The storm was over. The women of the coven had gone, melted into the hills, and the spirits of the Gypsy riders had returned to their resting place. We hugged and wept and held one another through the darkest part of the night, trying to let it all sink in, trying to comfort Helen. Then I stood close to Sebastian, and Sarah leaned her head against Cal’s shoulder, while Miss Scratton and Helen knelt by Mrs. Hartle’s body and mourned. We didn’t move or speak for a long time.

“And so…so, is she dead?” said Helen at last, as the first gleam of dawn crept over the hills.

Miss Scratton sighed. “Her mortal body is dead, but her soul is chained to the evil places her new master inhabits. I am sorry, Helen.”

Helen’s eyes were red with crying. “Is there any hope for her?”

“There is always hope.” Miss Scratton stood lost in thought for a while; then she beckoned the three of us to follow her down the hill a little way, leaving Cal and Sebastian to embrace as brothers and talk quietly together. We stood and looked over the valley to where the Abbey lay beneath us in the morning mist. “The night is over,” Miss Scratton said, “and although the way ahead is still unclear, a darkness has left us. My hope for you now, Helen, is that this will not make you bitter. You have already had a lot to bear.”

“I just wanted…I just hoped…that she would love me,” Helen said fiercely. “There’s no one left now who ever will.”

Miss Scratton took Helen’s hands in her own. “Your sisters love you, Helen. And you have a father, and one day he will find you. After that, there will come another, neither mother nor father nor sister nor brother, and he will love you beyond the confines of this world. This I can promise you. It is your destiny.”

“How do you know all this?” asked Helen. “Who are you?”

“I saw you,” I interrupted. “I saw you long ago, Miss Scratton—singing and healing and praying—”

“Yes, you saw me, Evie. You have the gift of divining the past, through the river of time.”

“So you were there, all those years ago….”

“I was there. And I am here.”

“But I still don’t really understand,” Helen said.

“Some things we can never truly understand,” Miss Scratton replied. “Who can understand the miracle of creation? Who can understand the depths of the oceans and the life of the stars? And the human heart, which one of us really understands that?”

“But how can you have lived at different times?” I asked. “After all that has happened with Sebastian, we know it is wrong for humans to seek immortal life; it’s not possible—”

“Not for humans, I agree.” She smiled, and as I frowned up at her thin, plain face, I saw that she was no longer plain, but filled with radiant inner light, like a picture in a church, like an angel….

“I am a Guardian, Evie, sent by the Great Power to wherever I am needed. This valley is both sacred and cursed. The story of Agnes and Sebastian and Evie is only one of many in its long history. You know that the hills beneath our feet are scored with tunnels and caverns. In one of them is a crack between this world and the shadows. The valley has seen great marvels because of it, both good and bad. And I have been here to see some of them, to play what part I can. I have known failure and success, but the battle between the light and the darkness never ends. It is enough for you to know that much.”

“But what are you going to do now?” asked Sarah. “Will you stay here?”

“For a while, at least. The coven is scattered, angry and afraid, and that may make them dangerous. I hope that they will not suspect me, but I cannot be sure. Celia Hartle never entirely trusted me, and she managed to send me on a wild errand the night that Laura died.” She paused and looked away, then added softly, “That was indeed a failure. After that I had to pretend to be the High Mistress’s most fervent supporter. It was useful to act as one of the Dark Sisters, both to help guard the other students, and for other purposes.” Then she looked at the three of us and laughed warmly. It was the first time I had seen her laugh. “But you do not need a guard. If you stay true to one another, you will be strong enough for anything that life will send you.”

“And what about poor Harriet?” I said anxiously. “Will she be all right?”

“Harriet will recover from this,” replied Miss Scratton, “if that’s what you mean. She sleeps now by Agnes’s grave, which, if Celia Hartle had but known it, gives her a kind of protection. I will ensure that she will wake with no knowledge of this night and nothing worse than a chill from being outside. But she has been possessed by a mind stronger than her own, and that takes longer to heal. We must tend to her.” She looked down at Mrs. Hartle’s body and covered it with her cloak, then gave a high, clear call. The next moment her magnificent white horse galloped out of the gloom and halted by her side, restlessly shaking its head and pawing the ground. Miss Scratton bent down and lifted up Mrs. Hartle’s body with surprising strength, then gently laid it on the horse’s back. “We must tend to this matter, too. But not you, Evie.”

“Why not? I…I want to help.”

“The new day is beginning. This is your day—for you and Sebastian. Go to him, Evie. Use your day well. And if you should chance to pass by the grounds of Fairfax Hall at sunset tonight, your sisters will be there to greet you.”

I kissed Helen and Sarah, then walked up the hill to where a boy with dark hair and blue eyes was waiting for me.

Sebastian James Fairfax. My first, my only love.