I placed both forefingers on my temple and muttered an incantation. Nothing happened.

Where are my powers?

I’m supposed to be stronger than ever.

Then the last memory I had before the blackout washed over me. I doubled over.

“Caleb,” I gasped.

Pain seared though my chest as I recalled his handsome face, his beautiful brown eyes, the way he’d touched me as Lilith performed the ritual, the way he’d looked at me with concern. As my mind’s eye fixed on this man who’d remained by my side all these years, my heart raced. My head felt light. With Caleb in the center of my heart, breathing life into my soul, it felt like I was walking on air. A sudden warmth rushed through me, shooting from my chest and spreading throughout my body. A sensation that was all-consuming. Earth-shattering. A sensation I’d thought I was no longer capable of experiencing.

What is happening?

Tears welled in my eyes and began to stream down my cheeks. I collapsed on the floor. Sharp rocks cut into my knees, drawing blood. But I could barely feel it. The pain in my chest brought about by Caleb’s absence and the euphoria coursing through my veins overwhelmed me completely.

What have I done to you all these years, my love? How could I have let myself lose you?

My body had never felt so weak, so vulnerable. I didn’t know what had happened to me. And although I was confused as to why I could summon no magic—I was supposed to have been made into a Channeler, I should be even more powerful—the only thing on my mind was Caleb.

My love. My fiancé. I need to find him.

I managed to stand again. I stumbled through the tunnel toward Lilith’s chamber. My hands shaking, I fumbled for the doorknob and swung the door open. “Caleb!” I shouted, casting my eyes around the room.

The chamber was empty. Even Lilith had sunk back into her tomb.

I stumbled back into the tunnel. I ran until I reached the other end. I pushed open the door at the other side, the darkness of the cave enveloping me. I tried to summon light from my palms. Again, I was unable to wield my magic.

“Caleb! Caleb, it’s me… Annora… I-I’m back. It’s me.” My voice broke. I ran to the cave’s entrance.

Another pang hit me as I realized Caleb wasn’t here. Did he leave? Where could he have gone without me? Why did he leave me lying on the floor?

What have I done to him all these years?

It felt like I’d just woken from the dead. I’d forgotten what it was like to breathe. To feel anything other than cold.

“I’m sorry,” I gasped, trying to swallow back the tears. “My love, I’m sorry. Forgive me. Please. Come back.” I fell to my knees, gusts of ocean wind whipping my skin. I closed my eyes, imagining Caleb standing in front of me. “I made the wrong decision,” I breathed. “I should have listened. I never should have given myself up. But I’m back. My love, I’m back. And I promise to love you for the rest of my life. I’ll never lose myself again. I swear, I’ll be the girl you wanted to marry. We’ll run away. Far away from… all this. We’ll live our story.”

Although my mind was riddled with fear not knowing where he was now or why he’d left me in my vulnerable state, a warm rush of comfort spread through me.

I had found him again in my heart. Now, it was only a matter of time before I found him again in the flesh.

That I knew, because ours was a never-ending story.

Chapter 38: Vivienne

“Eye of snake. Beak of crow. Skin of toad. Blood of Rose.”

The chant echoed around the moonlit graveyard.

A tall man with black eyes levitated a few inches off the ground, stirring a black pot. Beside him was a grey tombstone. Smoke erupted from the cauldron, billowing upward, forming a swirling vortex. Within the smoke, another figure appeared, back turned to me. A pure white robe hung against soft curves. She turned slowly in midair, twisting to face me. But she had no face. Where her eyes, nose and mouth should have been was nothing but smooth pale flesh.

An echoing crack pierced the night. Then a hiss.

The tombstone’s lid sprang open. A still corpse rose from it into the air. The rotting corpse of a woman, it dwarfed even the man, her bony legs almost twice the size of his. Her ripped clothes revealed more of her moldering body than they covered. Her black eyes glinted in the firelight.

She spoke in ancient tongue, her voice grating like nails.

The man drifted toward her and poured a goblet of boiling liquid into her mouth. She let out a blood-curdling scream. Her jaw expanded and split, the bottom half hanging disjointed.

As the corpse began swirling around in the air, her head snapped back at an almost ninety-degree angle, the faceless woman in white drew closer to me. And a face formed. The face of my young Rose.

Tears of blood spilled from her green eyes.

“Auntie.”

“Vivienne. Wake up!”

I opened my eyes, gasping for breath. Xavier stared down at me, gripping my shoulders and shaking me. I was in our bed. I sat up and leaned against the headboard. Xavier’s face was stricken with worry—an expression that everyone on the island had shared since Rose had been discovered missing again.

I dropped my head in my hands, trying to piece together my jumbled mind. I could barely form a coherent sentence. I was thinking in fragments, thoughts assailing my mind so fast I couldn’t keep up with them, much less articulate them.

“They know something.”

“What?”

“About the twins. We’ve been mistaken in thinking there’s nothing different about them.”