Chapter 10
Hey!” Emily settled beside Miles at the courtyard table, making him jump. Her pink coat was so bright, he didn’t know how she’d managed to sneak up on him. “Where’s Gabriel?”
She waved goodbye to the group of girls she’d left— probably her soccer teammates—who gave him curious looks.
Miles mustered up a passable smile. “Running late, I guess.” Intentionally, he was sure.
Emily studied him. “Everything okay?”
It was a more loaded question than she realized. “Yeah, Gabriel’s just… been in a mood.”
“Did you guys have a fight?”
“Nah, not really. I think he’s struggling with all this curse stuff, the new premonition, me not calling it quits…
take your pick.” He couldn’t mention the romantic limbo he was currently caught in.
A girl walked by with a tray of coffees, the rich smell wafting across the courtyard.
“Gabriel internalizes when he’s having a hard time, so he’s being more distant than usual. ”
Emily’s brown eyes softened with sympathy. “That’s a lot for him to manage at once. Leaving had to be tough, and it didn’t even pay off. He probably feels like a failure for not finding what he was looking for at Nadia’s. He doesn’t seem like the type to brush that off easily.”
God, maybe she was right. Maybe Gabriel was right too—Miles was being presumptuous by assuming this was all about him. Lashing out because he didn’t want Miles’s compassion or understanding was a very Gabriel thing to do.
“He’s not.” Miles traced a Sharpie heart on the icy tabletop with his finger. “And he’s already blaming himself for the new premonition.”
“Even if he wasn’t feeling guilty, it’s really fresh,” Emily noted.
“Don’t forget you had time to come to terms with Gabriel’s death before you really knew him.
He distracted himself with denial and his quest to find a solution at Nadia’s, and now he has to face the reality you might really die. Anyone would be having a hard time.”
Showing up at school this morning, Miles had admittedly been feeling grumpy. Part of him wanted to be a jerk right back to Gabriel, give him what he wanted, but he knew he wasn’t cut out for it. Gabriel would probably laugh in his face the first time he tried to snap back.
Now he felt rotten for even considering it. A stupid lump ached in his throat. Seeing something in his face, Emily reached over and patted his hand.
“Am I interrupting something?” Gabriel appeared over Emily’s shoulder, collar flipped up against the morning chill, making him look like a disgruntled turtle. His expression darkened further as a couple paraded by in matching plaid flannel. Pajama Day was here.
Miles swallowed down his emotions, knowing Gabriel would hate the pity if he picked up on it.
“Nope,” Emily chirped. “We’re just talking over the game plan. Brainstorming curse-busting ideas.”
“I didn’t realize you were involved now,” he said coldly as he sat down across from her.
“She helped save your ass even though you were rude to her,” Miles pointed out. “She gets to be part of the dream team.”
“There was no saving. I was never in any trouble. And I don’t seem to recall ever agreeing to be part of a team.”
Miles opened his mouth but Emily beat him to it. “It’s cool,” she told Gabriel with a shrug. “I don’t have to be here if you don’t want me. I’m just surprised. I thought you’d be happy for more help to save Miles.”
A beat passed.
Gabriel scowled down at the table. “Fine. Join us if you want to so badly.”
“We don’t have much to do right now,” Miles explained. A gust of wind sent the flag at the front of the school snapping, a kid on the stairs jumping up to chase after a runaway granola bar wrapper. “Just reading through the grimoire to see if we can find the curse.”
“That’s not true,” Gabriel countered. “We’re going to try and summon Jocelyn.”
Miles nearly choked. “No, we’re not! We talked about this last night—it’s too dangerous.”
“Actually, you said we could discuss it once I was away from the grimoire’s influence. But there’s nothing to discuss. Jocelyn is the key to ending all of this.”
“Even if the ritual worked, she’s not going to tell us anything. Did you forget how unhelpful she is?”
“The situation is different now. I can convince her to talk.”
Because Miles’s life was at stake? It was flattering that Gabriel thought that was worth something, but Miles doubted Jocelyn would agree.
Gabriel kept going before he could argue. “Releasing her spirit could still unravel the entire future she foresaw. If she’s not in that tomb, perhaps we won’t be either.”
Desperation or optimism, Miles could understand either as a motive.
But that didn’t make it a good idea. If Emily was right and he was feeling guilty or like a failure, it could be pushing him to set aside logic and take an unnecessary risk.
“You know I’m all for finding a different path, but not if we’re going to get ourselves killed in the process. That kinda defeats the purpose.”
