“Kami,” Jared said as he lunged between her and the door.
Kami was forced to look at him. She had to tip her head back because otherwise she was eye level with his collarbone: his shirt was still all undone, crumpled white cotton against an expanse of pale-gold-tanned skin, a thin chain glittering at his neck.
He’d kept wearing the coin she had sent him. By now Kami supposed it was habit. Possibly Holly had grabbed it, the way she had obviously been grabbing at his hair.
“You’re in my way,” Kami said, keeping her voice level. “I suggest you get out of it.”
“I want to tell you something,” Jared said.
Kami had absolutely no right to mind what Jared and Holly did, and she was perfectly prepared to listen to what Jared had to say. But was this the time or the place, Kami thought, for a heart-to-heart?
Was this the outfit? She had seen Jared in nothing but his underwear before, but that had been in the darkness of a closed swimming pool. This was an actual room, an actual bedroom with actual lights on. He seemed a lot more naked now, with his shirt pulled open and the blurred touch of Holly’s candy-pink lipstick on his jaw.
“Kami,” Jared repeated. His voice scraped on her name: it sounded like it hurt him to say, but maybe it just hurt to hear. He reached out a hand, fingers curved as if he was going to cup her face. He never touched her, and she couldn’t let him start now. Kami took a step back, even though that meant being a step closer to the bed Jared and Holly had obviously been rolling around and around in.
Jared surveyed the place as if he was startled by his own room, the mess of the bed, his reflection in the mirror, and then looked back at Kami. “I didn’t mean it,” he said.
“You didn’t mean what?” Kami asked. She was furious with him: this wasn’t the kind of thing you did accidentally.
“What I said to you in the library at Aurimere,” Jared said. “After you broke the link.”
So he wasn’t talking about something that had happened moments ago in this room. He was talking about something that had happened weeks ago.
“You wanted to break the link,” Jared said.
“Rob would have killed me if I hadn’t broken it!”
Jared bowed his head. “I know. I just meant that even before Rob, you didn’t want for me to be dependent on you like that. I was furious with you for breaking the link, for wanting to. I didn’t think that you would believe me or care, but it was still stupid of me, and wrong. I’m sorry.”
“That’s why you said it?” Kami asked.
“I told myself it was best to make a clean break. I didn’t want to hang around and have you taking pity on me. I thought it would be best for you. And I was angry with you and I wanted to hurt you. I didn’t think I could hurt you, but I tried. I know it was terrible of me to feel that way, wanting to hurt you and wanting the absolute best for you, at any cost, all at the same time. I know that it makes no sense.”
It made less sense than anything Kami had ever heard in her life. Everything Jared was saying, about what she had said about the link, it was true but not the whole truth. And why would she take pity on him?
He had told her, in the dark cold heart of Aurimere, that she was nothing special. She had been at her most lost and lonely, and she had carried around with her the lingering fear that it might be true.
He knew her better than anyone.
Now he said it wasn’t true. It was like a weight had been taken off her, a stone that had been pressing against her chest so long, she had almost become used to it.
“I don’t think you’re weak,” Jared said. “I want to guard you because you are important to me. Because you are—God, this is going to sound so stupid, I can never think of a way to say it—you are precious. I can never think of how to describe the value you have to me, because all the words for value suggest that you belong to me, and you don’t.”
“All right,” Kami answered at last. “Thank you for telling me.”
He looked up when she spoke and kept looking, eyes fastened on her. She felt his gaze like a pull on her, as if he expected some response. She wanted to say she forgave him, but she couldn’t prioritize his feelings over hers, not when he was the one who had lashed out.
“Now you know you can hurt me,” she said. “So don’t.” She waited for him to nod and added quietly, “You’re important to me too. I want to be friends again.”
“Then that’s what I want too,” he said.
She had come intending to tell him of the discovery she had made, and to talk to him about the kiss. She could still tell him about the discovery. But she wanted out of this room.
“I have something to show you,” she said. “But not here. I’m a little uncomfortable being here—not that I mind, of course I don’t—”
Jared repeated after her, his voice flat, “Of course.”
“Can I just go?”
“Of course,” Jared said again, still standing in front of the door.
“Can I go through the door,” Kami asked, “or do I have to execute a super-spy rappelling maneuver and make it out through the window?”
Jared looked torn between a smile and some other expression Kami couldn’t read. He didn’t move away from in front of the door. “What do you have to show me? Tell me where you’ll be and I’ll come.”
“I was thinking I would be outside the pub,” Kami said. She would have settled for the other side of the door. All she wanted was to be out of the room, and he obviously understood the situation so little that he thought they could hang around chatting forever.
Kami moved forward and Jared stepped aside, eyes following her as she went. She reached out for the handle and pulled the door open, and escaped at last.
Outside in the dark street, she lifted her face to the winter-torn sky, the cold wind washing her heated skin, and she told herself that she must be the stupidest person alive.
When Jared came out of the inn, his shirt was buttoned and his jacket was zipped up to the chin, and his face and hair were wet as if he’d run a tap over his head. There were droplets of water running down his brow, and his collar was damp.
