Frowning, Felicity nodded.

  Jane walked over to her bed, sighed, flopped down, and shook her head. “I guess I’ve been an idiot.”

  “An idiot?”

  “For the last three years, a part of me actually suspected that you could be the real culprit. Broadstone seemed to think you were. But I forgot the golden rule, didn’t I? You can’t trust a damn thing the school says. Sorry,” she added.

  Things had changed so fast, Felicity couldn’t help but shake her head. “… Are you really going to trust me that quickly?”

  Jane stuttered with laughter. “What are you talking about? It’s taken me all week to trust you. It’s taken me learning about blood contracts, running away from Belinda, and helping you out in potions class,” she said pointedly, “to trust you. Finding out your real name doesn’t change anything. I’m sorry I reacted badly to it,” she added again.

  Felicity just stared at Jane in total surprise. “How did you just do that?” she asked quietly.

  Jane reached over and grabbed her grandfather’s magical book. She started to play with it. She stopped, and her fingers closed around the spine lovingly. She shrugged. “What are you talking about?”

  “How did you… wipe away your anger so quickly?” It took a long time for Felicity to push those words out of her mouth.

  The word anger, for whatever reason, was getting harder and harder to say. The more her rage helped her out when nothing else would, the more complicated her relationship with her darker side became.

  Jane shrugged again. She now grabbed her book tighter. “I guess my grandfather helped me learn how to do that. He always told me that the greatest evidence you have about a person is their character. I might not have known your name, and I might’ve erroneously believed that Felicity,” she deliberately lowered her voice, despite the fact there were no surveillance spells anymore, “was responsible for the murders, but now I know you’re Felicity, I know that can’t be true.”

  All Felicity could think of was her argument – okay, her many arguments – with Lucifer. She was always hot and cold with him. She went from having a crush on him, to hating his guts. Yeah, okay, she got that Lucifer was quite different. Character assessments weren’t exactly as reliable when you were dealing with a demon. But how could Jane trust her intuition about people so much? And why couldn’t Felicity do that with Lucifer?

  Jane laughed. It was soft and friendly. “Don’t worry, I used to have a lot of problems with trusting people myself. Especially after my grandfather’s death.” She cast her momentarily morose gaze down to her book. She lovingly let her fingers trail across the cover. That was enough to ground her, and she quickly darted her head up. A broad smile spread her lips. “You’ve done nothing but trust and help me over the past week, Felicity. And your actions speak far louder than your infamous name. Now, are you going to tell me more about what’s going on here?”

  Felicity caved. She walked over to Jane’s bed and sat down roughly. “There are bits I still can’t tell you.”

  “Sure, I get that. What should we do?”

  It was time to break some rules. “Have you ever heard of something called Magnum Optimus?” Felicity asked, even though Professor Brown had already sworn her to secrecy about that group. Felicity would be breaking countless rules right now. Hell, those very same rules could probably get her kicked out of Magnum Optimus. Not before, hopefully, she had a chance to completely trash the place and burn Broadstone down to the ground.

  Jane didn’t make a confused face. Her eyes widened. “Yeah, I have. It’s some kind of secret fight club in the school or something, isn’t it?”

  Though Felicity kind of wanted to laugh at Jane referring to it as a fight club, it was one, wasn’t it? And it was one with real-life consequences.

  Felicity rubbed her shoulder. “I guess you can call it that. The best students are pitted against each other. The more you rise through the ranks, the more of the school’s power is revealed to you. You also rise through the ranks in the real world. The reason Belinda was kicked out – and the reason her family lost everything – was because when I defeated her yesterday, I defeated her blood contracts and got her kicked out of Magnum Optimus.”

  “I’m sorry, she used blood contracts on you?” Jane’s voice shot all the way up. It was scandalized and terrified, but more than anything, angry.

  Felicity scratched her ear. “Yeah, she did. And one of them… one of them was a guy.”

