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Something was very wrong with this situation.
An overly enthusiastic grin crossed Kurnbottom’s hollow face. “We did it, we won. After you slap on the cuffs and toss my ugly butt through the potty portal, we’re getting milkshakes to celebrate, right? I could totally go for a milkshake.”
“Imogen?” I turned my attention to my friend, who was snoring and drooling on the floor a few feet away.
“Of course it’s me, silly. I tried to bodysnatch Cornbuttbeforehe zapped you, but I was a little slow. Sorry about that.”
“You did great,” I told her. “Thank you.”
Imogen-possessed Kurnbottom turned his shoulder. Fernando was latched onto the back of his neck, punching him in the head.
“Ouch,” he said. “Fernando, stop. It’s me, Imogen.”
Fernando kept hitting him, which to be fair, might have been our best bet. I didn’t have handcuffs. I didn’t have a magical chain to create a portal to deliver the villain to the library. What were we supposed to do at this point? First, we’d leave Imogen in control until we had a decent plan, then Fernando could beat him in the head.
“Wait,” I told Fernando. “Don’t knock him out yet.”
Fernando stopped.
“Thank you.I was getting a serious headache.” Imogen-possessed Kurnbottom patted himself down, then pulled out a set of keys from his pocket. “Ooh, bingo.”
He tossed the keys to me. I rifled through them and found the one that matched the locks on Silas’s chains.
As soon as I pulled the chains off of him, his body transformed back into his naked human self. He grabbed onto his head and rolled up to a sitting position.
“Chocolate Man!” Fernando tossed a pile of clothes at Silas, including Silas’s trench coat.
Silas stared at me, his face hard and handsome and filled with a mix of emotion I didn’t recognize. This scowl was a new scowl.
“You died to protect me.”
“Yeah,” I said, waving it off. “You better appreciate it, because dying is my least favorite thing.”
He grabbed me and pulled me close. “You said you loved me.”
“I died.You can’t hold me accountable for what I say when I die.”
“Do you, Lily?” he asked. “Do you love me?”
I shrugged. “Maybe.”
He thrust his lips hard against mine. Our first kiss had changed everything I thought I knew about Silas. Our second taught me where we were in the present—desperately, uncontrollably attracted to each other. It showed me there could be more between us than competition and snarky remarks. But this kiss was a promise, a commitment of devotion to each other, to our shared future.
I leaned my forehead against his and laid a hand over his heart. “I do love you,” I whispered. “Now get dressed.”
“I love you, too,” he said. Then he pulled on his pants and paused when he saw Kurnbottom. His entire body tensed.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “We have him on lockdown.”
“Hi.” Imogen-possessed Kurnbottom slapped on a smile and waved.
“That is the creepiest grin I have ever seen. What did you do to him?” Silas looked at me. “Whatever it is, tell me it’s painful and it’s permanent.”
“It’s me, Imogen,” Imogen-possessed Kurnbottom said. “I squished Cornbutt’s consciousness. It’s still in here. But I’m in charge. I’m a witch, my power is bodysnatching. Didn’t Lily tell you?”
Silas raised a brow at me that suggested he knew I hadn’t told him about Imogen’s power because I’d intended to use it on him.
I shrugged, because it was true, and because that was before. I wouldn’t actually do that now.
