Page 25 of The Mist of Stars

“Didn’t you just imply Alex and I have a thing for each other?”

“Yeah, but …” She wavers again. “I don’t know. I like Laylen a lot, but I don’t want to ruin the way things are.”

“What if he’s your soul mate, though?”

“What if Alex is yours?”

I part my lips in shock. “Hey, take that back.”

She giggles as I playfully swat her.

“What? It could be true, you know. We’re barely eighteen. We have our whole lives ahead of us, and our future is still so undecided, you know.”

“Yeah,” I mutter, thinking about what I’ve seen in these visions.

Is my future undecided? Or is it already mapped out? I’m not sure. About anything really.

Just this morning, my biggest concern was whether I wanted to become a keeper. Now I’m wondering if I even am a keeper.

Who the heck am I really?

Aislin and Ikeep the conversation light for the rest of the drive back to my house. I think she can sense that I’m struggling with everything. I want to talk to my dad about it, but he won’t answer his phone. And neither of my parents will be home for a while, so that leaves me to handle my own problems.

Ugh, growing up sucks sometimes.

“Where should we do this spell?” I ask Aislin once we’re inside my house.

“Maybe the basement?” she suggests as she shucks off her jacket.

I take mine off, too, and hang it on the coatrack near the front door. “Really? You want to go into the basement? There are spiders down there.”

Aislin arches a brow at me. “How can you be afraid of spiders when I once saw you remove a heart from a fire demon?”

“Spiders are tiny and gross.” I shudder. “You can’t even see them coming.”

She rolls her eyes. “They’re just spiders. You can deal with it. The basement’s the best place to do this.”

I grimace. “Whatever.” I begrudgingly help her gather all the items for the spell, including the spell book she has in her backpack.

She takes the spell book from me and fans through the pages as we make our way through the kitchen and toward the stairs that lead to the basement.

Right before we start down, she comes to a stop. “Wait, we need two other people for this spell.”

I pause, glancing at her. “How did you not notice that before?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know. Sometimes I get confused. Or, well, I don’t pay attention to all the details.”

“You skim-read the spell, didn’t you?”

“Maybe.” She looks guilty. “I was in a hurry.”

“It’s fine. You’re helping me, so you don’t need to be sorry.” I set the candles down on the kitchen table. “Who else would do this with us?”

“Well, Laylen would, for sure.” She chews on her bottom lip. “Since he went into the vision with you, Alex might. He’s not a huge fan of me doing spells, but for this, he may be okay with it.”

“No,” I gripe, bobbing my head back in frustration. “I’ve already seen him enough today.”

“Look, I get this whole hate-thing going on between you two”—her tone is crammed with sarcasm—“but he’s our best option if you want to try to get some answers.”

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