  Jane’s anger was derailed. It didn’t disappear; it was just put on pause as she no doubt realized that she was about to hear something that she would get truly furious at.

  Felicity took a breath and told Jane everything. Okay, not everything. She left out the part about her getting seriously injured and Lucifer picking her up and taking her back to The Devil Man. She did, however, share one very important detail. She shared that, once upon a time, she’d been a pending blood contract herself for none other than Damien King.

  When Felicity let that particular fact drop, Jane became deathly silent.

  Felicity tried to break the uncomfortable moment with a laugh. She didn’t follow up by saying anything, though, because she couldn’t find anything funny about this entire situation.

  Quickly, Jane slipped a hand over and grabbed Felicity’s. She secured her fingers in tightly. But she didn’t say a word.

  Felicity tried to laugh it off, but the laugh became stuck in her throat. “It’s okay. I guess… though I just found out about it yesterday, I guess I’m okay with it.”

  “You don’t need to be okay with it, Felicity. He used you.”

  “Don’t get me wrong.” Felicity tilted her head up and stared at the window. It calmed her nerves in a way nothing else could. “I’m angry. I’ll probably be angry for the rest of my life. But I can put it in perspective. I’m not going to let that happen to anyone else.”

  “You need to tell me what I can do to help you,” Jane said conclusively. “If you want me to go up to Jake, hold him against the wall, and help you punch him to a pulp, I’ll do it.”

  Felicity laughed. She placed her hands behind herself, and she leaned back. All the while, she kept staring out the window. “You know this was my room, right? That was my bed.” She nodded over at her old bed.

  Jane stared. “Yeah, I did know that Felicity Smith had been in this room. It was one of the first things Belinda told me. She would threaten anyone who came into this room that they would be the next Felicity. She promised to bully them relentlessly until they cracked.”

  “Believe it or not, it wasn’t the bullying that made me crack,” Felicity admitted quietly. She didn’t add what it had been that had finally made her snap. She was still, believe it or not, trying to figure that out. Abruptly, she stood.

  Jane followed her without question. “Time to investigate?” Jane headed for the door.

  “Hold up – we need to figure out what to investigate first. There are a lot of things on our plate.” Felicity deliberately said our and not my. “We need to locate where the blood spell’s moved to. I need to keep an eye on you,” she added, “and I have to find out more about the new principal. Oh, and I have to keep an eye on Jake.”

  “Then find him and take him up on his offer. Go out with him tonight. It will be invaluable data. Though you’ll probably have to stop yourself from throwing up all over him,” Jane added with a half-smile.

  Felicity had told Jane about everything that had transpired with Jake.

  Felicity quickly shook her head. “Like I said, I want to keep an eye on you. I have a feeling that things are going to heat up quickly. If at any time you want to leave this school, I can find you a safe place to stay—”

  “I’m not gonna leave until the last moment. Even then, you’ll have to drag me kicking and screaming away from your side. You’ve given me something I’ve never had before, Felicity,” she said quietly, never using Felicity’s real name loudly. “You’ve given me hope. Maybe it’s foolish, but maybe it isn’t. Then again, maybe if I stick by your side, and I help you out, I’ll be able to change the school. That’s worth a little risk. So go find Jake. I guarantee you that he hasn’t left yet. Students tend to head out on the town around 8 o’clock. It’s only 7 now. We’ve got time.”

  “What about you?”

  “I’ll tag along. I’ve been,” Jane bit her lip, “been working on an invisibility spell.”

  Felicity didn’t arch an eyebrow.

  Jane gestured wide. “Yeah, I get it – it’ll be absolutely nothing compared to the spells that you can produce, but it should be enough to help me tag along. It will have the added benefit of me being by your side and being able to watch your back while you can keep an eye on me. But no one else will have a clue that I’m there.”

  Felicity rolled her tongue through her teeth. “Jake is an exceptional practitioner. Though I don’t want to be mean to you—”

  Jane sighed. “You want to break it to me lightly that any invisibility spell I can produce wouldn’t be anywhere near strong enough to hide me from him, ha? Dammit. I thought it was a great plan.” She flopped back on her bed.

