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Ram cursed. With a whoosh, I found myself sitting on the floor back in the garden shed. The portal was gone, and the room smelled vaguely acidic. Jag, Elliot, and Moe were at my sides, but I looked past them to Ram.
As usual with anything magic, he remained calm and business-like. “What happened?”
My chest tightened. “You don’t know either?”
He ran a hand down his face. “The portal opened, but then it was like I lost the signal. Does Juniper not want to be found?”
“This wasn’t her. I saw her trying to hold Free Jinx together as it collapsed, but something—or someone—blocked my path.”
Ram met my gaze, and I saw the same realization hit him as it dawned on me as well. “Whoever is causing the portals to open up all over town doesn’t want us to reach Free Jinx,” he said.
I groaned and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Juniper was never blocking us from reaching her. Someone else was, and I didn’t even notice.” I punched my leg. “Fuck! I should have been trying to save her then Eclipses, not the random villagers.”
Elliot took my hand. “You were right to help all those people.”
“I could have done better if I had gone after the asshole causing this shitshow in the first place!”
“Who would do that?” Moe said. “This is all so mean.”
I sighed. “It’s probably a salty-ass bastard from our old gang trying to destroy Free Jinx and kill Juniper at the same time. They stole the Astrosmos, which caused Free Jinx to collapse. They’re using the relic to block us from saving her and the Eclipses on top of tormenting Silver Springs. For some reason.”
Ram groaned and crouched to rest his elbows on his knees. “If they’re doing this in my name, I’m going to turn them into toads.”
“Toads are cute,” Moe said.
“Have you ever seen one in a little hat?” Elliot added.
Moe grinned as he nodded. “Yes! A little cowboy hat. Yippee ki-yay, little guy! Do cowboys say that?”
Ram smiled a little, actually enjoying the silliness. “A toad’s turd, then.”
“Oh, those aren’t cute at all, good call,” Moe said.
I dropped my hands into my lap. “If you had called out your pissed-off followers sooner, maybe they would have stopped fighting an old-ass feud.”
Ram slouched. “When Sandra, Brownshill, Ver, and Azea wrote to me in prison, I wrote back and said to just stop the fight. We had lost… and truly I didn’t want them to end up dead or locked up.”
I groaned. “They probably thought you were being coerced or some shit.”
He heaved a sigh. “Let’s try the spell again. Maybe I can break through the block.”
This time, Ram cast the tracking incantation, and I cast the portal one. Just like before, someone shut down our portal within seconds.
I slapped the concrete floor despite the pain it sent up my arm. “Fuck!”
“Again,” Ram said. “I can break it, I know it.”
It was hours later and more failed attempts than I could count when Moe and Elliot insisted that we take a break.
I sat on the bare floor and massaged my temples while Jag settled in behind me and let me lean back against his chest. Moe handed me a water bottle.
“I’ve been searching for the portal witch,” Elliot said with my phone in his hand as he paced the small space. “But I can’t find him.”
Sighing, I glanced at Ram, who sat against the wall with his elbows on his knees. His fancy button-up shirt was sweat stained. His fingertips were singed from his own magic, which I had never seen happen to anyone before.
I had to admit that he had given everything he had, even though he had no reason to want Juniper and my friends back.
“Ram?”
