An image of a grotto flashed across my eyes, a sea cave filled with glowing blue water reflecting ripples on the limestone walls, flickering over painted images of horned animals. A figure stood waist deep in the water, arms raised, a long-bladed dagger in her hands …

The image changed and I stood in a clearing in the woods, a fire leaping up to the sky, sparks flying up into the branches of the surrounding pine trees. Against the light of the flames that same figure lifted her hands to the sky, her dagger reflecting the rays of the moon …

I was on a windswept heath standing in a circle of huge monoliths. Above was the moon. I lifted my arms, cold steel grasped in one hand, the even colder steel of the moonlight flowing through the other …

I was standing barefoot in the grass, a figure looming over me. The figure was stretching her hands up to the moon, a blade in one hand. Light flashed on silver metal as the blade came arcing down toward me …

I gasped and tried to free my hands. Something snapped. I opened my eyes and found myself back at the Olsens’ farm, sitting on the hard chair, my arms wrapped protectively over my chest. Liz was hovering over me, her brow furrowed with concern. “Oh, thank the Goddess! I thought we’d lost you, Callie.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“You broke the circle,” another voice answered. I looked around Liz and saw Moondance crouched over the chair next to me. “And broke poor Ann’s hand.”

Moondance shifted so I could see Ann Chase cradling her limp hand to her chest. Diana, kneeling next to her, was gently inspecting the hand while whispering something under her breath.

“Oh my God, Ann!” I cried leaping to my feet. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened. I saw … things.”

“The circle’s energy sometimes grants visions,” Liz said. “Especially when it’s enhanced by Aelvesgold.”

“An experienced witch knows how to tell reality from illusion,” Moondance chided. “I told you it wasn’t a good idea to introduce a neophyte to the circle. I could feel the energy was off …”

“The energy wasn’t just off,” a quiet voice said. “It was short-circuited.”

We all looked toward Skald who held up her phone. The screen was full of intricate intersecting lines that resembled runes. In the center of the pattern there was a tangled knot. “I was recording the energy waves during the circle and they went haywire …” She looked up, directly at me. “She has a very unusual energy signature.”

“Because she’s half fey,” Moondance said. “Everyone knows that cancels out a witch’s power.”

“That’s an old wives’ tale,” Ann said, wincing as Diana wrapped both her hands around Ann’s damaged one.

“What are we but old wives?” Urd remarked, looking up from her knitting. She must have resumed it as soon as the circle broke. When Ann looked in Urd’s direction Diana suddenly wrenched her hand between hers. There was a sharp crack and Ann’s face turned chalk-white, but then she looked down at her hand and smiled. Her fingers were unbent.