Immediately her mind clouded with images, blurred by sun and water droplets and a sort of dizziness that filled her up and made her feel languid and warm and slow. She could hear loud music and laughter but it was eclipsed by the roaring of water in her ears. Panic and fear edged out the warmth in her mind, like a cloud across the sun, but it was too late, too late to start fighting, too late for the struggle. She burst through the surface and heard the sound of screaming—and Dudley’s name. And then the water closed over her head again and it was easier to let it take her, to sink beneath the surface where it was gentle and dark...

She came to herself kneeling on the floor, gasping and retching, as though her lungs were full of water. In the palm of her hand it felt as though the phoenix burned against the scar. She dropped it sharply and it clattered against the base of the cabinet.

When she got her breath back, Lizzie hoisted herself up onto the bed and sat there for a little, waiting for her spinning thoughts to settle. The phoenix charm had belonged to Jenna, Arthur’s fiancée. She had known that, felt it as soon as she had touched the silver links. But if the phoenix had been Jenna’s then the watery plunge and the hideous death by drowning were also hers, and Dudley had been there at the time too...

She hugged herself close. She was sure that Kat had told her that Jenna had died from anorexia so perhaps the vision had been wrong. Yet it had felt so vivid, exactly like Amelia’s fall had.

Lizzie remembered the story of Amy Robsart’s spirit being trapped in the waters of the Citrine Pool, that descent into darkness, the binding of her soul. There were so many parallels and so many echoes. Could they really be no more than coincidence, and Johnny’s disappearance had no link to it at all? There had been his notebook, full of the ancestry of the Robsart family and his research into Amy, Robert and Elizabeth. He had even checked out stone tape theory and she was certain that at Baynard’s Castle he had been testing her gift to see if she could connect with the memory of stone.

She remembered Avery’s words: “Truth is so often a matter of perception. It is very easy to be misdirected, especially if we want to be...”

Supposing Johnny was misdirecting them about where he had been? Arthur in particular would want to accept Johnny’s words at face value because the only thing he cared about was having his brother safely home. Johnny knew that Arthur was not comfortable with the supernatural and would be inclined to believe him when he said he had just wanted time alone to think. Lizzie was not so sure, though. She was also not sure that Johnny had given up his hope of saving Amy and changing Amelia’s fate.