Page 101 of Monsters in Love: Lost in the Underworld

It’s a full moon Friday night.

The corn maze our grandmothers run each fall had an unusually high number of visitors today, but they’re almost gone.

Minnie should be over there, kicking out the last of the stragglers who’ve driven all the way out here to see two witches’ handiwork. Even if they think the “witch” thing is just a gimmick.

Tonight is the first night our grandmothers have been gone all year. They left Minnie in charge of the maze because they have their own spells to perform.

Their absence is the reason I was able to liberate the book. They’d never have let it leave the scrying room if they’d been here to stop me.

“There it is.” Minnie’s words are all excitement and relief.

I hear the paper tear and I tense up like a cat.

Eyes wide, disbelief keeping me silent, I turn to Minnie. She stands with the torn-out page in hand and a smile on her face.

Physically, we might be identical, but otherwise…

“Minerva Humphries, what the hell did you just do?” I snatch the book up from where she’s left it on the boards and finger the jagged remains of where the page used to be.

“Don’t worry, I’ll fix it in the morning,” she says with a conviction that lacks the surety I’d like it to have. “It will be fine!”

“Will it?” I close the book and clutch it to my chest.

She shrugs. “I’ll make it fine.”

She bites her lip and peers at me. “What are you going to use it for, anyway?”

I don’t call her out for changing the subject. “I’ll tell you if—whenit works.”

She nods and looks into the dark house. “Say ‘hi’ to your girlfriend for me…”

A lamp near the stairs flickers.

“She heard you.” I don’t argue that she’s not my girlfriend anymore.

Julia would contradict me and I think I’d like it… if we could have a conversation that was more than our strange version of morse code.

“You do your thing,” Minnie says, tucking the spell into the pocket of her skirt—even with tights, I don’t know how she can stand to wear them at this time of year. “I’ll do mine. We’ll see who’s still alive in the morning.”

She hops down the stairs and sprints back across the field.

“What does that mean?” I yell after her.

But she doesn’t answer me.

Picking up my bags, I go inside and close the door behind me.

There’s no electricity here, but the lamps light as I pass through the foyer, and into the drawing room where I plan to hold tonight’s fake seance.

It’s just window dressing for the spell I need to perform.

I unload the drinks on a side table and roll the rug away from the showpiece incantation circle I drew yesterday.

With a snap, I light the two dozen candles I set around the room in preparation for this farce.

“Never leave a flame unattended” is a rule for normal fire. I turn my back on the witch flame lighting the room and know that nothing will burn that isn’t supposed to.

Taking the last bag with me, I head upstairs, skipping the third step and avoiding the railing as I go. Julia might not be trying to kill me anymore, but the house is stillold.

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