Page 70 of Clubs

“After we get this all handled,” Brooke said, “come over tonight. I’ll pay.”

Wyatt smiled back. “I’ll bring your best friend.”

Brooke cocked her head to the side.

“Celena. That’s her name now,” he said. “You might remember her as Luna. White blonde hair, pale blue eyes, your best bud since diapers?”

Slowly, Brooke’s eyes widened. “Luna. That makes you… Rion, right?”

Smiling wider, Wyatt nodded. “The one and only.”

I didn’t understand. A week ago, she had told me that she only remembered flashes. Now, she knew all of their names? After that dream the other night, I knew that she remembered mine and hers. Drogo and Anise, but she knew all of these people suddenly?

Was it because she was a Witch? Was that why she remembered things that I didn’t? Was it coming here, meeting them? Was that what drew out the memories?

“Alright, time is of the essence here,” Laila said. “Let’s move, people.”

* * *

When we landed at Spades, everyone was exactly where we left them. Ria looked worse than she had earlier. Of course, she was mostly healed, but the withdrawals were clearly doing a number on her. Pacing the room, she held a hand over her belly and smelled of vomit and diarrhea, which, yes, did smell differently than Tyler’s.

Emory stood against the table in front of Tyler, arms crossed with deep dark circles beneath his eyes. No worse than Ria’s, though.

Tyler was still duct taped to the chair, but now, there was a piece of duct tape over his lips as well.

Making a tsk, tsk, tsk noise, Laila walked toward him. “You ever heard the phrase, ‘put a sock in it?’”

Ria squinted, but stayed quiet.

Emory, on the other hand, said, “Who the fuck is this?”

Laila turned his way, giving a smile and letting her eyes glow. A trait that had always fascinated me about Fae. That didn’t last long though. The longer she looked at him, the faster the glow burned out. Maybe looked wasn’t the right word. She studied him. Studied him like he was in ancient painting, and she was taking in every detail. Then she looked at Ria in the same, careful way.

“Laila,” Brooke said, “is apparently another one of us.”

“One of you?” Ria asked. “Like, more paired souls?”

“The originals.” Still watching Ria closely, Laila smiled. “And you are…?”

“My sister,” Brooke answered. “Ria, meet Laila, Laila, meet Ria, and that’s Emory. He’s half to blame for this.”

“Are you to blame for this?” Laila gestured to the duct tape over Tyler’s mouth.

“Yeah?” Emory’s expression showed just how unhappy he was with his work being critiqued. “He wouldn’t shut up. What else would I was I supposed to do?”

“Put a sock in it.” Propping her hands on her hips, Laila flapped her lips together in a trill. “Now he’s going to have marks. I’m going to have to heal them. Otherwise, he’ll have a rash on his face, and it’s gonna blow the rest of the plan. Just for future reference, in a situation like this, where you’re trying to wipe someone’s memories, you don’t want to leave marks behind. Makes it more complicated.”

Emory glanced at her, and then at me. As if to say, Who does this bitch think she is?

“Oh,” Ria murmured. “Yeah, I guess that does make sense.”

“Still, shouldn’t be too hard to heal. But I’m gonna need you boys to hold him down so I can handle them. It’s gonna hurt.”

“You can do both?” Ria asked. “Heal him and erase his mind?”

“I can do it all, baby,” she said, smiling a bit wider. For having such a round, innocent face, there was something slightly terrifying about the way she said that. “But both of those are Spirit abilities. So, yeah. I can do both.”

“Wait,” I said, “does that mean you’re Elite?”

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