Page 236 of The Demon's Spell

I flipped her hand over to look at the diamond. “After everything we went through, this ring survived.”

“Of course it did,” she said. “It symbolizes our love, and that’s not going anywhere.”

I needed that reassurance sometimes, and my heart filled with joy when she reminded me that no matter what, we would always be together. I leaned toward her, and Nadine closed the gap between us. My whole body got hot when she kissed me. It was a sweet, tender kiss, and yet I wanted to throw her down onto this bed and never come up for air.

But I didn’t, because I didn’t want to hurt her. Or myself, for that matter.

I swung my legs off the side of the bed and grabbed the crutches there. William had only left one pair with our medical supplies, so I took one and gave the other to Nadine. We each leaned on a crutch, and I took her fingers in my opposite hand.

“Can you do stairs?” I asked.

“I think so.”

We limped out of the bedroom and down the hall. The lodge was oddly quiet, which made me more alert than ever. Usually, we could hear Grant and Talia playing video games downstairs, or Miles and Chloe chatting over a game of chess. Helena was usually in the kitchen cooking, and Onyx often joined her. I didn’t know what Headmistress Verla and Professor Warren had been up to. I assumed they were making plans and didn’t want to bother us with them until we recovered. We hadn’t seen them much since we arrived.

I used the railing to steady myself as I slowly descended the stairs. We entered the living room and heard laughter coming from the patio out back. We followed the sound of voices and found everyone sitting outside. It was the first day of June, and there was still a morning chill in the air, but the sun warmed my skin. A light breeze rustled the trees. The cats ran around in the yard, chasing a dead chipmunk up a tree that Professor Warbright had reanimated for them.

If I could forget that night, I could believe we’d stepped into a pleasant slice of paradise.

Our friends’ bruises and bandages were a cruel reminder of what happened. Chloe had a string of stitches on the side of her face from when Miles had been forced to smash her head into the wall. Grant had a black eye that was still healing, and Talia still had bruises on her neck from where she’d been choked. Miles was covered in bruises from head to toe, as were the rest of us.

Our friends gathered around a patio table. Onyx placed a fresh pan of cookies in front of them, and they all grabbed some. Spread across the table was a large map that featured the locations of every supernatural city in the world, and the coordinates of where they could be found.

Talia held the music box in her lap. It was open, and dozens of ghosts surrounded my friends—some of them floating above our heads, and others chilling on the patio blocks. Adrik hovered at the center of the patio, making big hand gestures as he told a story. Helena threw her head back in laughter, and our friends giggled as Adrik did different voices. He was really funny and so full of life. It was sad that it’d been cut so short.

“You’re so funny!” Onyx told him.

Adrik shrugged. “I’m a ghost. The afterlife isn’t much fun unless you make it so.”

“Speaking of ghosts…” Miles turned to his brother with a full mouth. “I heard some strange noises coming from your room last night. Sounded like moaning. You don’t happen to have a ghost problem, do you?”

Grant leaned back in his chair and smirked. “Aw, man. I feel so bad for you. You don’t know what it sounds like to make a girl moan, do you?”

Talia laughed so hard she nearly choked on her cookie.

Miles clicked his tongue. “You think I’m not getting any? Poor, naive brother.”

Chloe elbowed Miles lightly. Nobody missed the glance she shot him.

“Wait.” Grant’s eyes darted between Miles and Chloe. “Are you two dating?”

“Not officially! Well, I don’t know. Maybe?” Chloe pushed a strand of dark hair behind her ear and looked at Miles.

He raised his eyebrows. “Maybe. Yeah? I mean, if you want to.”

Grant’s jaw dropped, and Talia shot him an incredulous look. “Grant, you can’t have missed their flirting all semester.”

Grant crossed his arms. “I think I would know if my brother was flirting.”

Onyx scrunched up her face. “Would you, though?”

“We were not flirting!” Chloe cried.

“Eh, you kind of were,” Talia said.

Helena gave them a pointed look. “Even I can sense the hormones rolling off you two.”

“All right, so we flirted,” Miles admitted. “Sue us.”

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