I wasn’t going to feel jealous of Phist, because I didn’t like him, and he didn’t like me, and he was a dick. Whatever he wanted to do with Gina was his own stupid business. Damn Phist to hell and back again.

  But when he saw me, he pushed off the counter, leaving Gina behind without a look. He thrust the drink he had at me. “Here, you want this?”

  “What is it?” I said.

  “Gina made it for me.”

  “That’s right,” said Gina, coming over. “I did. Phist needs to drink it.” She grabbed for the drink.

  Feeling petulant, I downed the contents before she could get to me and then handed the empty glass back to her.

  Various expressions flitted across her face, but then she settled on anger. She snatched the glass from me. “I can’t believe you just did that.”

  I laughed in her face. Maybe I was being immature. Maybe my jealousy was showing. I didn’t care.

  Phist grabbed me by the arm and tugged me out of the kitchen.

  I struggled to get free of him, but by that time we were already in the hallway.

  “Hey,” he said. “Look, don’t go to the party tonight. Iblis has been taunting me all day.”

  “I have to go to the party,” I said. “I already explained this to you.”

  He sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair.

  Gina appeared in the doorway. “You know, it’s the Horn Party, Phist. You’re not supposed to hook up with the person you’re in a relationship with.”

  “I’m not hooking up with anyone,” he said. “I’m not even going to be here. I have other things to do.”

  “Like what?” she said, sounding horrified.

  He rolled his eyes. “Thanks for the drink.” He pointed at me. “Don’t be afraid to blast Iblis with magic, as much as you need, got it?”

  I bit down on my lip. Maybe I would have to do that.

  He headed for the door.

  Gina snickered. “He didn’t even give you a kiss goodbye.”

  Phist turned and locked eyes with me.

  I shook my head. No, not a kiss. Not one of those damned kisses. I couldn’t handle—

  But he was coming for me, and then our lips were meeting, and it was like fireworks were going off behind my skull, and I had handfuls of his shirt and I never wanted the kiss to stop.

  But it did, leaving me as off balance and confused as ever.

  Phist gave me a dark look, and then he stalked out of the house.

  I backed into the wall and leaned my head against it. Ugh.

  Gina shook her head. “Damn. What is it that you have, anyway? Why does he want you?”

  “Maybe she’s not a bitch,” said Ryan, coming out of the doorway of the kitchen. He had an ice pack on his face.

  Lev was right behind him. “Hey, we’re going to go up to Ryan’s room to talk, okay? Why don’t you put on your costume, and then I’ll come do your makeup in like ten minutes?”

  “Do I even need makeup?” I said. “I’m wearing a mask.”

  “Yes, you need makeup,” said Lev, as if I had lost my mind. He was wearing his trademark eyeliner as usual, but I thought I spied a hint of eyeshadow too.

  “I’m going to check on something at Chillingworth,” I said.

  “Right,” said Lev, nodding, knowing that I was referencing the potion. “Good thought. See you in a bit, okay?”

  “Okay,” I said.

  * * *

  I went back to Chillingworth Hall to get the potion. I had to move it from the cauldron where it had been maturing into a to-go container, which was basically like tupperware. The potion was thin and black and inky. It smelled like citrus. Kind of a pleasant smell, really.

  I wondered if I should test it on myself now to see if it worked. But then I’d be stuck telling the truth until it wore off. No way could I chance that. I was just going to have to hope the thing worked.

  I wrapped it up in a few plastic bags in case of leaks and stuck it in my purse. Then I headed back to the Circle house. It was late evening, and the party was already underway. There were groups of people standing in clumps, drinking and talking.

  Most of them looked older, though. They were getting an early start while the college-aged kids were still getting ready.

  The bonfire baskets that Tess and I had set up were now all alight with magical lights, not unlike the one that lit the cavern in the Resistance headquarters. Bright white sparks fizzled out in all directions, and I blinked hard, looking away.

  Man, they were bright.