  “It’s a good plan,” Felicity said reluctantly. She really didn’t want to drag Jane further into this, but Jane was right. Felicity needed to keep an eye on Jake. This was a good way to do it. Felicity lifted her hands. She brought them up to her lips, rubbed them together, and breathed on them as if she was warming them up for some spell. And she was. But critically, she was warming Lucifer’s seals up. Lucifer had said that it was good that she made a friend. Hopefully that extended to using his magic on said friend. There was no way Felicity’s own magic would be enough to cast a complete invisibility spell on Jane – one that would have a hope of hiding her from Jake. But Lucifer was another category, wasn’t he?

  Jane stood warily. “You’re going to cast a real invisibility spell on me, aren’t you? Wow, this is insane. Exactly what are you doing? Can you tell me? Or is this the kind of thing I can’t learn?”

  Even if Jane tried for the rest of her life, she would never be able to learn how to do this.

  Felicity concentrated. She breathed on one of her seals once more, and finally she felt a flicker of Lucifer’s magic. Great. He’d only be releasing it if he agreed with this plan.

  Felicity opened her fingers wide. Lucifer’s magic charged over them. Fortunately it wasn’t conspicuously the force of a demon. It just looked like a seriously strong enchantment as it curled around her fingers and leaped high into the air.

  She wasted no more time in opening her hands wider and suddenly spreading them in Jane’s direction.

  Jane was smart enough to stand her ground and not jolt back. It was a bad idea to change your position too much when magic was being cast on you. If it was a strong spell, then it would be calibrated for different parts of your body. You wouldn’t want the kind of force intended for, say, your back, to smash into your nose.

  Jane didn’t even shudder as the magic escaped around her, charged up her throat, and started to settle over her body.

  A second later, she just disappeared. Felicity felt Lucifer’s invisible hand suddenly press across her eyes. Though all she wanted to do was grab his fingers and hold them in place, and maybe even nuzzle them for a few precious seconds, there wasn’t the time. Plus, this wasn’t the equivalent of his embrace last night. He was giving her the capacity to see through Jane’s invisibility spell.

  It worked. Jane reappeared right where she’d been.

  Jane patted herself down. “Can you see me, Felicity?” She took a step forward and waved her hand in front of Felicity’s face. “Damn, can you even hear me?”

  Felicity grabbed Jane’s hand. She nodded. “Yeah, I can see and hear you. But the spell has worked. I’ve just coded myself into it so that I can observe you. Now, come on. I really don’t want to find Jake and tag along with him, but if we do this quickly, I guess it will be like ripping a Band-Aid off.”

  But if you rip a Band-Aid off too soon, what happens?

  You bleed.

  4

  Together, they walked out.

  Jane didn’t say a word. It wouldn’t matter if she started singing at the top of her lungs. Felicity could tell that Lucifer had done an exceptional job on Jane’s invisibility spell. Even a full demon might not be able to see her.

  Felicity found her thoughts centering on Lucifer more and more as she walked through the corridors.

  If it weren’t for Jane’s help, she wouldn’t have found Jake.

  Honestly, Felicity had only been at the school for a little under a week. She had no clue where all of the various haunts for the students were.

  Jane found him.

  He was sitting in one of the expensive lounges on the top floor of the school.

  It was technically near the boys’ dormitories, but it was coed.

  There were two very pretty female students sitting beside him, and his arms were spread wide against the back of the couch. He looked like he was some mob caricature in a film.

  As soon as he saw Felicity, a smile practically ate his face off.

  There were other elites in the lounge – this place belonged to them, after all. At her approach, they reacted like they’d just seen a snake in the grass.

  One girl actually hissed at Felicity. Though Felicity didn’t bother to turn to her, out of the corner of her eye, she could see it was one of Belinda’s old Hornets. She looked decidedly less full of herself than she had several days ago.

