Page 95 of The Warlock's Trial

“Nonsense!” she insisted. “Grant doesn’t care about you. The moment he had a chance at Nadine, he took it, and he never paid for that crime.”

“Look,” Grant said. “If Lucas was mad about that, we’d talk it out. We don’t need the whole coven’s opinion. Lucas and I are tight. He’s not mad.”

Charlotte raised her eyebrows. “That’s not what the Seers have revealed. Lucas, how do you feel about it?”

Lucas kept his jaw tightly shut, but his nostrils flared. “Like Grant said, we’re tight.”

“See? We’re fine,” Grant insisted.

“Lucas, aren’t you angry that Grant asked out your ex-girlfriend without consulting you first?” Charlotte pressed. “Aren’t you upset that he kissed Nadine, and he would’ve continued to date her if she wasn’t still hung up on you? Aren’t you mad he went behind your back?”

I wanted to stick up for Grant, and say it never would’ve turned into anything, because neither of us were into each other like that. But Lucas spoke up before I could.

“You know what?” Lucas sat straighter in his chair, facing Grant. “I am pissed about that. Nadine and I were broken up—I couldn’t tell her who to date, but you? You didn’t even ask me!”

“The invite wasn’t even meant to be a date,” Grant defended. “We were just supposed to be two friends hanging out. Nadine’s the one who suggested the date.”

“No,” I defended. “I asked if you were asking me on a date.”

Grant sighed. “It just happened, and it’s not something that will ever happen again.”

“Why are you so insistent on defending yourself?” Lucas demanded. “The fact is you went out with Nadine without asking me!”

“I didn’t know I had to ask you,” Grant replied. “You two were broken up.”

“That’s not what matters,” Lucas pressed. “How can you be so insightful about everything, but this is what goes over your head? Of course I wanted to see Nadine happy—no matter who she was with—but if you two had ended up together, I couldn’t have hung around to watch that happen. It would’ve ruined our friendship. Hell, you didn’t just hurt me. Imagine what this did to Talia.”

“I really wanted to be with Talia, but I figured she’d turn me down, so I lost my courage to ask. She didn’t even like me back then,” Grant said, turning to her for confirmation.

Angry tears beaded in Talia’s eyes. “I’ve been in love with you for a long time, Grant. To be honest, it really stung to see you ask out my best friend.”

My heart sank. I never wanted to hurt her. “Tal, you told me you were fine with it.”

“Well, I lied,” she admitted harshly. “You knew I had a thing for Grant, too. It was kind of bullshit you did that, Nadine.”

“We were all in the wrong,” Grant said. “Even Nadine only dated me to make Lucas jealous.”

My jaw dropped. “Grant, come on. That is not true.”

“Sure it is, Nadine. You weren’t even into me. It’s not a bad thing. I mean, you and Lucas ended up together in the end.” Grant gestured between us. “And Lucas, you didn’t advocate for yourself—you just let her go.”

“I didn’t know the date was happening until I saw you two locking lips!” Lucas raged.

Grant sighed. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

“Why can’t you just admit you did something wrong?” Lucas demanded. “You’re so busy pointing fingers. Why don’t you look in a mirror?”

“You want me to say it?” Grant asked, sounding annoyed. “All right. I did something wrong. What more do you want from me?”

“I want you to be genuine,” Lucas insisted. “You can’t just say what people want to hear and get over it. That doesn’t actually solve any problems.”

“You want the truth?” Grant yelled, shooting to his feet. “I wanted you to be there that summer. Hell, it’d been years since we lost you. I wanted my best friend back. I watched you torture yourself—just like the people in these woods—all because you thought you deserved it, but you didn’t!”

Grant’s voice cracked, and tears began streaming down his face. “You were suffering needlessly, and nothing I said or did could help you. So if I had to hurt you to snap you out of it, Goddess damn it, I was going to do it. I just wanted to wake you up, Lucas.”

We all went quiet for a moment, before Lucas spoke. “That’s a really fucked up way to wake someone up.”

“I didn’t know what I was doing at the time,” Grant admitted. “Now that I’ve grown up and can reflect on it, I can see why I really did it.”

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