“I really am sorry for interrupting,” Kami said.
Jared frowned at her. “You didn’t interrupt anything.” He’d never lied to her when they were linked, but she supposed he was embarrassed.
“So I performed a little experiment,” Kami said. “Ash had to have Amber’s possession to break her spell. Ash and Lillian had to use Rob’s and Rosalind’s hair to make their spell work on them. I figured that this spell twisting our voices might not work on a sorcerer. I hypothesized, if you will, that a sorcerer might be able to hear us.”
Kami took her phone out of her pocket with a flourish and said, “Look what I can do.” She rang a London number and waited a few moments before a voice came on the line.
“Hi, Henry Thornton speaking.”
“Hi there,” Kami said. “This is Kami Glass? You remember me from when we visited you in London and couldn’t help but notice you were a sorcerer. You pulled a gun on my friend and I hit you with a chair.”
“Don’t call me, Kami.” There was the sound of a quick indrawn breath and then the beep of a dial tone.
Kami looked triumphantly up at Jared. “The magic doesn’t work on other sorcerers! Henry can hear us.”
“Henry, our new best friend,” Jared said, circling around her in the nighttime street. “I hope he can put this whole trying-to-shoot-me thing behind us. He doesn’t seem that keen to help out.”
Kami grinned at him. “Because I have not yet worked my persuasive mojo on him.”
“I didn’t realize it was a matter of mojo.”
“I want to be a journalist,” Kami said. “That means I have to coax my sources into trusting me and spilling all their secrets. It’s a very subtle, yet effective, process.”
Jared tilted his head, a streetlight combing his hair with gold. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Kami redialed Henry’s number. T
his time Henry answered after one ring.
“Don’t call again. I am not interested in anything you have to say.”
“We hate Rob Lynburn too,” Kami said quickly. “He tried to kill my best friend. She beat him half to death with a chain. And he’s trying to take over our town.”
“Isn’t that what the town was made for, though?” Henry asked. “Maybe you should all get out of there and leave them to it.”
Isn’t that what the town was made for?
Sorry-in-the-Vale, where she had been born, where she had run through sun-bright streets every summer. Made to be ruled, made to thrive on blood. “You expect us to run away and abandon our home? You didn’t close the door and hide behind it when we came to see you and you thought Rob had sent us,” Kami said. “You got a weapon and you came out and faced us. You were ready to fight.”
Henry was silent for a moment longer, then said in a low voice, “People shouldn’t use sorcery like he does.”
“We need you to fight again,” Kami said. “Rob is going to sacrifice someone on the winter solstice, and there aren’t enough sorcerers to stand against him. We need help.”
“I can’t exactly call the police,” Henry told her.
“Officer, I have a serious magical emergency,” Kami said. She was pleased by Henry’s quiet laugh. “No. Surely there are other sorcerers you could talk to? People who wouldn’t agree with what Rob Lynburn is doing?”
“I don’t know that many other sorcerers.”
“But you know some.”
“Sorry-in-the-Vale,” Henry said, and hesitated. “People talk about it like it’s a law unto itself. The other sorcerers might want to keep away from it, like they always have.”
“But if you talked to them,” Kami said. “Lillian Lynburn doesn’t want this any more than you or I do. If you could make them understand that there are sorcerers here who don’t want to go back to the old ways or the old laws, do you think they might help?”
“I could try,” Henry said at last. “We’re not a community like the Vale sorcerers, but there are a few of us who try to keep in touch. I can ask.”
“Thank you,” Kami told him. She hoped he could hear how much she meant it.
“Good luck, Kami,” Henry told her. “I really will try.”
Kami said to the dial tone, “That’s all I ask.” She slipped her phone into her pocket and looked up at Jared. “Well?”
He was just looking at her; she couldn’t quite read his expression. “ ‘My best friend beat Rob Lynburn half to death with a chain’?” Jared asked. “I thought you said you were going for subtle.”
Kami opened her mouth and closed it, so overcome with indignation that she could not speak.
“But you really pulled off effective,” Jared added with a grin.
Kami remembered how the feeling that provoked that grin had felt, his amusement rippling through her. She could not help smiling back. “Less of your sass, Lynburn. Nobody likes a tavern wench who gives them backchat. It’ll be hell on your tips.”
“My tips are extremely good,” Jared noted. “Mrs. Jeffries from the post office seems to like how I wear a pair of jeans. Or possibly she’s waiting to like how I wear Perfectly Luscious Plum Lip Gloss.”
“I think you should try it. I bet it would suit you.” Kami hesitated. She’d told Jared about Henry, and interrupted him with Holly. She couldn’t think of any other reason to stay.
“Come back inside,” Jared said. “It’s freezing out here. And as the resident tavern wench, I can score you a hot toddy.” He held open the door for her.
“Yeah,” Kami said, and smiled up at him. “All right.”
“I will, however, be expecting a tip.”
“Why is it always saucy o’clock for tavern wenches, that is what I want to know,” Kami said, passing into the bright warmth of the bar. Then she stopped so abruptly that Jared walked into her. He jerked back as soon as they touched.
