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“The world Juniper was in…” Ram trailed off as though to give me a chance to change the subject.
I didn’t. “It was Free Jinx, and it’s clearly dying.”
His fingertips brushed the back of my hand, so lightly it was almost like wind. “That means your people are alive and as safe as they can be. She will protect them.”
But it also meant Juniper and the Eclipses could die at any moment. “I know she’ll do her best.” My voice wavered.
He touched the back of my hand again, so softly it almost wasn’t there. He stood close enough that his breath grazed my hair. It was almost enough to make me break down and cry.
Jag seemed to notice because he stopped teasing Moe and Elliot to shoulder his way between Ram and me. He placed a comforting hand on my back. “Hey.” When I looked up at him, he smiled. “You’re doing great.”
The weird thing was, I believed him. I smiled back at him, and he kissed the top of my head.
Elliot crouched by the basket Evanora had given us. The portal had missed it when it ate us. “Are we going to the library?” He fished a jar of wake potion out of the container. “I’m very good with the Dewey Decimal System.”
Jag, Elliot, and Moe were so sweet and helpful. I knew then that I couldn’t risk opening another portal with them nearby. It was harming them even when we physically survived—and the only thing keeping them from emotionally spiraling was my lies.
I’d keep them with me while we researched the spells in the library and would ditch them before trying portal magic again. I’d find them after, if I lived.
“Library?” Elliot said.
I nodded. “If I can find a way to fix my spell, maybe the universes will stop collapsing, plus portals are like doors. They aren’t supposed to have tentacles and skeleton hands. It’s only a matter of time before one of them fucking kills us.”
Hey, I didn’t only lie to them. Sometimes I was painfully honest and didn’t talk about the assholes of forest animals.
Jag tensed against my side, and Elliot gulped loud enough to hear.
“I thought you created the hands and squid arms,” Moe said. He had been standing still for a while. He had burned off his large dose of wake potion quickly.
“Wild magic again,” I said. “It does crazy shit when there’s too much of it and no one to harness it. It goes feral.”
“Oh, like my brain when I’m bored,” Moe said.
“Exactly. Our portal spell probably lures it toward us like a beaver to wood.”
Jag winked. “Or like my wood to your beaver.”
I giggled like an idiot.
Moe smiled at me. “Or like my tongue to your—”
Ram scowled. “Are we going to the library or not? Lives hang in the balance.”
I grinned because he was jealous and fucking deserved it. But he was right that we had to get a move on.
So Elliot grabbed the basket, and I cast an invisibility spell before flying us across town to the main library. It was a large stone building near the center of town. When the coast was clear, I placed us down on the front steps and removed the invisibility spell. Taking books off the shelves would give us away, anyway.
I took a deep breath. “Okay, the cops have probably put out wanted notices about us by now. Let’s hope nobody recognizes us.”
Chapter 26
Iledthewayinto the library’s foyer. A large wooden desk stood on the left with a curly-haired brunette standing behind it. As she scanned a book, a beep echoed through the otherwise silent library.
Elliot nearly skipped up to her at the front desk. “Good day, keeper of the books! We require your knowledge.”
I eyed him and leaned close to Jag. “Is he flirting with her?”
“Nah, he just gets very excited in libraries,” Jag whispered back.