  Felicity walked right up to Jake and stopped in front of the couch.

  She looked at one girl, then the other, then over at Jake. “You still want to go out tonight?”

  Both girls spluttered. Felicity could feel the indignation in the room. It was like a nuclear bomb getting ready to take out the school.

  “Jake, what the hell is she—” one girl began.

  Jake licked his lips. He actually licked his lips.

  “Oh, God, that’s gross,” Jane said beside Felicity.

  Felicity tried not to laugh. She also tried not to hit him.

  He rose. He looked her up and down. If he continued to do that, she would honestly put hooks in his eyes to retrain them to where they needed to stay.

  “I would’ve thought that you’d be too proud to change your mind. What? Did you decide that you couldn’t keep away from me? Then come on.”

  “The offer still stands,” Jane said. “I’ll hold him, and you can punch.”

  Felicity smiled. It wasn’t at Jake’s offer.

  He didn’t know that.

  He went to sweep in close to place an arm around her.

  Felicity just backed off and stared at him steadily. “You promised me that I could see more of the real magical world tonight. Does that offer still stand?”

  “I’ll show you whatever you want. Why, what kind of night are you looking for?”

  Preferably a violent one, she thought to herself. She shrugged. “I guess I want to see more of how you people live.” On the term you people, she swept her gaze around the room.

  The very last thing she wanted to do was hang out with the elites for a night. She didn’t need to know how they lived – she was already fully aware. Jake would no doubt take her to one of the exceptionally prestigious magical clubs in town. Felicity had been to them more times than she could count, because often the people she was tracking down for Lucifer would hang out there.

  They were all the same. They were ostentatious, full of people who thought they were better than everyone else, and a waste of damn time.

  “All right,” his eyes flashed, “I’ll show you a night to remember. I’ll take you to a club that’s virtually impossible to get into unless you know the right people.”

  It’s going to be The Wicker Man, isn’t it? Felicity thought to herself.

  “You probably haven’t even heard of it—”

  “It’s The Wicker Man, isn’t it?” Felicity couldn’t hold her tongue.

  Several of the elites gasped.

  God, this interaction was so fake, it was like it had been scripted. If these people really had such two-dimensional lives that they honestly just waited around on Jake King, gasping and laughing and doting on him whenever he needed to make a point, he might as well replace them with puppets.

  His eyes narrowed. “I guess you know more about this world than you let on. Why, should we go somewhere else? Somewhere a little bit more fun. How about,” he twisted his jaw around, “The Devil Man?”

  Felicity didn’t react, even as he looked at her pryingly. He was just playing with her. He had no damn clue whatsoever where she ultimately came from.

  She looked at her nails. She pushed her cuticles down and shrugged. “Let’s go to The Wicker Man.”

  “Now?” He looked at his watch. “It’s only 7 o’clock.”

  “From what I know of The Wicker Man, that’s irrelevant. The party runs 24 hours.”

  “How the hell do you know that?” one of Jake’s yes-girls snapped.

  “You overhear a lot of things in the bathrooms at Broadstone,” she commented from experience.

  Jake chuckled. He didn’t, thankfully, try to rest his arm around her again. He just nodded and gestured her forward.

  She wanted to make a face at the back of his head, but too many people were watching her. So Jane made one for her. She also faked headbutting him. “Wow, I never knew how fake this guy was. Can you believe, in my first few years, I actually had a crush on him?”

  Felicity couldn’t afford to show how shocked she was by that statement. In her head, Jane had always been the strong, smart one.

  Jake led them out of the lounge. All the while, Jane kept up a running commentary that ensured that Felicity didn’t go insane.

  Predictably, Jake took her across the grounds to the door that she’d already noted led out of Broadstone.

  She’d kept her eye on it over the past several days – when she’d had an opportunity, of course. There were usually 50 or so students a night who used it. Not tonight. There was a mass exodus.

 

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