Kami barely even registered it.
Sharing a bench in the Water Rising, leaning into each other whispering and flirting, were Rusty and Amber Green. Rusty, and one of Rob Lynburn’s sorcerers.
Chapter Seventeen
The Montgomery Secret
Kami did not know how to tell Angela about her brother’s decision to date evil.
The next day, The Nosy Parker came out, with the article Kami had written to explain sorcery to her brothers in it. The article did not specifically mention magic, or Rob Lynburn’s demands. It talked about Sorry-in-the-Vale being under threat, the temptation to do nothing, and the absolute necessity of standing against evil.
Kami left the table in the front hall of the school stacked high with newspapers, and when she came back with Angela before her first class, the table was bare.
“You realize this means you have to photocopy some more in your free class,” Kami instructed Angela sternly.
“I like to think of it as my nap class,” Angela said. “I’m a very advanced student, but I’ve got to keep in training.”
“We have to spread the message of rebellion.”
“I don’t know how you expect me to fight evil while insufficiently rested,” Angela complained.
They were walking down the hall together. Angela was swinging her messenger bag and there was a multicolored scarf flying blazing colors from her neck. She seemed, insofar as one could tell with Angela, happy.
Angela changed the direction of her sphinxlike smile suddenly, and Kami glanced around to see Holly approaching in a cloud of bright curls and fuzzy pink jumper.
“Hi, Angie,” Holly said, and in a more subdued manner: “Hi, Kami.” She fell into step with them, walking on Kami’s other side, and said, “I got you some of my parents’ things.” She pressed a little bag into Kami’s hand, like a peace offering.
“Thank you,” said Kami.
Her hope that they could leave it at that died when Holly said, “So we should probably talk.”
“I have no objection to talking, ever, at any time at all,” Kami said. “You most likely know this about me already. But if you’re thinking of what I think you’re thinking of, we don’t really need to talk about it. I mean, it’s none of my business. Though I’m sorry about my amazingly awkward timing.”
“Don’t be sorry,” Holly said. “It wasn’t anything, I swear. I don’t want to have caused any trouble between you guys.”
“There’s always trouble between us,” Kami told her. “But none of it is your fault. We had a talk after you were gone; I think it went okay.”
“Oh, good.” Holly glanced at Angie and bit her lip. “I wanted to say I was sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Kami said firmly. “But if you have any free classes today, please photocopy some extra copies of the paper and I promise to love you always and forgive you for any evil you ever do. Some say love cannot be bought, but mine is available at this time for anyone with a good heart and the ability to use a photocopier.”
Holly looked uncertain, but Kami kept a stare of laser-like focus on her and she gave in. She dropped the subject, and offered, “I do have a free class after lunch.”
“So do I,” said Angela, and did not mention napping.
Kami gave her a betrayed look, which Angela deserved for being one of those girls who was willing to go above and beyond in the cause of fancying people and not in the sacred name of friendship. “Also, I have some good news,” Kami said, and then saw Amber Green go into the ladies’. “Which I will tell you later! Go on ahead without me!” she finished brightly, and darted after her quarry.
Kami was in luck. There was nobody else in the bathroom. Amber was in front of the mirror applying lip gloss. The little tube clattered into the sink when Kami came in and leaned against the door.
Kami saw her face in the mirror, eyes wide and lips parted. Then her expression shut down, every feature clicking into place and forming a mask.
“Hey, Amber,” Kami said. “I want to talk.”
Every ta
p in the bathroom glittered as they all turned at once. A half dozen streams of water were in sudden hissing unison, like a chorus line of snakes. “Well,” Amber said, “I don’t.”
Kami looked at the sinks splashing with water. “Is that meant to intimidate me?”
Over Kami’s head, the skylight splintered. She looked up and saw the sudden cracks, reflecting rainbow points, racing to join together and form a spiderweb. Then the skylight imploded, sending shards raining down on her shoulders and hair.
Kami closed her eyes and waited for the glass to stop falling. When she opened them, she saw Amber standing with her back to the sinks, hands behind her back gripping onto the porcelain. Amber was standing in a flood with her shoes getting wet. She didn’t seem to notice. She was staring at Kami.
Kami saw her own face in the mirror. There was a cut on her cheek, and the rising red of blood.
“Maybe you killed some animals,” Kami said with growing confidence. “But we’ve known each other since we were born. We sat together in class for five years. You got in trouble for talking during a test once when you loaned me a sharpener.”
“I’m not your friend,” Amber told her sharply. “We were never friends.”
“I know that,” Kami said. “But you know me. And you’re not going to kill me.” She took a step forward and Amber’s body tensed. The memory of Sergeant Kenn’s thorns slicing into her arms came back to her. She could get really hurt if she was guessing wrong. Kami stepped forward again, and Amber’s eyes dropped.
“What are you doing with Rob Lynburn?”
“What are you thinking, standing against him?” Amber asked softly. “Don’t you realize he can—we can do magic? This town was built for sorcerers to rule. What makes you think you can stand against us? What are you, stupid?”
“Is that what you want?” Kami asked. “To rule?”