Page 25 of Jacob Michaels is Not Here

“Where doesn’t magic reach?” I grinned.

“You’re smart.” She was tapping my cheek again. “Maybe he’ll have trouble with you after all.”

“Carlita…”

“Before I answer you, can I tell you something?”

I held out my hands, a gesture of consent.

“When someone is in danger, it is natural for the people they love to try and protect them,” she said. “It’s just human nature, baby. A parent jumps in front of a car to save their child who wandered into the street. A lover jumps in front of a bullet to save their beloved. It’s just what people do. Humans, by instinct, protect the people they love—without thought or consideration.”

“Not always.”

“Usually.” She shrugged. “When the time comes, Lucas will do everything he can to save you. Whether you give him his memories back or not.”

“So…there’s no right course of action is what you’re telling me?” I shook my head in frustration, though I couldn’t help but give a bitter smile.

How was I to choose what to do if either thing could possibly have catastrophic results? Carlita stood there, perfect makeup, beautiful, skintight dress, gorgeous waves of black hair piled expertly on her head, her eyes alert and sparkling, the air still shimmering—quite literally with magic—around us. My main concern should have been the fact that I was stuck in a magic bubble with an Oracle who was surely centuries old, yet hiding away as a drag queen in Toledo, Ohio. All I could think about, though, was the fact that I didn’t know what to do about my boyfriend and his magically-induced amnesia.

“That’s not what I’m telling you.” Carlita corrected me, looking down to pick at one of her beautifully manicured nails. “What I’m telling you is that Lucas is his own person. We all have free will to do whatever it is that we choose to do when we’re faced with what is right and what is wrong. We all choose a side when the time comes. Whether we know why we chose what we chose or not. Do you want Lucas to make an educated decision—or just blindly follow you?”

Ah. That I understood.

“I got you.”

“I knew you would.” Carlita winked.

“Whose side are you on, Carlita?” I asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“No.”

“That is a truly ignorant question.” She giggled. “I think you know exactly which side I am on. You’ve seen it.”

Carlita. In the street. Dead. Fashionably dead in Louboutin heels, actually.

“I thought you weren’t psychic?” I raised an eyebrow.

She smiled. “I don’t have to be psychic to see that you look like you’re prepared to miss me, Rob.”

Swallowing hard, that hit me in the gut like a hammer. Was I really that transparent?

“I have to thank you, baby.” She sighed wistfully. “I have never had someone willing to mourn for me. It makes the whole thing a little bit easier to swallow, ya’ know?”

“It wasn’t real.” I shook my head. “What I saw. It’s something that could happen, not what is going to happen.”

“Regardless,” she shrugged, “thank you. No matter what happens, at least I won’t be forgotten.”

“Never.”

She produced a genuine, toothy smile.

“Do you know people used to think spells, curses, and jinxes could be broken by swimming across moving water?” Carlita said, waving a hand. Things slowly started to creak back to life around us, and the shimmering began to fade. “That’s just bullshit, obviously.”

“What are you trying to say?” I asked quickly, knowing our time was coming to a close.

“People thought running water protected them from evil.”