Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The parking lot of the community park was mostly empty when they arrived. Her car let out a sputter of protest as she pulled into one of the open spots near Felix’s car, parked at the trailhead.
Ramona patted her pocket where Eleanor’s key sat, still warm with enchantment. They’d done it. Stolen from her mother’s study right under her nose.
Now they just had to confirm what the fox had shown them.
Felix was leaning against his car, Gerald perched on his shoulder, laptop bag in hand. Kashvi stood beside him with sparks already shooting from her fingertips. Posey’s tiny electric car pulled in behind them, Cammie emerging from the passenger side.
“You got it?” Felix asked as they approached.
Ramona pulled out the key. The Thornwood seal gleamed in the late morning light.
“We got it,” Zara confirmed.
“Good.” Kashvi gestured toward the trail. “Because you need to see this. The corruption is worse than what the fox showed you.”
They hiked into the woods with a sense of urgency. The fox trotted ahead of Ramona, tail low and agitated. The trail wasn’t marked, but Ramona knew it from the night of the ritual. She could feel the pulse of the convergence point, but it felt wrong. Sickly.
“You okay?” Zara asked quietly, falling into step beside her.
Through the tether, Ramona felt Zara’s attention — warm, present, but also tense. Worried.
“Just thinking,” Ramona said, watching the fox’s ears flick nervously. “About the last time we were here.”
“It’s less ominous in daylight,” Zara offered.
“Oh, what was that, Ms. ‘I’m the scariest thing in these woods’?” Ramona joked.
Zara shrugged, not even bothering to look ashamed.
The trail opened into the clearing after five minutes of walking. Ramona stopped at the edge.
The convergence point looked smaller in daylight than it had that night. An open clearing in the trees, ringed with ancient oaks, with early spring wildflowers struggling to bloom between them.
The smell hit her immediately. Sulfur and ash.
“Oh no,” Ramona breathed.
“Yeah,” Kashvi said grimly. “It’s bad.”
The grass near the stones looked sickly, gray in patches, brown in others. The wildflowers were stunted, dying. Stones on the ground had dark marks spreading across their surface like infection. Not carved. Growing.
“When did this happen?” Ramona asked, moving closer. “Right after the ritual?”
“Based on the growth pattern?” Posey knelt. “It started around the time you did the ritual. But it’s accelerated in the past week.”
Ramona circled the clearing slowly. The corruption was spreading outward from the center — from exactly where she and Zara had cast the severance ritual.
“This is demonic corruption,” Posey said quietly, running her fingers just above the ground without touching it. “Hell energy. It’s poisoning the convergence point.”
“What happens if it spreads to all the trees?” Cammie asked.
“If a convergence point corrupts fully?” Kashvi’s voice was grim. “Everything connected to it destabilizes. Spells fail. Wards collapse. It could take decades to recover. Assuming it recovers at all.”
Zara was standing in the center of the stone circle, turning slowly, taking in the corruption. Through the tether, Ramona felt something complicated — guilt, alarm, and something darker.
“Zara?” Ramona approached her carefully.
“This is my fault.”
“What?”
“The corruption.” Zara gestured at the stones. “It’s demonic energy. Hell magic. My magic.”
“You don’t know that—”
“Yes, I do.” Zara’s voice was tight. “This is what demons do to sacred spaces. We poison them just by existing near them.”
“But you’ve been all over Fernwick,” Felix pointed out. “Why would it only affect us here?”
“The ritual.” Zara turned to face them. “We came here because the convergence point would amplify the magic, right? Make it strong enough to break the binding. But instead it amplified my demonic signature. Pulled Hell energy through me and into the convergence point. Infected it.”
“Or it amplified my magic,” Ramona said. “I was the one channeling the ritual. Maybe I somehow made it worse.”
“You don’t know that—”
“Neither do you.” Ramona’s voice was firm. “We did this together, Zara. Both of us. Stop trying to take all the blame.”
“So, how do we fix it?” Cammie said after a moment.
Zara stiffened, glancing toward Cammie, then situating herself on the other side of Ramona.
“The grimoire in Thornwood’s archives should have the cleansing ritual,” Kashvi added. “And if my theory is right — if cleansing and severance rituals share fundamental structures — it might also help us modify our approach to breaking the tether.”
“Two birds, one felony,” Ramona said.
“Exactly.” Felix pulled out his laptop. “I’ve been looking at the building schematics for the restricted section of the library. There are wards, obviously, but they’re keyed to faculty access signatures. Which means—”
“The key will get us in,” Ramona finished.
“In theory.” Felix pulled up a diagram. “But we need to understand the security protocols. Guard rotations. When faculty are most likely to be in the building. Felix, you said you could pull schedules from their servers?”
