“And then some. Goodwife Hale—she knew what she was doing. She has a lot of history in here, too; I’m looking through that right now. If she was a witch here when Captive’s Sound was founded, then there’s no telling what she might know.”

“History? I thought you said this was a book of spells.”

“It is,” Nadia explained, “but she has journal entries in here, too. Some witches only put spells in their Book of Shadows; others use them like diaries. Some people sketch. Most people do a mix. There’s no one right way. Luckily for us, Goodwife Hale was heavy on the diary entries. See, this talks about her fleeing Salem—this one mentions which shells she could use for spellcasting, which I definitely need to know—”

Nadia straightened. Her hand froze at the place where she’d been scanning, and her eyes read the words over and over without being quite able to believe them.

“What is it?” Mateo leaned forward to look, which spared her having to say it aloud.

Together they read the name: Elizabeth Pike.

From four hundred years ago.

“So her family goes way, way back,” Mateo said, which seemed obvious, but Nadia could tell even he was freaked out by finding the same name yet again. “Well, what does it say?”

“Let’s see.” Quickly Nadia skimmed through the words. “A witch of great power; led the coven here—I knew there had to be a coven once, but then—oh.”

The scariest words in all of witchcraft were written there: the One Beneath.

Mateo craned his head to look. “What does that mean?”

“Elizabeth Pike’s husband was dying,” Nadia whispered. “No natural or magical means would save him. So she swore herself to the One Beneath.”

“Who is that? The devil?”

“Maybe you could call him that. I don’t know how ancient he is, where he comes from. All I know is that he’s the prince of black magic. The one who rules over the world of demons, which can never—and I mean, never, ever, ever—cross over with ours. He has no name, no laws, no limits. No witch can swear herself to him and share in his power. That turns her into something inhuman. Something … beyond evil.”

Obviously Mateo had some trouble taking that in. Nadia had always tended to think of the One Beneath as something like a monster from a story—not anything she had to worry about. Yet here he was, woven into the history of Captive’s Sound.

And maybe not just the history. Maybe he was part of the skin over the sky. The rumblings underfoot. Maybe the One Beneath held dominion here.

“But she did it for a good reason,” Mateo said. “Elizabeth’s ancestor—she was just trying to save her husband.”

Nadia shook her head. “There’s no good reason to swear yourself to the One Beneath. Whatever love or kindness or decency you had in you when you made the deal—he takes it. He hollows you out. Only the worst of you will be left behind.”