Page 92 of The Cursed Fae

Missy ran her hands over Tina’s comforter. “My advice—we don’t. At least, not yet. Let me snoop a bit and figure out the situation. If it is a love spell, we need to be careful. And you’ll have to tell Essie.”

Shit.

That was a major complication. It also gave me time to learn to use my dimensional magic, and an excuse to hold off on telling my great-grandmother the mess I’d made.

Missy’s head whipped toward the door. “Tina’s coming,” she mumbled, getting to her feet. “That’s my cue.”

“Report in later? I need to know she makes it home without bite marks or a new set of fangs.”

The ghost’s pissed-off, haughty expression from earlier returned. “I would like it logged on the record that I’m doing this for Lena. I am still mad at you.”

She vanished as Tina came through the door. My roommate furrowed her brow. “Who were you talking to?”

I held up my phone. “Nana Essie.”

Unconvinced, she glanced around the room before tossing her purse on her bed. I checked the time on my cell. Astrid had said after dinner, but I hoped she wouldn’t mind an earlier visit.

It was worth a shot if it meant not sharing space with Tina after I’d just talked to her dead best friend moments before. I had a weird guilt about the friendship with Missy, like I kept it a secret for the wrong reasons.

I debated the necklace briefly before dismissing it. Missy needed to reach me if Lena’s date went sideways. Besides, Nana would never find out I’d taken it off for a few hours.

“I’m going to hang out with Astrid,” I told Tina as I headed out.

“Have fun,” she replied, her tone light.

Astrid was alone when I knocked on her door.

“You’re early.” Astrid’s grin faltered. “What’s wrong?”

She stepped back, and I slipped inside her room, weighing the pros and cons of confiding in Astrid. She had become my friend quickly, though our lunch conversation had reminded me I didn’t really know her.

Still, the alarm on her face nearly brought me to tears. I needed a confidante. Normally, Lena played that role. Well, until my troubles had turned supernatural. I couldn’t tell her the truth about Mat or the prophecy, which added to my guilty conscience.

Astrid closed the door and stood in front of me, placing her hands on my shoulders. “Hey, what’s up?”

My mouth opened, and the words poured out. She guided me over to her bed and pushed down until I sat. I told her about Lena and Mat and even Missy, though I left out the part about the vampire wanting me to learn to harness my magic.

Not that I didn’t trust her with that information.

Archer was the issue. I couldn’t handle confessing about our strange, complicated relationship. He didn’t need to be dragged into my messiness.

“Let me recap.” Astrid shook her head like she didn’t believe what she was about to say. “Missy is spying on Lena and reporting back. And the same vampire who led the attack on the beach party is taking your human best friend on dates in California? And his name is Mat? That’s not very ominous. Sorry… this is a lot to process.”

She sat beside me on the bed and rubbed her temples. “Missy was right about love spells. They’re complex. We can’t remove Lena from his vicinity; she won’t take it well.”

“What if it’s not a love spell?” I asked Astrid. “What if it is just his undead magnetism, like Missy said?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Vampires aren’t my specialty, and I know even less about humans.”

We both fell silent, lost in our own thoughts. Sharing this burden with Astrid eased the tension knots between my shoulder blades, though I wasn’t any closer to helping Lena.

“Let’s order pizza,” Astrid suggested after several minutes. “I have my family grimoire. We can look up love spells and see common side effects. That might help Missy determine whether the vamp dosed your best friend.”

I blew out a breath. “Yeah. Okay.”

She ordered a large pepperoni pie from a hole-in-the-wall restaurant downtown—her words, not mine. After she settled dinner, we set to work reading the grimoire. We spread out the book on the bed between us, and Astrid consulted the table of contents before flipping to the start of a section labeled “Love Spells.”

“I didn’t realize there were so many,” I said, shifting uneasily.

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