“Already did.” Felix tapped his phone. “Guards change shifts at midnight. Faculty clear out around ten on weeknights. Weekends are quieter — just a skeleton crew.”
“So, then go on a weekend,” Cammie said. “Late. When the building’s mostly empty.”
“Tomorrow night?” Posey suggested quietly.
Everyone turned to look at her.
“The corruption is spreading,” Posey said, gesturing at the ground.
“Every day we wait is another day this place dies. I can already feel so much pain here. And if what Kashvi found is right — if the cleansing ritual can help us understand how to properly break the tether — we need that information as soon as possible.”
“Tomorrow’s fast,” Felix said. “We’d need to finalize the plan, coordinate timing, make sure we know exactly where to find the grimoire—”
“I know where it is,” Ramona said quietly. “The restricted section. Third floor, west wing, like you said. The historical texts are organized by century and subject. Fifteenth-century purification magic would be in the middle stacks.”
Everyone stared at her.
“I used to work there,” Ramona added. “I’ve been in this exact section.”
“Then we do it tomorrow,” Zara said. Her voice was calm, certain. “We get the grimoire. We cleanse the convergence point. We figure out how to break the tether properly.”
“That’s… ambitious,” Kashvi said slowly.
“That’s necessary,” Ramona corrected.
Felix was already typing. “Okay. We need a solid plan. Exact timing. Backup contingencies. Who’s going in, who’s staying outside as lookout—”
“I should go,” Ramona said immediately. “I know the building. I know where everything is.”
“I’m going with you,” Zara added. “Obviously.”
“I can handle tech,” Felix offered. “If there are any security systems, cameras, magical alarms — I can disable them remotely. For being one of the most powerful witching institutions, their servers are surprisingly vulnerable.”
“I’ll stay with Felix,” Kashvi said. “Provide backup if something goes wrong. Posey, Cammie — you two should probably stay home. We don’t all need to be accessories to grand larceny.”
“Absolutely not,” Cammie said. “I’m coming. Someone needs to keep watch.”
“And I can help with plant-based wards,” Posey added quietly. “If we need to create diversions or confuse tracking spells.”
“So we’re all going,” Ramona said.
“We’re all going,” Zara confirmed.
They spent the next hour going over details. Guard routes. Entry points. Titles and their possible locations. Felix pulled up floor plans on his laptop, showed them the security camera coverage he’d already mapped. Cammie made a list of supplies.
Eventually, Kashvi and Felix headed back to their cars — more research to do, more planning needed. Posey and Cammie followed, Posey explaining quietly what a magical ward was to Cammie.
Which left Ramona and Zara alone in the clearing, the fox pressed against Ramona’s leg.
Zara had been quiet for a while. Through the tether, Ramona felt something building — tension, anxiety, the weight of words unsaid.
“Can we walk for a minute?” Zara asked quietly.
They moved to the edge of the clearing, still visible to the others if they looked, but out of earshot. The fox followed, settling at Ramona’s feet when they stopped near a fallen log.
Zara looked stricken. Ramona had never seen her like this. The composed, controlled demon looking genuinely distressed.
“What’s wrong?” Ramona asked.
“I need to tell you something.” Zara’s voice was tight. “I should have told you sooner. Weeks ago. But I didn’t know how, and then the longer I waited, and then, today—”
Through the tether, Ramona felt it — affection, fear, desperate vulnerability. Everything Zara was trying to say and couldn’t quite voice.
She’s going to say it, Ramona realized. She’s going to say I love you.
And that makes it real. And real means it’ll hurt when she leaves.
Ramona’s hands were shaking. She couldn’t do this. Couldn’t hear Zara say it out loud because once it was said, once it was named, there was no taking it back.
“Zara, we don’t have to talk about it,” Ramona said quickly.
Zara stopped. Looked at her. “What?”
“We don’t have to — to name it. Or define it. We can just—”
“Ramona—”
“We have nine days left. Let’s just enjoy them. We don’t need to make it complicated.”
Zara’s eyebrows furrowed. “I’m not trying to complicate anything. I’m trying to tell you something important—”
“I know it’s important,” Ramona’s voice cracked. “And I feel it, too, but saying it out loud makes it—”
Zara stepped closer. “Ramona, I can’t keep this from you any longer.”
“Zara, please—”
“I’ve been hiding it because I didn’t want to scare you—”
Ramona felt tears threatening. Just say it. Just say it so we can deal with it. She put her hands on Zara’s arms. Looked her in the eyes. “I know,” Ramona said.
Zara blinked. “You know? How long have you known?”