I had a feeling the name was somewhat self-explanatory, but I still needed to ask. “What exactly does the spell do?”

“It brings a person’s worst fears to life,” Izzy said, still looking shocked. “It’s an illusion if done correctly, but for the person the spell targets, it might as well be real.”

I turned back to Nora. “And what were Carl’s worst fears?”

“Oh, who remembers.” Her face twisted in disgust. “I locked him in a room and put in my ear plugs. As I recall, I managed to get a fair bit of knitting done that night. By morning, Carl was a new man. Quite agreeable. I told him if he ever raised his voice, let alone his hand in anger to anyone again, I’d be back. I don’t think he trusted himself around Mary, so he left town. He lives in Nevada now. I paid him a visit a few years back just to be sure he was behaving himself.” Her lips curled into something slightly wicked. “He assured me he was. I used a truth spell just to be certain. That being said, I should probably check on him again. Maybe I’ll take a trip in February. Get some sun. Buy myself a new hat.”

“Enough,” Izzy said.

Nora stopped talking and folded her hands once again.

Izzy fixed her sister in her gaze. “Now let’s hear the rest of it.”

Nora looked back at her in question.

“Well?”

“Everything I told you is the truth.” Nora looked over at me. “Didn’t Mary say something about my always having been good to her?”

“She did.”

“Obviously, she hasn’t filled her daughter in on the truth of who her father was,” she added. “Not that I could blame her. No one wants a monster in the family.”

“I don’t doubt any of that,” Izzy said. “But you’ve left something out.”

Nora frowned, then pointed a single finger in the air, a moment later she raised another, and then another as though silently counting. “No, I think I’ve covered all the pertinent details.”

“Don’t do that.”

Nora sighed with what sounded like real exasperation. “I don’t know what it is you’re referring to.”

“Consequences. I am referring to the consequences. They must have been severe given you did the spell without a coven. They would have all gone to you.”

Nora looked over to the door, probably subconsciously wishing for escape. “You know the Warren witches are hardy stock.”

Izzy took a steadying breath. “It’s a dark spell, Nora. Even if your intentions were pristine, there would have been a price to pay.”

“So, I paid it,” she said with a shrug.

Izzy pushed herself up off the couch and walked over to her sister. “Where?”

Nora scoffed. “It’s fine. It’s healed. It was so long ago.”

“Where?”

Nora closed her eyes and pointed at the back of her shoulders.

Izzy snapped her fingers and the buttons on Nora’s jacket flew open. She then yanked it down and pulled up the black silk turtleneck Nora was wearing underneath. I could only look for a moment at the thin scars crisscrossed over my aunt’s back.