Page 80 of Divine Oaths

It was nearly closing time at the mall, and Jojo stood at the doors, pacing, waiting for someone. I recognized the first figure that approached him; it was Kasem’s bodyguard, Liam, the same one who had shown up at Gus’s. He’d also been with Jojo that night—I’d seen him from the windows of Center City Mall not long before I found Kasem’s body.

“Have you found him?” Jojo snapped.

“Not yet,” Liam said. “And you need to calm down.”

Jojo spun to face Liam, his expression dark with rage. “Don’t tell me to calm down. It was your job to protect him. What are we paying you for if you can’t do that?”

“I don’t answer to you,” Liam said. “I answer to the Board. And they are pleased with the work I do.”

“The Board knows it’s meant to serve the Saint James family, and I’m telling you now: Find my brother. And find the other two.” He gestured to Liam’s lily crest. “You’re Sigma, right? You graduated how many years ago? What about a locator incantation?”

Liam scowled. “An incantation like that would require something of your brother’s, which we don’t have. Besides, our fraternity, as you are well aware, has rules when it comes to incantations that cross the boundaries of personhood.”

Jojo could barely contain the cool rage radiating from him. “I’ll do it myself. Just find him, any way you can.”

Liam nodded and retreated into the dark while Jojo headed to his car, slipping into the passenger seat. He searched through the glove compartment in a feverish rush, pushing paperwork aside until he found a letter—the same one from Kasem that I’d read that night.

It hadn’t been burned yet; the handwritten note was perfectly legible in its entirety. Kasem’s signature was marked at the bottom, his neat handwriting refined at the edges by his artist touch.

Jojo held the corner of the letter and whispered under his breath. As he did, smoke began to curl at the corners of the paper, and the letter began to burn.

“Find my brother,” he said. “Show me where he is.”

Smoke gathered against the windshield. Faintly, an image of Kasem emerged in the fog, his body slumped near an indistinguishable dumpster somewhere in the alleyways of Center City Mall.

My heart hammered in my chest.

Magic. Jojo was performing an incantation. Just like Kasem had after the woodshop. Just like what I’d witnessed members of Theta perform at the summoning.

Suddenly, Jojo’s phone dinged—a message from me, asking him if he was okay and if he could help Louisa and me pack up.

In the present, I could feel Kasem next to me, his hands holding mine, anchoring me in my own timeline just as the vision tethered me to the past, to Jojo sitting in his car.

I watched as Jojo texted me, his hand trembling. Outside the car door, something pounded on the windshield. He glanced up and came face-to-face with Pete and Jay.

“I heard you were looking for me,” Pete said, sneering. “Well, here I am.”

“Where’s my brother?”

A wry grin curved across Pete’s lips.

“Oh, they haven’t found him yet? That’s unfortunate.”

Beside him, Jay reached into his pocket and pulled out the cowrie shell bracelet.

The bracelet gleamed ominously, pulsing and breathing in the moonlight—almost sentient. It was a living artifact, churning with memories.

Tentatively, Jojo lowered the window. When he did, Jay handed him the bracelet, a pleased look in his expression.

“Just like you wanted, right? If you want to know where he is, no need for that botched attempt at an incantation. All you needed to do was ask us. He could be anywhere in these alleyways. Let us help you.”

Jojo shoved the letter and the bracelet in the glove compartment.

A look of suspicion crossed Pete’s expression. “We fulfilled our part of the deal. But our marks aren’t gone.”

“That means he’s not dead yet,” Jojo said, and I couldn’t tell if it was relief in his voice or despair. When he slipped out of the car, he locked the doors and threw the key inside the barely parted window. “You’re still marked by the curse, and it will take you.”

Jay growled, realizing that Jojo wasn’t playing by whatever arbitrary rules they’d laid out in this twisted deal of theirs. The bracelet was now locked away and out of reach, yet their marks lived on.