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“I admit to nothing,” Rhiannon said. Seren was about to question her reasons for giving their aunt—who already had zero filter—more ammunition, but Deryn was clearly done with that conversation.

“I wouldn’t be stuck here. Paloma would come down the cliff and rescue me from you, Aunty,” Deryn said before taking a large gulp of her tea and burning her mouth.

Victoria, unbothered by the previous questioning, rolled her eyes.

“I swear if Marsha didn’t tell me the lengths of which you get up to, and on New Year’s Eve, of all nights, I’d wonder what that woman sees in you.”

“Oh my god, she did not see us!” Deryn’s scandalized gasp was particularly loud. As her cheeks burned crimson, Seren took pity on her twin.

“When will you learn not to take Victoria’s bait and stop confirming that at least some of your disappearing acts are sexual in nature?”

Deryn’s second gasp was incredulous.

“She baited me?” Then she whirled on Victoria, who was cackling. “You baited me to confess my New Year’s debauchery? You witch!”

Among the chaos, Ceridwen cleared her throat carefully. A little too carefully.

“Before we get sidetracked by illicit sex in empty ballrooms, Aunty, from what you said earlier, it is very much my business.”

And there it was. The reason why all of them were crammed into the little kitchen. The reason why all of them were in their aunt’s house huddled together, at the beginning of the most surprising storm that seemed to have come out of nowhere and envelop the island in a blanket of snow which Seren was suddenly afraid to touch. And ultimately, the reason why all of them were on the island.

Rhiannon’s arrival in the late summer. Deryn on Halloween. Both of them quietly underscored what Seren was never able—or allowed, for that matter—to forget.

Ceridwen was turning forty-five on the summer solstice. And no matter how much they chose to avoid the subject, to pretend it was not happening, the truth of the Crowhart curse sat with them in this cramped, cozy space and breathed their air, stealing their oxygen.

“Darling girl, I just said things. It’s merely talk.” Victoria tried to get up, waving her hands dismissively, but one touch from Ceridwen stopped her in her tracks. She sat back down heavily.

“Tell me, please.” Ceridwen’s voice was gentle. Too gentle. Even when her life was being dissected by powers beyond any of their control, Ceridwen was the picture of grace. Seren’s eyes stung.

Victoria sighed.

“There isn’t much to tell. But she is here for a reason. And no, it might not be about you at all. Not even when Elizabeth died was my vision clear. I don’t have the same sight as she had. She was…” Victoria sighed again, then sniffed and hastily wiped her eyes. Deryn reached over and laid a hand on her fingers, stopping them from rising to her face. Rhiannon leaned in from the other side and placed her chin on her shoulder. Seren mirrored her on the other side. Ceridwen simply wrapped her arms around Victoria’s neck, the last gesture before their aunt started protesting that they were smothering her.

Once they all sat back down, she looked at Rhiannon for a long second before the question fell out of her mouth and shattered the moment.

“What do you remember of that night, baby?”

Rhiannon exhaled, her eyes immediately swimming in tears. Seren held her breath, refusing to allow her own to fall.

“She kept telling me she had someone to go with her. That we’d be happy to learn about it when it was done. That she was waiting for Ceri to arrive. Honestly, I was…” Rhiannon bit her lip, then let it go. She sighed. Seren knew all about where Rhiannon “was” at the time. Their mother and Rhy had been fighting like cats and dogs all the time. Rhy’s obsession with Margaux, the way their mother reacted to it; too strong a reaction for Seren to understand then. And not strong enough, all things considered, twenty-two years later.

Rhiannon went on.

“She had been sick the week before. Food poisoning, or whatever she said.” Rhiannon sniffed again, and Ceridwen clasped her fingers in her hand. “I told her I’d come. She flat-out told me not to, since I was more preoccupied with running around with a married woman. It was a bad fight, Aunty. My last memories of Mom are… angry ones. Guilty ones. Because she was right about everything, and I was… I was just so stupid. So wrong.”

Rhiannon’s tears fell freely now. Victoria patted her shoulder before speaking, her voice rough and brittle around the edges.

“Moreau was in a bad mood. Hell, that man was always in a bad mood, and then Elizabeth stopped by. I remember that evening so well⁠—”

“Mom had stopped by?” Deryn piped in. Seren narrowed her eyes. She did not remember this part either.

“Yes. She was on her way to the cliff. Still, she had been… not happy, exactly, but light? She wasn’t mad at you, Rhy. And I know she’d have said something. Goddess knows, all we were doing back then was talking about you and that woman. Your mother, me, Christian. Damn, even Marsha was remarkably decent about it.” Victoria sniffed and looked through the window where Marsha’s house was awash in light and falling snow.

“What I remember was that she had been coming from the wrong direction and by the looks of it was about to head toward Sky Blue, although she usually cast the circle on the Viridescent. I asked her about it. She laughed. I remember because it was such a strange response. She laughed and said some things had to change. I thought she meant good changes, since she was so damn skippy. It was such a contrast to my own mood that evening that I kind of resented her then and there. Just a little.”

Rhiannon’s eyes, still full of tears, widened.

“Half the reason I was late to the casting was because I went to the Viridescent first. Right behind Crow House. I looked everywhere, even considered climbing down to the shore beneath. It had not occurred to me to try the Sky Blue until I felt the circle open. You know the feeling.”