  I got back to the house and a strange wave went through me, something almost euphoric. I shook my head, unsure of what to make of that. Maybe I was more excited about this party than I’d thought.

  As I trudged up the steps, I thought that didn’t make any sense, because I had been looking toward this party with nothing but dread. I didn’t want to have to deal with Oliver at all, and I was nervous about trying to administer this potion.

  I got to my room and I stood in front of the mirror and applied my own makeup. Then I put on my robe and mask and texted Lev. You ready?

  No response from him.

  I messed around on my phone for a little bit, but the screen seemed too bright. I adjusted the brightness, wondering what that was about.

  I texted Lev again.

  Still nothing.

  Well, screw this. If he was screwing Ryan, I wanted to know. Then I’d do this on my own. I went downstairs to the boys’ floor and marched down the hallway to Ryan’s room. I banged on the door. “You guys decent?”

  I waited two seconds and then I tried the door.

  I had a vague thought that I was being a little bolder than I usually would be, but I was glad that I wasn’t waiting around for Lev. It was good to take matters into my own hands.

  The door opened and Ryan was halfway across the room, probably coming to open the door. “Hey, Suther,” he said.

  “Hey.” Lev waved. He was sitting on the bed. “Your makeup looks good.”

  “Listen,” said Ryan, “I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t say anything about…” He gestured at his face, and I could hardly tell that he’d been hit.

  “Did you do a spell to heal it?” I said.

  “I helped,” said Lev. “I didn’t think he deserved to be in pain. But it sucks that his father doesn’t get presented with the evidence of what he’s done.”

  “Wouldn’t matter anyway,” said Ryan. “He doesn’t do it much anymore, anyway. He was just really pissed off about the gay thing.”

  “I wish you would stop making excuses for him.” Lev shot up off the bed, indignant.

  “Lev,” I said. “That’s his dad.”

  “Yeah, dads are supposed to protect you,” said Lev. “They’re not supposed to hurt you.”

  “I know,” said Ryan. “Look, you want to get to the party, right, Suther? Let’s go get our drink on.” He looked around for a minute and then spied his black robe. He pulled it over his shoulders with flourish and winked at Lev. “I hear there’s nose candy all over the place tonight if you’re interested.”

  Lev raised his eyebrows. “Ooh, that could be fun.” Then he looked at me. “But later, totally later.”

  “What’s nose candy?” I said.

  “Cocaine,” said Ryan, laughing at me. “She’s so cute, Lev. She’s like your very innocent little sister.”

  “In her defense,” said Lev, “I don’t think anyone else has called it nose candy since 1989.”

  Ryan laughed. “No, that can’t be true, because then how would I have even heard the phrase?” He nodded for the door. “Let’s go.”

  Lev shrugged. He put his mask over his face, and I put mine on too.

  Ryan led the way. We followed.

  I was not sure how the heck this was supposed to work, because Lev and I needed to spend the evening following June around, monitoring how drunk she was. We couldn’t exactly let Ryan know about it.

  Once outside, Ryan insisted we go out to the amphitheater, where there was a funk band playing on stage. A bunch of people were dancing, people of all ages, and we had to weave our way through the crowd to get to the vendors. Ryan bought us all drinks. They were made of something glowing, and they smoked, and I was a little weirded out, but Lev told me it was just dry ice.

  As far as drinks went, they were okay. I was getting used to the way alcohol tasted, which was not to say that I really liked it, but that I could handle a drink or two.

  Every time I looked at my drink, though, I kept blinking and seeing several green impressions of it against my eyelids. Once I moved it too fast, and there was a trace of its bright movement in the air, like a motion blur.

  I blinked hard, and that was when I noticed that my heart was beating fast. Maybe too fast.

  Lev pulled me aside. “Hey, I can’t just ditch Ryan.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “After what happened to him, it’s a dick move,” said Lev. “He needs a friend right now and he doesn’t have a lot of real friends.”

  “Oh, right. You’re being friendly.” I rolled my eyes.

