“Wait, no,Iwas spying on you,” I explain. “Matteo, I showed him what you could do once because he thought I was making this shit up or was in a cult. Then we wound up agreeing to do this spell… It’s a long story.”
And we have so many other things to deal with right now without me having to recap everything.
“We have plenty of time,” Seth snaps. He’s a few feet away. While we’ve been talking, he’s fashioned a makeshift mattress out of the blankets for Cody, and places another over him. “Considering you nearly got Cody and Matteo killed, I figure it’s important for us to have all the facts.”
“You’re one to judge,” I say, “after what happened last semester.” I avoid mentioning the monster, since I left that part out with Matteo, but also wondering if he might’ve heard something when I brought it up while Farras was inside him.
“We were told we didn’t have anything to do with why that thing got out of the Rift,” Luke says.
“Wait, what thing?” Matteo asks, squinting like he’s straining with all the new information coming at him at once. “The Rift? I’ve seen that before, in that spell. And what do you meanthing?”
Luke glances between us. “You remember but didn’t tell him?”
All these goddamn secrets are catching up with me.
“Didn’t tell me what?” Matteo presses.
“How do you know about us?” Brad follows. “And why were you watching us?”
I jump in. “I love how you want all these answers from me, but what about you? You gonna tell me what you guys have been fucking around with for the past few years? How Seth can manipulate people’s minds, and Cody was able to heal me that night and tonight, and how Luke was able to lock my arm up like that?”
“I want to get to all that, but I’d like to know more about thisthing,” Matteo asks.
“A fucking monster,” Seth spits out. “Cody and Luke had visions of it escaping, and we used those visions to find it, hunt it, and destroy it. Alexei was there that night, but we thought he didn’t remember. Apparently, he was lying.”
“You knew they unleashed a monster with this stuff?” Matteo asks me.
“Yes,” I confess.
“Why didn’t you mention that before we did the spell?”
“At first because I knew you were worried about me, and then when you said you wanted to help, I didn’t think it’d be an issue because I wasn’t using the dark magic these guys used that set that thing loose.”
“Dark magic?” Luke asks.
“You know damn well what you’re playing with here. I was just doing one thing from a source I trusted, knowingonce we did it, I would get what I needed and then we’d both move on and never have to deal with it again.”
“What did you need?” Luke asks. “And who is this trusted source?”
“My fucking head,” Matteo says, resting his face in his hands. “I don’t know how much more of this I can take right now.”
“Yeah, this is a lot,” I say. “Can we focus on Matteo and Cody tonight and sort this mess out tomorrow?”
“He’s right,” Seth says. “I need to get Cody back to the dorms and into bed.”
“I have my car nearby,” I tell him.
Seth considers it, clearly not thrilled, but finally says, “Fine. Whatever.”
“What are we gonna do about Matteo?” Brad asks. “We don’t know if that thing in him is gone for good. Maybe we should put a spell on him to make sure he can’t leave the circle. Keep him confined to bed just to be sure.”
“Maybe you should askhim,” I say.
“Brad’s right,” Matteo says before groaning. “I would rather be cautious.”
“And then I can watch him for the rest of the night,” Brad goes on.
“Fuck that,” I tell him. “You and Luke stay in our room, and I’ll stay with Matteo.”
