ECHOES BY THE LAKE: THE RETURN OF THE WITCHES Arriving at Wells, Skyla parts ways with Lady Hismaela and the others—eager, hopeful, and ready to reunite with the husband she’s longed for. But when Hismaela and Sophie insist on staying just a little longer to ensure her safety, their concern proves prescient. They soon find Skyla shaken and in tears—told by the locals that no one named Jewel Valentine has ever lived in Wells. Overwhelmed by confusion and heartbreak, Skyla collapses.
Later that night, Kaylus stumbles upon her wandering toward the lake—but something’s different. Her voice, her gaze, even her presence shifts into something uncanny. Before his eyes, she begins to manipulate the water itself, a power long thought extinct. Could the lost witches of legend—vanished from the world decades ago—be stirring once more? And if so, is Skyla truly just an innkeeper’s daughter… or something far more dangerous and forgotten?
Ok; good at magic time. Skyla learns the truth about Jewel & is heart broken, thus annulling their marriage. Lady Hismaela takes Skyla with her to Herran Rudel, her hometown, & Rumanic, her mansion, to help her heal her heart. Kaylus is also staying at Rumanic, though he refuses to admit it, he remains close to Skyla, not only because he has fallen for her to but confirm that she is a witch. Spying on her talking to her talking frog, confirms it. We also learn somewhere else someone is looking for Skyla, her older brother, Fidelo.
After Jewel's disappears without a word, Skyla embarks on a long journey to his hometown of Wells in search of him. She finally arrives only to find that Jewel not only isn't there, but no one has ever heard of him. When she suddenly collapses after hearing this news, she unwittingly unleashes her powers. That of the absolute witch! And Kaylus is the only witness & is already falling in love with Skyla though he refuses to admit it out loud.