  “I am,” said Lev. “Really, it’s not about trying to hook up with him.”

  “Well, what are we supposed to do? We can’t drag him along while we’re looking for June. We’d have to explain everything to him.”

  “Look, you go and find her, trail her for a bit,” said Lev. “When you think she’s drunk enough, text me, and I’ll figure out some way to get away from Ryan for a little while and come help you.”

  I bit down on my lip. “Well, okay, I guess.” Another wave of euphoria blasted into me out of nowhere. I gasped, letting out a throaty little moan at the end of it.

  Lev furrowed his brow. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah…?” I looked at my hand, which seemed to be a little bit glowy? “I think I’m okay. But I don’t know. I feel weird. Good weird, though.” I shrugged. I held up my drink. “Maybe it’s the smoking booze. You sure this isn’t magical?”

  “It’s just a drink,” said Lev. “But you are a lightweight. Go easy on that, huh?”

  “Sure,” I said, dumping the drink out and giggling.

  “I didn’t mean—” Lev shook his head. “I gotta get back to Ryan. Text me, okay?”

  “Sure thing,” I told him, grinning. Actually, I was starting to feel really good. I turned my back on Lev, giving him a little wave, and wandered off.

  This was fine. I would do great on my own, and it would be awesome, because I was awesome. How had I not realized how awesome I was before, anyway? I laughed again, and another wave of euphoria went through me. Man, that was good.

  By the time I found June, my entire body was tingling, and I was pretty sure that this wasn’t because of that drink I’d had. It also wasn’t normal.

  I felt a little panicked, but it was super hard to be panicked with the good feelings being pumped through my body at the rate they were coming. I just felt amazing. I felt invincible and capable and attractive—no, gorgeous. So, yeah, I had probably been dosed with something.

  I didn’t care.

  I watched June for a while, and she seemed happy. She was talking to people and laughing. She had her mask on top of her head, and she was swaying a bit to the distant strains of the funk band.

  I got out my phone to text Lev.

  But my phone was seriously, seriously too bright.

  Ouch. I shoved that away. No way was I going to look at that thing and try to text him. I was going to handle this on my own. I could totally handle this.

  I wandered into the trees, a ways off from June, and I sat down on the ground. I took my purse off my shoulder and began to go through it. Everything was a little… off. Like, it was normal reality, but it was different. I had to really concentrate to try to get the potion.

  Then, once I had it out, I stared at it, unsure of what to do. We were going to try to sneak it into June’s drink, but in order to do that, we’d have to get a drink. That seemed like a lot of effort. And I actually wanted this over with so that I could enjoy how good I was feeling.

  So, screw it. I got up, leaving behind the potion and my purse because nothing mattered. I scampered across the field toward June.

  When I got her, I grabbed her by the arm and tugged on her. “I need to talk to you,” I said.

  She looked me over, eyes wide. “Do I… know you?”

  “Yup,” I said. “I came to visit you a while ago.”

  “Oh,” she said. “I do recognize you. Listen, I’m not the least bit interested in—”

  “You have to tell me the real way that Maxwell died,” I said.

  And everyone close to June stopped talking and looked at me.

  June’s face went white. She glared at me. “What is your problem? There’s nothing to know about Maxwell. And how dare you bring up such a sensitive subject on tonight of all nights?”

  “Come on,” I said. “You have to tell me. I have to know.”

  June grabbed me by both cheeks, looking into my eyes. “Your pupils are dilated to the size of tea saucers. What are you on? Mushrooms? Ecstasy?”

  Ecstasy.

  I didn’t know a lot about that drug, but I was thinking the symptoms probably lined up. I spread my hands. “I don’t know. I didn’t take it on purpose. Someone slipped it to me somehow.”

  “Well,” said June, “you’d best go back to your room and sleep it off, then, before you get yourself in trouble.”

  She pushed me away.

  I stumbled and then righted myself and turned back to her. “No. I need to talk to you. You have to give me answers.”

