Page 61 of Magical Academy for Delinquents
I started to laugh. Manically. Brokenly. Tears came to my eyes and I had wipe them away several times. I ended up sitting down on the forest floor because I gave myself hiccups. It took a long time for them to subside. Evan ended up sliding down to the ground with his back against a tree and waiting for me to regain my sanity.
When I’d finally calmed down, he asked, “What was that all about?”
I shook my head.
Evan scuffed a shoe over the dead leaves that coated the ground. “If I had to guess, it has something to do with ‘Project Matthew.’”
My stare hardened. “How the hell did you remember that?”
Evan’s smile was dark. It wasn’t the happy expression I’d seen on him growing up. “You think I haven’t been spelled to forget shit? You think my mom just sat around and let me mope and remember the worst night of my life as it replayed endlessly?”
My stomach dropped and my eyes widened.
“People have tried to magically fuck with my head ever since that night. I’ve always been a good Unraveler.”
I stared at the ground for a moment as confused thoughts and emotions mingled to make me feel foggy, unsure of my next words or next steps. “You didn’t want to forget?”
“No. What kind of person would I be if I just erased my best friend because it was hard? Because it hurt?” His tone cut like a sword.
I pulled my knees up to my chest and stared at a stinkbug that trundled along. Stupid thing. Didn’t it know it was winter? “My mom takes Calm spells. Haven’t seen her off Calm in over two years.”
He nodded sympathetically, running an agitated hand through his hair. “That sucks. For her and for you.”
I didn’t answer him, just studied a dead bush. “When I think about before … it feels like heaven. Like I literallyhad heavenand didn’t know it. This,” I gestured around us. “It’s purgatory.”
Evan just listened. Waiting. Somehow, he knew I wasn’t finished.
I pulled myself to my feet and dusted the leaves off my clothes. Then I stared down at him, where he sat. “Where I’m going after this, you don’t want to follow. Because I’m going to do anything it takes to bring Matthew back.”
I turned.
“I want to help.” Evan’s voice felt like a hand grabbing mine.
I shook my head.
Evan stood and stomped over. He overtook me easily and stood towering over me. “You think you have the right to take saving him from me? I’m the one who—”
But the bitter truth spewed out of my mouth, erupted like lava. The truth that had turned my childhood crush into ash. “The one who dared him?”
“What?”
“My mom told me that you were both high on Bubble and decided to go in that facility and try the spell.”
“That’s not fucking true! How could I get it right if we were high? How’d I be able to fucking write if I was floating into the walls? Matthew wanted to do the spell. I told him we should wait. I wanted to practice more. Part of me didn’t even want to fucking do it—”
“It wasn’t his idea!” I protested, but a tiny worm of doubt wriggled inside.
Evan shook his head and held up his hands. “You know how obsessed he was with curing vampirism. He was convinced he had to do this to really understand the spell—”
That sounded exactly like Matthew. When he’d wanted to understand human anatomy, he’d built models everywhere. Robotic models. Hands. Feet. Arms. And then the fucker had enchanted them to chase me around the house. He’d always been a ‘hands-on’ learner. But why would mom lie? Why … in the middle of her grief over Matthew and then Dad, would she take away the one other person I’d loved with all my heart?
I couldn’t believe she’d do that to me. Now, maybe. Not out of heartlessness. But because Calm had fucked her up. It had taken away her fire.
I narrowed my eyes and studied Evan, unsure. Had mom been wrong? Had she been so twisted up by grief that she’d told me wrong? Had she been confused? I looked down and shoved my hands into the pockets of my sweatpants. But then it came to me. “I know how we can solve this.”
Evan threw his hands up. “How?”
“Dad!” I yelled.
