Page 22 of Soulmates

“That makes no sense. It’s his soul, but was mine to the point that he had to return it?” Maddox said. “I didn’t have it. I’ve never had it until now. It wasn’t mine—it’s his soul.”

“Like I said, ancient magic. Maggie’s friend can explain it exactly once you get there.” Forrester’s voice was inexplicably frosty, though maybe that was just Forrester being…Forrester? “Oh, did you want your shirts on? Maddox, stand on Jake’s foot. Make sure your skin is touching his. Now, drop your hands, and you can put your them on.”

Once they reclasped their hands, Forrester muttered a spell, and his buttery orange light briefly surrounded them, their hands fused once again.

“So, your friend can’t come here?” Jake asked Professor Hooper. “We’re kind of conspicuous at the moment.” Jake raised their joined hands.

“Um, no, he won’t come here. For any reason.” Her eyes darted quickly to Forrester and away.

Forrester snorted and dumped some of the amber liquid from his decanter into his tea. Professor Hooper ignored him.

“Shit. So where are we headed?” Santiago asked like it was a given she was going along.

Professor Hooper looked almost guilty. “The, uh, Everglades.”

“I’m sorry?” Jake said.

“Yeah.” Professor Hooper sighed heavily. “It’s not like you have the luxury of being picky right now. You are literally fused together, and if you separate, Jake will go on a murderous rampage. And while we are fairly confident you are physically incapable of harming Maddox, you can harm others in trying to get to Maddox.”

Santiago nodded. “Okay, then the Everglades.”

Jake turned to her. “You don’t have to get in the middle of this. I know you’ve got a life to get back to.”

“Don’t be an idiot. How are you two fused morons supposed to get to the middle of nowhere on your own? The dean here has been teaching me to undo and redo the fusing spells, and Maggie has given me enough potion to knock you on your ass, Jake. So, I think maybe you could just accept my help and let Dean and Mags cover for us,” she finished definitively. And who could argue? It wasn’t as if they could get to Florida without help. And one of the professors leaving the school now could lead to suspicion by whoever was running the challenge.

“Mags?” Professor Hooper asked.

“What? We’re like five minutes from graduation, and two of my best friends are half-bonded in some archaic ritual that happened on your school grounds. Are we super worried about formalities right now?” Santiago asked pointedly.

“Right…well, I’ll get all three of you the information you need. We’ve taken the liberty of packing your bags with a week’s worth of clothes and everything else you may need, including cash. I suggest you use that instead of cards that can be traced. I don’t know how long we can keep the fact that you aren’t here hidden. We’ve already disabled the GPS on your phones, so you can’t be traced that way.”

Forrester muttered something about a “fucking disaster of a mess” and “fucking crickets.”

“And that,” Hooper agreed. “Take my car. It’s an old Jeep, unrecognizable in association with any of you, and it’ll get you through the roads you’ll need when you get closer to Cricket’s place.”

Maddox slowly blinked at her. “Cricket? Seriously?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, did you want to get picky about your assistance options?” Forrester asked drolly. “Because you have exactly one.”

“They don’t really use given names in Cricket’s circles. Their magic isn’t like ours. It’s not even like the magic you know as scratch magic. It’s…something older. Few still practice it properly,” Hopper said.

“It’s fine. We need the help, obviously,” Jake said, probably trying to soothe Maddox’s agitation. “Can we, um, eat, before we go? I’m starving.”

Santiago laughed. “At least that didn’t change.”

Jake snorted. “What, like missing my soul would mean I’d burn fewer calories?”

Maddox tried to find it funny, but all he could see was the light of the rising sun, bent just slightly from its natural angle and pooling at their feet. From across the room, Dean Forrester watched him with understanding eyes.

Chapter 17

After a quick breakfast, Jake took the first shift driving, with Maddox in the passenger seat and Santiago sprawled in the back.

Looking at her in the rearview, Jake asked, “What did you have of Diego’s?”

“Hmm? Oh, I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know? What about ‘peril waits for those who keep what does not belong to them’?”

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