Elora’s POV
‘Open it.’
‘Open the box.’
My throat cinched as I swallowed, trying to shut the voices out.
‘Do you want to see us?
Do you want to know what Vivian was hiding?
Open the box.
The truth is waiting.’
Mom?
My fingers twitched around the box at the sound of her name.
Mom had never kept a single thing from me—this had to be illusion, tricks clawing into my head.
‘Take them off.
They’re hiding you.
Open the box.’
‘Don’t you know you’re one of us?
You silly girl.’
‘She’s not one of us.
She’s the devil’s child!’
The voices laughed inside my skull and kept multiplying until it felt like there were fifty of them.
My heart pounded.
I couldn’t focus.
I was slipping, losing it—but I couldn’t let anyone see.
I couldn’t let them think I was weak.
Not here.
Not now.
Just a little longer, Elora.
‘Leave her alone!’ A new voice cut through the swarm.
Different from the rest.
Gentler.
The others faded for a few seconds, leaving a pocket of silence.
Then I heard it again—shouting, screaming, the sound of raw panic.
‘It’s Genevieve, run!’ one voice cried before dissolving into the background, and then everything went still.
Genevieve?
My head reeled at the name.
I’d heard it before—the name Helena had accidentally called me.
The name of the girl in the photograph with Mom.
Her best friend.
Why would they be calling out her name?
‘Drop the box, Elora,’ the gentle voice urged.
As if I were in a trance, I moved without thinking and let it fall.
It hit the ground with a heavy thud, and every head snapped toward me.
The panic I’d been damming up began to spill free, and before I could stop it, tears blurred my vision.
“Elora!” Garrett rushed to my side and wrapped his arms around me.
Only when he held me close did I realize I’d been shaking.
I’d tried so hard to hold it together, but it was all too much.
The voices.
The whispers.
The pull.
A sob tore out of my throat, and I buried my face in Garrett’s chest.
“It’s okay,” he whispered, holding me tight.
“You’re okay.”
I clung to him, forgetting every ounce of tension and every fight we’d ever had.
None of it mattered now.
I just wanted to vanish from the shame of it.
I couldn’t stand the thought of facing anyone, and I definitely had no stomach for Varek’s mocking or his cold words.
All I wanted was to understand why I’d heard Genevieve’s voice—and how she knew my name.
“This isn’t working,” Garrett said, rubbing my back.
“We’re making camp.”
We gathered around the fire, our only light in all that dark.
I hated the dark.
I hated voices.
And tonight I’d been handed both.
I kept darting my eyes around, braced for something or someone to lunge out of the shadows.
The box had carried so many voices—surely there had to be some kind of presence out there.
Clearing my throat, I shifted, uncomfortable, trying to distract myself from their piercing stares.
Varek and Declan hadn’t said much, but I could read the way they were looking at me.
They pitied me.
Yes—even Varek pitied me.
Desperate to break the silence, I dug into my bag and pulled out a pack of protein bars.
“I got snacks!” I waved the pack around with an awkward smile.
“Anyone want some?”
No one reacted.
They just kept staring, like they were still turning over what they’d witnessed, as I peeled open a wrapper.
“We never should have let her carry that thing,” Declan said, first to break, his voice thick with regret.
I looked at him, then over to Varek, who was staring straight into my eyes.
His gaze was scattered—confused, irritated, and… concerned?
Was my reaction really bad enough to drag concern out of Varek?
“I think the box is tied to the ancient dark witches,” Garrett said.
Varek, still fixed on me, finally tore his eyes away and turned to Garrett.
“What do you mean?”
“These witches,” Garrett began, “they draw their power from gold—in this case, the box.
They can’t harm you physically, but they toy with your mind.” He glanced at me, then back down at the box before him.
“They target the ones carrying big secrets.
Or the ones showing fear.”
So the box fed on big secrets and fear?
As the silence dropped again, dead and total, I knew the box had found exactly the right candidates.