House of Ivy & Sorrow

FORTY-FOUR





“We’re taking you home. Right. Now,” Kat says in a flawless imitation of Nana.

“Damn right we are.” Gwen grabs my arm, pulling me up with surprising strength. “What the hell are you thinking? Your grandmother is dying, and you’re out here with him?”

I resist her hold, but she won’t release me. “I can’t go. This . . . this is the only way to stop him. I won’t let her die, so let go of me.”

Kat eyes Levi. “What do you mean, this is the only way?”

I can’t say it out loud. They’ll be beyond angry I didn’t tell them, and I don’t need any more people mad at me right now. All I’m trying to do is make things better. I don’t care about anything else.

Levi stands. “She can’t get rid of my dad on her own, and neither can I. We need each other to do it, so get out of the way.”

Their eyes go wide. Then Kat shakes her head, her little frame filling up with a confidence I’ve never seen before. “No. You are not doing that to her again! There has to be another way.”

“There isn’t!” I cry. “Would I be doing this if there were?”

“Then you’re not thinking hard enough!” Gwen turns me to face her, her deep blue eyes fierce. “Take a second and really think, Jo. Past today or tomorrow. Past the pain and fear. Can’t you see this is a trap?”

I shake my head. “No!”

This will work. I have to believe that. If I don’t, that means there’s nothing I can do but watch Nana die and wait for my own painful death.

I tear myself from Gwen’s hold, going back to Levi. He puts his arm around me protectively. “It’s not a trap,” he says. “I want him dead as much as anyone.”

Kat looks like she’s about to rip his heart out, but she takes a deep breath and tries to calm herself. “Jo, please, don’t do this. I might not know a lot about magic, but watching you go through all this has taught me one thing: nothing good can come from giving a guy magic. You know that’s true. I know you do.”

A lump forms in my throat. I try to tell myself she’s wrong, but all I can think of is the story about how the Shadows came to be. The woman gave away her magic for love, and that one decision is still killing witches today.

“You don’t even know him,” Gwen says, her voice sad. “You shouldn’t be relying on a stranger; you should be relying on your friends, on the people who love you.”

Levi spins me around to face him. “Don’t listen to them. They don’t have a clue what they’re talking about—they don’t even have magic.”

The anger in his voice makes the hair on my neck stand. I look back at them, their fear obvious. They are my friends, my best friends. I’ve spent most of my life with them, and I don’t like seeing them this scared. “They may not have magic . . . but they do know me.”

Kat takes a few daring steps closer. “If there isn’t a way, we’ll make a way, okay? You can do anything. I truly believe that.”

“You don’t need him,” Gwen says. “You don’t have to make this sacrifice.”

“Shut up!” Levi’s arm tightens around me. “We don’t have time for this shit! Have you not seen the sky? He is at her doorstep, and you want her to throw away her only chance at survival? You guys are the evil people here.”

“Your way isn’t survival—it’s a slower death!” Gwen screams.

I tense, her words washing over me like freezing cold water. What am I doing? I don’t want this—I know I don’t want this, and yet here I am ready to do it anyway. I’m crazy. No, just desperate. And afraid.

Neither of which is a good reason to be Cursed.

I push him away, my heart pounding a thousand times a minute. “I can’t do this. I couldn’t even say the words.”

“Josephine,” Levi says through his teeth. “Don’t be stupid.”

I look him in the eye. I’m not angry—this is all he knows; of course there’s no other way to him—but my brain is finally working, and so is my gut. “I’m not being stupid. I . . . I think I have an idea, thanks to my friends.”

“It won’t work.”

I hold my head up high. “Won’t know until I try, and if you can’t trust me then maybe they’re right about you. If everything you said was true, you’ll let me go, Levi.”

His eyes go wild, to the point where I’m waiting for a shadowy Curse to spew out of him. It scares me, the fury he holds inside. His deepest, darkest desires ooze out of him, the shadows around him intensifying. He tries to be good, but there is a part of him that wants to take me and be done with it, that wants to consume every bit of me as his own.

He falls back on the tree, his head cradled in his hands. The shadows dim. “You are such a pain in the ass.”

I glare at him, angry that he would have taken me despite knowing all the evil he keeps inside. I feel like such a fool for even considering the risk. “The feeling’s mutual.”

“It’s not my fault if you die,” he says.

“Nope. But if I die, at least I know I had control to the end. I am free, unlike you.”

As he curls up on the ground, it’s as if I can see the shackles that bind him. He’s a prisoner to magic. “Leave. Before I change my mind.”

I rush home with Gwen and Kat by my side. Once I reach the porch, I stop to catch my breath, and they hug me. I let out a sigh of relief, somehow at peace though I’ve made this a thousand times harder on myself. But I won’t let anything control me, not magic or fear or even a beautiful boy.

“What’s the plan?” Gwen asks, our faces still close.

I gulp, not even sure I can do it. But I have to try. “Are you really willing to do anything for me?”

“Of course,” Kat says.

Gwen rolls her eyes. “Duh.”

“Okay. To the apothecary, then.”