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He shrugged. “I had no choice. Mother’s familiar suspected me of knocking off the old man. It was his own fault, really. As for mother, I’d only planned to scare her, but then…” He shrugged. “I guess I got carried away. But in the end, I showed her, I showed both of my parents how powerful I really was.”

And he’d used dark magic to do it, in a way that blocked my blade from sensing his true intentions. And I knew, without doubt, he’d done the same to win his trial, breaking every one of our laws, our covenants. “Is that what you were trying to do to Magnolia? Scare her? You almost killed her as well.”

“I saw the pictures on Nightscape, you running after the hound. Hurting her the same way as mother gave us a common enemy, made you sympathize with me, and it worked for a while, didn’t it? You agreed to marry me.” Mags struggled harder and Clay shoved her to Brody. Mags cried out when Brody wrenched her arms back, holding her tight enough to bruise.

My pulse thundered in my ears, fear for my sister a tight coil in my stomach. I couldn’t attack, not all of them at once. And there was no way they hadn’t protected themselves. “And you think Cora can give you the power you want?” I asked Clayton, genuinely puzzled.

Fury lit Cora’s eyes. “Who do you think summoned those souls, who do you think summoned Edward? Me, I did. You’re not the only powerful one in this family, Willow.”

“Diana?” Else whispered.

“Finally, you’ve worked it out,” Cora said. Hatred darkened her features, making her almost unrecognizable. “When you killed my brother, you took everything from us. Our families severed ties, we were cast out of coven Thornheart. I’ve been waiting so long to get back what should have been mine.”

“You think our coven will welcome you back if you kill us? Do you think the witches’ council will let you get away with it?”

“They won’t know. No one will know. Everyone will think your family died in a house fire.”

Something occurred to me. “You killed Joshua, didn’t you?” I said to Cora. Joshua Thornheart, the male who was meant to be the Keeper of the Thornheart line. “You thought Brody would be chosen as Keeper in his place.”

Cora hissed. “I had to try. It should have been my line, not yours. But it’s fine, I’ll get what I want a different way. I just have to remove the obstacles in my way, one by one.”

One by one.

She’d said that in my dream, she’d been one of the three hooded figures.

Cora, Brody, and Clayton.

“With this cemetery and its power, I’ll bring my family back. I’ll bring Ed and my Emily back.”

“That’s why you summoned Edward? You want your family back?”

She smiled. “Yes, and Emily will be next.”

“We already sent Edward back where he belonged,” Else said.

Cora curled her fingers into a fist. “Not for long.”

“Your brother’s a monster. You were only a baby, Cora. You don’t know what he was. You don’t know him. If you’d told me who you were, I wouldn’t have held Edward’s actions against you. I would have helped you.”

“You’re lying,” Cora yelled.

“What are you going to do?” I said, trying to keep them talking, trying to come up with a way to save my sister, to get her away from them.

“The first two souls we summoned were to throw you off your true task, Willow, and, of course, practice before I brought Ed and Emily back. You were supposed to fail your task, and in desperation to keep your family safe, accept Clay’s proposal. Ed would continue to possess Ren and Emily would possess you. My daughter would become the Keeper. The only thing that’s changed is now I’ll have to find a new vessel for Ed.”

This whole thing was completely twisted.

“How did you know Clayton would help you?”

Cora smiled. “We met through a mutual friend, someone with the same interests.”

Dark magic.

And I’d bet anything the “mutual friend” was someone Clayton did business with. Someone who had access to all manner of dark and ancient spells and relics.

“So Clay got greedy, killed his parents and made a deal with you? He’d marry me, Keeper of coven Thornheart, and then you’d summon Emily, she’d possess me, you’d move into our house and take over my life. Am I right so far?”

Clayton said nothing, eyes glittering.