It took me a good thirty seconds to respond to her. You would think after so many unbelievable things occurring over the past week, I would’ve been past the point of being surprised. I wasn’t.

“Okay, Kate. You’re going to need to explain everything you’ve read from the beginning. I’m just going to sit back and listen. I’m feeling slightly lightheaded.”

My sister laughed and as I settled into my spot on the floor, I could hear Mr. Crinkles purr in the background.

“Okay, I can’t blame you for that. It’s a lot, and some of it’s not so great.”

“I’m ready.” I was anything but.

“So, I read the book first, start to end. You know how history gets twisted throughout time and then you throw in a few ancient legends and things get even worse, so I have no idea how much of what I read is true, but I’ll try to explain the gist of it to you.”

I nodded as if she could see me. “Okay, shoot.”

“The documentary told us about the legend, right—about The Eight and how they were bound to protect the Isle from the darkness that would threaten it if The Eight were ever broken? The book was much more specific. According to this text, the evil the documentary mentioned is a faerie. While she may gain strength, she poses no real threat with just seven men.”

I interrupted to give her some context.

“The book is right. It is a faerie.”

“All right, then. That makes me even more confident about everything else. Anyway, as I was saying, if The Eight become seven, that’s not necessarily good, but nothing too bad will happen. Six is the magic number. Six is what she’s aiming for. If The Eight lose two men without replacing another, she can break free from her prison.”

I thought of Calder’s disappearance. It was a good thing Marcus’ powers had revealed themselves when they did. It was possible that Calder could find a way to break his bind to the men at any time. If he’d managed to do that before Marcus had joined them, Machara would’ve been free.

Kate paused for a moment, and I assumed she was waiting for me to react.

“That coincides with some things that have already happened here. Continue.”

“Okay. What’s the name of this faerie? Do you know?”

“Yes, I do. I met her. Her name is Machara.”

I could hear Kate’s smile in her voice.

“This is all just too flipping cool. The book got that right, too. So, the book alludes to a prophecy given to Machara by her father as punishment for something she’d done to anger him. It doesn’t say what. He claimed that a time would come in Machara’s life when she would be chained by the magic of men, but her life would end at the hands of mortal women.”

Freya’s prediction came to my mind. “How many women and when?”

Kate sighed. “Nine women, and there is no date listed in the story.”

Of course it didn’t.

“Okay, does it say anything about these women. Who are they?”

“That’s where you come in, Laurel. You’re one of them, and I’m pretty sure, so am I.”

The hairs on my arms rose, and I was suddenly very cold.

“Explain.”

“Your name isn’t mentioned specifically. It only refers to a Laird Allen’s wife, which is beyond annoying, I know. Women shouldn’t be defined by their husbands, but I’m pretty sure this book was written in the sixties, so we’ll just have to forgive it and move on.”

My heart beat quickly in my chest.

“I’m not Laird Allen’s wife.”

“Maybe not yet, but if the rest of this book is to be believed, you’re going to be. The woman’s description matches you exactly.”

It was a real struggle to keep from giggling like an idiot. It was too soon for me to dream of such things with Raudrich, but there was some part of me that knew it was inevitable.

“Okay.” I tried to keep my tone calm. “For theory’s sake, let’s say that it is me. What does it say?”

“That you’re the first of the nine women who will ultimately destroy Machara, but that each woman will be tested in her own time and in her own way.”

Awesome. I’d never been a very good test taker.

“Does it say how I will be tested?”

“This doesn’t, but I found something else that I think does.”

“Okay, let’s finish with the book first. What does it say of the other women? How do you know that you’re one of them?”

“It wasn’t even in the main text of the book. It doesn’t go into detail about the nine women, but there was an author footnote at the bottom of one of the pages. I don’t remember the exact wording, but it said something along the lines of little is known of the women who lifted the castle’s curse, though two of the nine were believed to be sisters, both blonde of hair and blue of eyes, though one had suffered much at the hands of a fire.”

I sat silently for a few seconds.

“That’s an oddly specific footnote.”

“I know, right?”

And then, at the exact same time, we both said,

“Morna.”

Laughing, I continued.

“Exactly. How much do you want to bet that she added that little piece of information just for you?”

“I’d say the chances are pretty good.”

“Is that all you learned from the book?”

There was a brief pause as Kate took a deep breath.

“Pretty much, but the article is what you really need to strap in for, sis. I think it involves you. It was an article about the fall of one of The Eight—the only one who is ever believed to have died of something other than natural causes.”

A lump rose in my throat. I didn’t even want to ask the question, but I knew that I had to. Silently, praying that she wouldn’t say Raudrich’s name, I spoke. “Does it have the man’s name?”

“A Laird Bracht.”

I only knew each of them by their first names. At least I knew it wasn’t Raudrich.

“Does it describe him?”

“It does. It describes him as being a tall and slender man in his late twenties at the time of his death. He supposedly had raven black hair and piercing blue eyes.”

The air left my chest in a whoosh.

“It’s Calder. What does it say?”

He was in his late twenties now. If the article was true, Calder didn’t have much time left.

“Supposedly, this man of The Eight—Calder, I suppose—was seduced by a faerie he met on the shores of the isle. After sleeping with her, his lust for her became unquenchable, and he thought himself in love. In his desperation to be with her, he went to the faerie with whom his magic was bound—Machara—and begged her to turn him into one of the fae. As faeries so often do, she offered him a deal. In his blind need, he took it without thought.”

I shivered and held the phone up to my ear with my shoulder as I wrapped my arms around my knees for warmth.

“What was the deal?”

“She made him promise that he would surrender the first woman to grace the steps of the castle into her care. In exchange, she would make it so that he could be with the woman he loved.”

I was the first woman permitted inside the castle in years, but Calder had made no move to bring me to Machara.

“What else does it say?”

“Well, here’s the thing you need to know about faeries, Laurel. I’ve discovered this during my days of researching them. They keep their word, but only to the degree that they must. If there is a way for them to twist it, to turn what you want against you, they will find it. This is what Machara did with this man. She didn’t promise him that she would turn him into a faerie. She promised that she would make it so that they could be together.

“The article says that rather than turn Calder fae, she turned the faerie into a human. There is no worse punishment for one of the fae. In her despair, the woman Calder loved threw herself off the isle’s tallest cliff, plunging to her death.”

Calder’s angry disposition suddenly made so much more sense. So did his belief that I was horribly unattractive. I supposed for a man in love with a faerie, I wasn’t quite up to par.

“Oh, my gosh, Kate. That’s horrible.”

“That’s not all. In his rage, he confronted Machara and swore to her that he wouldn’t keep his word, but she simply laughed. He’d given his oath to her in blood. She told him that she had the power to control him at will, that when a woman did arrive at the castle, he wouldn’t be able to ignore the call to bring the woman to Machara.”

“That’s why he ran.” I whispered the words under my breath, as the pieces of the puzzle clicked into place.

“What?”

“Calder ran away from the castle days ago. The men thought he wished to break his bind to them, but he was just trying to protect me. He was trying to escape Machara’s power over him before she forced him to bring me to her.”

Kate’s voice was sad and filled with worry as she spoke.

“Well, for your sake, I hope he stays gone. If he returns, I’m not sure there’s much you’ll be able to do to stop him from giving you to Machara.”

I hoped so, too, but I’d never been very lucky. I didn’t expect that would change anytime soon.