19. Boy Kings #2
“We don’t have time to debate—we need to get to work.
” Kelly surveyed the table, distributing assignments like a professional blackjack dealer.
“Luna, Elias: you portal to New York tonight. Find that coven, convince them to help us. If there are ethical concerns, work them out somehow. Meanwhile, I’ll handle Louise, set up a meeting with her mysterious investor friend.
” She turned to Scarlett. “You start working your tech world contacts. Carefully. We want to generate interest in CastR without tipping our hand.”
“I can be subtle,” Scarlett said.
“Since when?” Delilah asked.
“Since right now, apparently.”
Kelly continued. “Delilah, you and Jasper put those historian heads together. We need to figure out this Salem situation. How we make amends. We’ll need magician help against Vex, which means we need to address the past.” She paused.
“See if you can find any of them who might be sympathetic to our cause.”
The group began breaking up—chairs scraping, people standing, plans being set in motion. Scarlett and Delilah flanked Luna like protective bookends.
“You need help with the portal?” Scarlett asked.
Luna gave her a look. “I’ve been portaling since I was eleven. I think I can manage.”
“You didn’t have CastR glitches to deal with, though.”
“I can handle it, Scar.”
“Okay, baby sister. Go get ’em.” Scarlett squeezed her shoulder as she passed, and Delilah did the same.
Kelly went to settle up with Dayo. Jerusha finished her Singapore Sling and rose with the careful dignity of someone who’d had exactly the right amount to drink.
Soon it was just Luna and Elias at the table, surrounded by the debris of their evening—empty glasses, picked-over plates, and a lingering memory of Frankie Shaw.
The silence stretched uncomfortably.
“What?” Elias finally snapped. “What are you going to say?”
“You know what I’m going to say.”
“I really don’t.”
“The con in Florida. The one that made you famous.”
“I’m a minor celebrity at most,” he said, going for levity.
“That was revenge for your brother.”
He shrugged. “Sure. Why not? What difference does it make now?”
“It makes a huge difference now.” There was steel in her voice. “Your nemesis is mixed up in the whole CastR situation. Which makes me worry about your priorities.”
“Don’t worry your pretty head about—”
“Hear this, Shaw. This plan of ours, to humiliate Vex and destroy CastR? It’s not personal, one pissed-off magician versus another.
This is about the future of not only our community here in Oak Haven but of all magical communities everywhere.
We can’t afford to have you turning this into Attempt Number Two to get revenge for Franklin. ”
The sound of his brother’s name in her mouth made something in his chest twist sharply. “Why are you assuming that’s what I would do?”
“Because that’s what I would do.” Her voice softened. “If anyone did to one of my siblings what Burke did to yours, I’d never stop coming after them. Void or no Void.”
“Well, I guess I must be more adult than you, doll. Because I won’t allow myself to be distracted by an old lizard like Burke.” He stood and offered a hand to help her up. “We have a plan, and it’s not too shabby of a plan, and that’s what we’re doing.”
Luna let him pull her to her feet. She glanced down at the floor, where glittering shards of his pint glass were still scattered across the old wood. “Your drink suggests different.”
“I was surprised, is all.”
He pulled her closer. Too close, close enough that he could count the flecks of gold in her eyes, close enough to see her breath catch.
Then he kissed her. It was fierce and desperate and a terrible idea, but he needed her to stop talking about Frankie, stop looking at him like she could see straight through to all his broken places.
When they broke apart, Luna was breathless. “Well. Now you’ve caught me flat-footed.”
“As intended.” He kept his voice light, easy. “Come on, let’s have ourselves a fine night out in the Big Apple.”
They headed for the door, stepping out into the warm Oak Haven evening.
The street was quiet, lit by old-fashioned lampposts casting pools of amber light.
Luna moved a few feet from the pub’s entrance: one needed space for portals, room for the magic to breathe.
But before she could start the spell, she turned and looked at him.
Really looked at him, with an intensity that made Elias want to squirm like a kid caught stealing.
“It has to be enough, Shaw.” Her voice was soft but immovable. “Destroying CastR has to be enough.”
Elias nodded. “Don’t you worry about me, Melrose.”
“I’m going to anyway.”
“Yeah . . . I figured.”
Luna’s hands began to move, tracing the familiar patterns of a portal spell.
Suddenly he thought, Wait. We’re leaving Oak Haven, which means . . . Struck by the sudden realization, Elias reached out and stopped her hands. “Hang on . . . Am I about to forget everything that’s happened?”
She turned to look at him. There was a certain gentle concern in her expression, a look he’d never received before, and it made him ashamed, somehow, to be afraid. “Happens to everybody, Shaw. It’s fine, I promise.”
“Says the gal who is not about to get her memory erased.”
“Your memories won’t be erased completely, just . . . edited a bit.”
“Ohh,” he chuckled, but his grip on her hands grew tighter. “Well, that’s fine. Can’t imagine what I was concerned about.”
Smiling, Luna reached out. She took his face in both hands and kissed him.
“See now? That’s my point, Melrose. I won’t remember you just did that.”
She kissed him once more. Slowly, deliberately, as though she was trying to assure him that this moment would last beyond his memory of it. His hands tightened around her waist, and for just a moment, Elias forgot how to be clever.
As they broke apart, she moved to whisper in his ear. “I’ll remind you.”
Luna turned away, returning to the balletic gestures required for a portal spell. The air shimmered, warped, and opened: a perfect circle of elsewhere hovering in the Oak Haven night. Through it, Elias could see the lights of New York City, could hear the distant wail of sirens and traffic.
For just a moment, before stepping through, he paused to try and organize his mind.
He tried to commit Oak Haven to a permanent place in his brain, hoping that, just maybe, a true con man like him could outsmart the brain-bending magic of this little town.
He tried to save the cobblestone streets.
The warm, nostalgic lobby of the Stargazer Inn.
The faces of the people he’d met, all those pirates and witches and magicians.
But much as he tried, Shaw’s stubborn, uncooperative mind brought other memories to the fore instead.
Frankie’s laugh, back in that Egyptian tomb.
The way his brother had lit up when he talked about the money they’d make, the adventures they’d have.
That murderous old linen in his pocket, lying in wait to end it all.
Luna was already stepping through the portal, glancing back to make sure he was following.
He was. Of course he was. But as he crossed the threshold between Oak Haven and New York, between the plan they’d made and the revenge he’d never stopped wanting, Elias couldn’t quite silence the voice in the back of his head.
It was a voice that sounded suspiciously like Frankie. A voice that said: You owe me more than this. A voice that said: Finish it.