Aunt Ivy stood in the doorway, burgundy robe wrapped tight. Her gaze settled uneasily on Eliza.
“Lilith, are you alright?”
“Lils is sick!” Lucy blurted, stepping in front of Eliza. “She has a fever and can’t get out of bed.”
Aunt Ivy’s eyebrows rose. She reached out to touch Eliza’s forehead, and Eliza barely suppressed a flinch. The woman smelled of flowers and soap, clean-smelling in a way Eliza had never known. No hint of layer of dirt or sweat underneath.
“You’re clammy.” Aunt Ivy’s hand was cool and soft, assessing. “What kind of sick? Your stomach?”
Every instinct screamed at Eliza to stay quiet, but she knew she must say something.
Her voice rasped. “My head aches and I am... dizzy.”
Aunt Ivy studied her face. Eliza felt examined, the way Goody Martin sometimes looked at her, a motherly look that took in a great deal more than was let on.
“You don’t sound like yourself, Lils.”
Eliza’s breath caught as Lucy squeaked slightly beside her, a hiccup of a squeak before she blurted out, “Her voice is weird because she’s sick!”
Aunt Ivy’s lips pressed into a thin line. “Yes, you said that already, Luce.” She turned to Eliza. “When did this start?”
Eliza forced herself to meet the woman’s eyes, trying to read what she saw there. Was it suspicion, worry? “Twas tonight. I apologize for waking the household.”
“Apologize?” Aunt Ivy’s confusion deepened. She turned, looking dead at Lucy “And you, Luce, are a terrible liar. What’s actually going on here?”
Lucy’s face went beet red.
“Lucille Marie Proctor, I need the truth. Now.”
The full name did its work as Lucy glanced at Eliza apologetically, then back at her aunt.
“Aunt Ivy, it’s not what it looks like—”
“What is it then?"
Lucy swallowed, then started again, barely above a whisper: “We think Lils went to 1691. Or 1692, we're not sure. This is our relative, Eliza Proctor.” Lucy gestured. “Eliza, this is Aunt Ivy.”
Aunt Ivy stared at her "niece" as the back of her neck prickled with goosebumps. She'd been 100% sure this person was her niece, her younger brother's child, up until a few moments ago. She walked to the door, closed it firmly, and turned back to Lucy and Eliza.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Both of you are going to explain everything. All of it. And if this is some kind of prank, I want to know now, I don't like those weird TikTok pranks, I don't think they're funny. I’ll have no more of this.”
“Your niece speaks truth.” The words came easier now, since there was no point in further deception. “I am Eliza of the Proctor family, from Salem Village.”
Aunt Ivy turned ashen, her usual rosy complexion draining away, and she sank against the desk. “This isn’t possible."
“That’s what I thought too, at first” Lucy said. “But look at her, Aunt Ivy, really look. Her eyes are bluer, and she doesn't have Lils' moon scar!”
Aunt Ivy did, her hands searching Eliza’s face for the crescent moon scar by her eyebrow that wasn’t there, and the icy blue eyes that were now a deep ocean blue. She dropped her hands away, stunned.
“You’re not my Lils," she mumbled, almost to herself. “You’re not my Lils, but you look like my Lils. How on Earth...?”
“Lils went to the cemetery last night with the grimoire,” Lucy said, hand on Aunt Ivy’s back. “They must have switched places, some kind of spell.” She turned to Eliza. “Right? You said Lils ran toward you. What do you remember?”
Eliza sank onto the impossibly soft bed. She closed her eyes, seeing it again.
“I ran toward the woods by the graveyard, thinking I might hide. But the magistrate’s men found me. I asked Heavenly Father for a miracle.” She winced. “I felt a pull, as if someone tied twine around my heart. Then I heard a voice, calling out.”
Both women leaned forward. “What did it say?”
“‘Blood of my blood. Bone of my bone’ Over and over. ‘Blood of my blood, come to me.’ Then a roar, loud as can be heard. I felt as if I’d been dropped from a great height.” She opened her eyes. “And I awoke here, in this strange room.”
Aunt Ivy pressed her fingers to her temples, massaging herself for a moment. “I’m so sorry, Eliza. We need to reverse whatever happened. Lils should have never even attempted this.”
“I still don’t get how though,” Lucy said, narrowing her eyes at Aunt Ivy.
Aunt Ivy met her gaze. “It had to have been a blood ritual. Lils must have offered her blood to Eliza’s grave, called across time using the connection."
Lucy’s face fell. “A blood ritual?”
“It’s a lot to take in.” Aunt Ivy shook her head. “I should have been teaching you girls your heritage all along. I was just trying to avoid something like this.”
Eliza thought of the woman in the cemetery, stepping through the rain untouched. The quake that had pulled her here. Witchcraft. But not at all like she’d imagined it would be.
“Not even seasoned witches can manage to call Crossroads Keepers with blood rituals most of the time. I didn’t dare think...” Aunt Ivy caught herself, then moved abruptly across the room. She drew the curtains closed.
“Alright girls, here’s what we’ll do. Luce, you’re staying home from school tomorrow. We’ll tell them you’re sick. And Eliza...” She turned. “Same with you. We’ll teach you the basics of this time period, a complete crash course. How to speak, how to act, what basic things are. If anyone asks, we’re all down with a terrible flu. It's just awful this time of year. That buys us time before people start asking questions.”
“What about your bed and breakfast? And Holly??” Lucy asked.
“Holly can manage, I’ll call her soon.”
Aunt Ivy and her partner Holly had been running a B&B outside Salem ever since Holly’s mother passed and left them the business. Their pride and joy, it let them live mostly comfortably through the revenue from two rooms and their gift shop.
“We need to figure this out, and fast. Lils isn’t suited for 1692. None of us are, really.”
A question formed in Eliza’s mind, one she was almost afraid to ask. “If I am sent back, what happens to me? Do I return to where I was?”
Aunt Ivy’s expression fell. “I don’t know for sure. But I think you’d go back to that timeline. Unless...” She paused. “Unless we can find a way to change the outcome. Maybe send you back to a different point.”
Eliza nodded. “If Lils was sent to where I was, well... I fear that the magistrate’s men were close behind.”
Aunt Ivy pulled out her phone, tapping rapidly. “Oh dear Hekate. I'll check the last time Lils was in our shared Google doc, maybe I can leave her a message."