“No one is going to die using the grimoire. You’re being dramatic.” Gabriel crossed his arms, glaring at a girl in a fluffy pink robe crossing the grass. “When you weigh risk versus reward, the outcome is clear to me. But at the end of the day, she’s my ancestor. It’s my call.”
“That’s not a thing!”
“It is now.”
“Why?” A car honked in the parking lot, the shrill punch of noise making Miles grind his teeth. He had to forcibly relax before he could speak. “You know we’re going to find Jocelyn eventually, she’s in the premonition. We have the grimoire, we’re working on the curse—”
Emily had been letting them bicker, but now she cleared her throat to interrupt. “Hypothetically, how would we summon her? Is there a way we could make the ritual less dangerous?”
“It’s in the grimoire, which means it’s black magic,” Miles explained. “There’s no changing that.”
“It’s a simple spell,” Gabriel answered, like Miles hadn’t spoken. He pulled a notebook from his bag, flipped to a page and showed them. “And I have the ingredients here.” It was a short list.
– Sap from the manchineel tree
– Queen of poisons (fresh)
– Baby teeth of a firstborn son
– Nails from a tainted coffin
– Bone of a black cat
Miles scanned it dubiously. In the distance, a leaf blower whined as the custodian started his daily sweep along the school sidewalks. “You did this from memory? Are you sure it’s right?”
Gabriel scoffed, like he’d never heard a more ridiculous question. “Of course I’m sure. I told you, I have near eidetic memory.”
Well, excuse him for asking. “I don’t even know what most of these things are. And we can’t do the ritual without them.”
“We could ask Nadia,” Emily suggested, then bit her lip when Miles shot her a betrayed look. “Sorry. Gabriel has a point—if we could end things with one spell, we should do it. Charlee and I can come. If we’re all there watching each other’s backs, it doesn’t get much safer than that.”
She hadn’t been around the grimoire. She didn’t know what it was like. But the thought of being able to get rid of it so soon was tempting. Life could get back on track.
He and Gabriel could get back on track.
“And what if something goes wrong? What if the magic takes one of us over, or something evil comes out of the book?”
“We’d have to all agree the moment something feels odd or doesn’t go according to plan, we stop and regroup,” Emily said. She made it sound simple. Easy.
“Every plan we make has a risk.” Gabriel’s voice was softer than it had been in days as he met Miles’s eyes. “At least with this one, we won’t be walking in unaware. If it keeps us away from that tomb, we should try.”
It had to come down to risk versus reward, and living without the Grim Reaper breathing down their necks was an enticing prize. Miles might be able to sleep through the night without seeing Gabriel dying in his dreams again and again.
His resolve wavered. “We’re only doing this if we have the right stuff—we got lucky with Jake. I’m not giving the grimoire any chance to screw us over. And if Charlee agrees,” he added. She’d tell him if this was a terrible idea.
Gabriel gave him Nadia’s number. Miles sent a picture of the ingredient list with a quick explanation. If Nadia couldn’t help, they were out of luck—there was no way Miles’s mom kept a stash of baby teeth next to the dried rose petals.
He supposed he should be relieved there wasn’t anything worse on the list, like a live kitten sacrifice or fresh baby’s blood.
Gabriel pulled a face when Miles sent the text. “Don’t get too close to Nadia. They might stab you in the back.”
“Let it go.” A brave squirrel scampered by them, beady eyes fixed on the box of doughnuts a tall, red-haired guy had just opened on the table beside theirs. “They were trying to save you from yourself. How many more days would you’ve spent in that freezing backroom if we hadn’t come?”
“That’s not the point.”
“If it makes you feel any better,” Emily offered, waving at a pair of girls in matching polka-dot pajamas, “I’d already figured out where you were. A bus ghost ratted you out.”
Gabriel blinked. “The ghost of a—”
“No, no. A ghost haunting a bus. The one you took to Sage and Starlight.”
A disgusted noise escaped Gabriel. “And I thought I was unlucky.”
“Speaking of, how was riding a public bus for the first time?” Miles teased with a grin.
“Enlightening. My chauffeur deserves a raise.”
Miles laughed, the sound mingling with the bell as it rang, echoing across the campus. Around them, everyone started gathering their things to head inside.
There was nothing to do now but wait to hear from Nadia. Miles wasn’t thrilled about the potential risks, but he had to admit it did feel nice to have a plan again. Even if it was a wildly dangerous, borderline suicidal one.
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