Chapter 4

The locket clicked again. Eliza' s voice, a little weaker now.

"Abigail' s 'accident'," she said. "She fell into the freezing river. She told everyone I pushed her."

Marcus remembered that day. The panic. Abigail, shivering, pointing a finger at Eliza.

"I didn' t, Marcus. I tried to help her."

"You believed her," Eliza' s voice was flat with old hurt. "You, and the elders. You punished me."

Marcus flinched. The punishment. Days of penance.

In the unheated cellar. In the dead of winter.

"I lost our baby there, Marcus. Our first child. No one knew."

A strangled sound came from Marcus' s throat. A baby?

Abigail rushed to his side. "Marcus, don't listen! It's lies, Outlands witchcraft!"

Mr. Hayes shouted, "The girl is a demon, making an old trinket speak!"

Mrs. Hayes wailed, "Eliza was always a troublemaker, a liar!"

The locket continued, ignoring them.

"You became convinced my 'weak spirit' was making Abigail sick," Eliza said.

Marcus remembered Abigail' s constant complaints, her fainting spells. The elders' grave pronouncements.

"You took my Covenant Medallion, Marcus. The one you gave me for protection."

A pause, then, "You gave a replica to Abigail. For her 'protection'."

Marcus felt sick. He had done that. He remembered Abigail' s grateful smile, Eliza' s quiet despair.

He looked at the true Medallion that Abigail now wore, the one he thought was the replica.

It felt heavy, suddenly. Tainted.