirely of rubies.