Genevieve awoke outside Enchantra’s gates, cold and nauseated by the lingering taste of the berries. Fragmented memories returned: plucking a berry, an appearing villa and hedge maze, a dead crow, a black fox, and being carried by a mysterious figure. Touching the metal bars shocked her with magic and fully restored her memory of being removed from the grounds.

Resolute, Genevieve used her magic to pass through the bars again. The estate’s illusion fell back into place, and she deduced the berries were meant to veil and erase intruders’ memories. Remaining non-corporeal, she slipped through the hedge maze, emerging near the marble steps of the silver-emblazoned villa. She solidified, knocked with the thorned-vine knocker, and waited in eerie silence until the door opened.

A tall, golden-eyed man with disheveled black hair and a refined, dark aesthetic appeared, radiating unfamiliar power. He brusquely questioned her and refused entry. Genevieve identified herself and demanded an audience with Barrington Silver; he called her a trespasser and slammed the door.

Genevieve knocked again. This time shadows curled around the stranger as he opened both doors, his magic haloing him. She stood her ground. When he demanded proof of invitation, she realized the black fox had stolen the letter. She accused him of knowing exactly where it was and pressed him about the fox—pet, illusion, shapeshifter, or himself.

The man pressed back, asking how she bypassed the reinforced gate a second time. Her reaction confirmed he had carried her out after she fainted; he admitted indifference to her well-being. She called him a cad and insisted she would not leave without seeing Barrington Silver and confirming the end of the crow hex. He mocked her, noted the invitation was for someone named Tessie with a pre–equinox deadline, and misnamed her before she corrected him.

He warned her again to leave and shut the door. Weighing the risk of departing without resolving the crow problem against her need to find others like her, Genevieve chose defiance. She gathered her trunks, turned non-corporeal, phased through the door, and re-solidified inside the foyer, finding only ominous silence where the hostile stranger had stood.