“She hasn’t spoken one word today,” Spruce said, hovering. “I’ve tried to get her to describe it, but it was that game . . . that bloody game!” He pointed upward, to the two daughters in the loft. “You should have known better than to let your little sister play.”

“Mr. Fielding,” I said coldly, drawing his attention. “It’s paramount that the dreamer be calm when I cast a divination. If you can’t be quiet, I’ll have to ask you to step outside.”

He was thunderstruck that I had spoken to him in such a way, but he swallowed his retort and silently stewed.

I smiled at Elle. “Then I must cast a spell, so I can see your dream. Is that okay, Elle?”

Elle clung to her mother, fearful.

“You won’t have to see it again, Elle. Only I will. Okay?”

The child buried her face into Jane’s chest, and Jane sighed. “Please do, Miss Clem. I know the evening is coming, and we mustn’t keep you here much longer.”

But I waited for Elle to glance at me again, more curious than afraid now.

I poured a few crystals of salt in one palm. Next, I gathered some dried gardenia petals in my other hand, extending my palms out to Elle.

“Which one do you like more?” I asked, coaxing the opposing fragrances to rise.

Elle studied them both but pointed to the clean rainstorm fragrance of the salt.

A girl after my own heart, I thought as I dropped the crystals into the bowl of water, returning the flowers to their jar. I took my spoon and began to hum my father’s divination spell, stirring the water until the salt had dissolved and the emerald in the handle cast a green pallor on the surface.

The nightmare still lingered in the cottage.

As soon as I found the dream’s door, etched in shadows in the center of the room, the Fielding family froze, as if I had stopped time. I knew they were experiencing the opposite from their vantage point; they were waiting with suspended breath, watching a glazed-eyed, entranced version of myself as I inwardly located the lurking threshold of the dream.

Focusing on the door, I rose and opened it.

I stepped into Elle’s dream.