Chapter 12: Emory

Emory faces backlash for using Glamour on the village boys, straining trust with Aspen and worrying Romie. Aspen confronts Emory, then reveals a detailed map of the Wychwood marked with ley lines. She theorizes there is a “door out” at the spiral’s center and offers to amplify her scrying on a ley point.

As they discuss leaving before the black moon, Aspen refuses to abandon the coven but admits she senses otherworldly minds through scrying, particularly a boy named Tol who can transform into a beast. Romie links Aspen’s astral scrying to the sleepscape, strengthening their belief that the realms overlap.

They prepare to depart, but find Mrs. Amberyl injured at the garden gate: Bryony has been taken. Following a distant cry, they discover the coven attempting an exorcism at the ascension site, with Bryony bound and encircled by ritual powder, bones, and candles. Hyacinth overrules Mrs. Amberyl, condemning Bryony as a hellwraith.

Bryony breaks her gag, her eyes black, speaking in a deep, alien voice and obsessing over “it,” then attacks Aspen. Emory unleashes a fusion of Healer, Glamour, Wardcrafter, Purifier, and Unraveler magic to drive out the presence. The earth blights under the surge, and her ghosts press in, but power floods Emory without triggering her expected Collapsing.

As the entity recognizes Emory as a Tidecaller and hungers for her power, Emory draws on the ley line beneath them. Silver energy races through her veins; despite Romie’s pleas to stop, Emory pushes harder. The blackness begins to recede from Bryony’s eyes, and Emory, tasting unbounded strength, realizes she may no longer be limited by the constraints that once threatened to consume her.