“Wait.” I smile. “Does this mean I’m back on the invite list for the exclusive coven?”
“Don’t flatter yourself.” Carly rolls her eyes, but she’s laughing now too. “Honestly, there was no coven. That’s just some mean girl bullshit I let Blue talk me into.”
“Really? Why?”
Carly shrugs. “I don’t even know anymore. Sometimes you just get so caught up in other people’s ideas of you should be, you start forgetting who you reallyare. And by the time you remember, it’s too late to go back.”
“It’s never too late to remember who you are.”
“I…” Something shifts in her eyes, and Carly shakes her head, as if she just woke up from a nap. “Thanks for the After School Special, Twink, but I think I’m good.”
“If you say so.” I smirk at her over the rim of my mug. Carly can crow all she wants. The truth is, I saw something human in her tonight, and I’m not going to forget it. “Anyway,” I continue, setting down my mug, regardless of how you feel about me, I know you love Baz. I believe you’d do anything to protect him. So I’m asking you—”
“No.”
My gaze shoots back up to hers. “No?”
“You don’t have to ask me anything. I’m there. Whatever you need.” Carly smiles, humanity overriding her superbitch factory settings once again. “I mean, I’m not saying I’m ready to pick out BFF charms at Time Out of Mind, but in addition to helping you with Baz, if you ever want, like, advice on hownotto dress like someone’s prostitute grandma, I’m definitely your girl.”
I don’t even know what a prostitute grandma is, so I just thank her and smile, then take a deep breath and close my eyes, shoring myself up for what I’m about to say next.
“I’m not sure if you’ve got any plans this weekend, but I’m having Isla and Nat over on Friday. My best friend Jessa joins us on video chat too. We call it the Friday Night Witch-’N-Bitch Happy Hour.”
“Sounds… charming.”
“It is! You should totally join us.”
Carly offers a noncommittal shrug, but her energy pulses with longing.
“You could even bring your friends,” I offer, cringing inside to think of what Isla and Nat are going to say about this. Still, in the effort of solidarity… “I bet Blue and Emory would appreciate the opportunity to get to know me a little better, especially now that you and I are getting along so famously.”
“Blue and Emory hate you.”
“The invite is on the table,” I say. “Just think about it, okay?” I sigh and take my latte mug to the bus bin, knowing I’ve done all I can to reach out to her tonight. We’ve got Baz in common, but if she’s going to come around to the idea of actual friendship, it will have to be on her own terms.
“What thehell?” she blurts out.
I turn back to find out what I did wrong this time, but Carly’s not looking at me. She’s peering out the window, watching someone on the path outside.
“Hello, Sketchy McSketcherton,” she mutters into the glass. “Where areyousneaking off to tonight?”
I head back over to the table and lean close to get a look at her target. “Is that… Trello?”
“Sure is. And the minute I saw her, I got this intense vision of a room. I really feel like she’s heading there.”
“A bedroom?”
“No, like…” She closes her eyes and presses her fingers to her temples—superdramatic, but hey, whatever works. “It’s dark and dusty, with no windows. Lots of file boxes and rolls of paper stacked on shelves. I’m getting a flash of… bottles? Canning jars? Something like that. Oh, wait… there’s some kind of cot… No, it’s a hospital bed.”
“Any people?” I ask. “A patient? Anything else about the room, the walls, the shelves, anything at all?”
“No. But I keep seeing the number five.”
“Could be an address.”
“Wait, no—it’s a keypad. I’m seeing a code—five, seven, nine, nine, six, two, four. Write that down.”
I grab my phone and tap into my notes app.