  And someone draped an arm over my shoulders. “Hey there, Suther.”

  I turned and came face to face with Oliver Iblis.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Oliver smiled widely at June. “Sorry about my friend. I’ll take care of her.”

  “I’m glad she’s got a friend,” said June. “She said she’d been slipped something. Look at her pupils. She’s high as a kite.”

  Oliver turned to me. “Oh, I’m so sorry this happened to you, Suther. Come with me. I’ll take care of you.”

  I remembered feeling worried about Oliver before, but I could not even understand why that was. Right now, I kind of thought everyone was great, even Oliver. I put a hand on his cheek. “You’re not so bad, actually, Oliver.”

  He chuckled. “Come on.”

  “No,” I whined. “I really have to talk to June. It’s about my parents.”

  “Don’t worry,” said Oliver, “I know all about your parents.”

  I pulled back, my movements exaggerated. “You do not.”

  “I do,” he said. “I helped your sister out. We found out some interesting things. You want to know all about it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then, let’s go.”

  I blinked at him. “Are you lying to me? Are you just saying something because you want to take advantage of me?”

  “Would I do that?”

  “I think so,” I said.

  “You don’t know me very well, Suther,” he said, winking. “I would never take advantage of you.”

  I laughed. “Your mission in life is to take advantage of girls like me.”

  “Shh,” he said, and he started to rub my shoulder.

  I gasped. “Oh my God. That feels really good.”

  He laughed some more. “Come on. I can make it feel even better than that.”

  I looked back at June, but she was gone. She’d scurried off into the darkness. I looked back at Oliver. “You’re bad.”

  “I’m not bad, Suther. I’m just misunderstood.” He started walking, pulling me along with him.

  I leaned into his body. He was warm and it felt good where we were touching. “Okay. I kind of love you, anyway.”

  He threw back his head and laughed.

  There were these little pavilion things set up here and there all over the place. They were like pop-up canopies with sides. Oliver found one and pushed me into it. Inside, there were blankets and pillows on the ground and dim magical lights that sparked near the roof. There was an assortment of various tubes and bottles sitting on a little tray in one corner. Lube, lotions, and sex toys. I gaped at the funny glass penis-shaped thing.

  I sat down on a pillow and I felt disoriented. My heart was racing, and I was pumped full of good feelings, and it was good, but it was a little bit… I rolled my head on my shoulders, emitting a little moan.

  Oliver sprawled out next to me, propped up on an elbow. “Give me your arm.”

  “Huh?” I was confused.

  He reached over and seized my hand. He pushed up my sleeve and then selected one of the lotions from the tray. He squirted some out onto my wrist.

  Cold.

  It felt nice.

  I let out a little breathy sigh.

  He began to slowly rub the lotion into my skin, making little circles.

  I shut my eyes. “What the fuck? Why does that feel so good?”

  “Because of the E,” he said.

  I opened my eyes. “Did you do this to me? How did you do this?”

  “Wasn’t me,” he said. “But I gotta say, I’m not complaining.”

  I groaned. “Oh, I never felt anything like…” But then I thought of being in Phist’s room, with his mouth on me, and that had been… well, somehow less intense, but also more real. This felt… not fake, but it was all sensation. It was really good, but there was nothing behind it, no emotion, and without the emotion, it lacked a certain depth. My eyes opened. “It had to be you. You wanted me like this tonight.”

  “It wasn’t me.” He smiled. “You wanna take off your shirt?”

  “No,” I said. I thought about it. “Yes.” I put a finger in his face. “But I’m not going to.”

  He smirked. “Why not?”

  “I’m just not,” I said. I couldn’t make my thoughts work properly. I shoved his hand off. “You said you were going to tell me about my parents. You were making that up, weren’t you?”

  “I’m going to take my shirt off,” he said.

  “No, don’t.” I gave him a stern look. Well, as stern as I could muster.

  “I gotta show you something,” he said. “It’s part of it.”

  “Whatever, Oliver. You’re such a liar.”

 

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