Her cheeks heated. “Who are you protecting, Graves? Is it Boone? Or is it the Old Masters themselves?”
“Oh, please.” Hudson made a frustrated sound. “Every odd thing that’s happened since the start of the school year has somehow involved you, yet you claimI’mkeeping things fromyou? You don’t even involve me until after the fact.”
Ellory’s fingers tightened around the phone. He was right, and she knew he was right, but he was also being incredibly infantilizing. Her instincts were shrieking that something was wrong, and she was more inclined to trust them than to trust him. Even after this school year had made her question everything she thought she knew about herself and her world, she could still recognize a diversion.
“Iknowyou’re lying to me. I don’t know about what, but I’m going to figure it out. I’m going to figure all of it out.”
“It seems you have everything well in hand, then,” Hudson deadpanned. “Good luck with that.”
Click.
Ellory stared down at the blank screen of her phone for a full thirty seconds before it sank in that Hudson had hung up on her.Affronted, she called him back and left a voicemail that would surely get her arrested but felt good in the moment, all four-letter words and passionate speculation about his place in whatever version of hell existed. She was breathing hard by the time she wedged her phone back into her pocket, nearly dropping it twice in her haste, and only the fact that Hudson would absolutely call the police on her—and be justified in doing so—if she turned up at his house kept her rooted in place.
Well, that and the fact that her shift began in twenty minutes, and she needed money more than she needed to throttle him.
“Admittedly,” said a familiar voice from behind her, “this explains so much and nothing at all.”
Ellory turned with her heart in her throat. Tai stood in the tombstone of light that stretched from the door of the library, her arms folded. A canvas bag stuffed with books rested against her hip. Her eyebrows were almost one with her hair. Whatever she saw in Ellory’s expression made her smile.
“Yes, I heard everything. It seems we have some catching up to do, but I know you’ve got work,” Tai continued. She marched forward, looped her arm around Ellory’s, and tugged her in the direction of the bus stop. “Let’s talk over coffee.”
21
This close to midnight, Powers That Bean was a wasteland. A table at the back housed four customers, all of them on their laptops with bags beneath their eyes and coffee cups the size of trophies half-empty beside their keyboards. Ellory had consumed a large coffee of her own before pinning on her name tag, tying her apron with a double knot, and stuffing her hair into a jaunty cap with a praying coffee bean on the front. Her leaden feet had to be forced into heading to the counter to relieve the other barista, because Tai was waiting with questions Ellory didn’t know how to answer.
But all Tai said was “Can I get a small Earl Grey tea with three sugars?”
Ellory went through the motions, keeping one eye on the back table in case they flagged her down for more coffee. Tai drank her tea while flicking through her phone, giving Ellory time to wipe down the counter and check the espresso machine. Her shoulders eventually lowered, the knot of anxiety in her chest easing. Part of her knew Tai was doing this on purpose, lettingEllory have this space to speak in her own time; even so, she was grateful.
“I heard you and Cody one night,” Ellory said, which wasn’t where she had meant to start at all. Tai’s brow furrowed, so she charged on. “You were talking about magic—or they were. You had each other to confide in, and it felt like I was outside of that. Like I needed to have my own secret keeper.”
“Who did you pick?” Tai asked. “Please tell me it wasn’t Blackwood.”
“Graves.”
“Oh, ofcourse.”
Ellory frowned. “Why did you say it like that?”
“You’re obsessed with each other,” said Tai, matter-of-fact. “Of course you’d ask him. Of course he’d say yes.”
Ellory retreated to collect an order from her only table. Whether the coffee shop swelled with crowds or dwindled to a single table, she treated her work-study with the reverence it deserved. Textbooks and clothes and school supplies weren’t covered by her scholarship—nor were her tickets home to see Aunt Carol during breaks. Powers That Bean was her kingdom and her captor, where she kept order and pleased patrons with ruthless efficiency at the cost of studying time and social engagements. At least on slow nights, she could have a textbook open under the counter to stay on top of her classes. The times she worked late, watching raucous students stumble from party to party on the other side of the glass—well. It would all be worth it when she graduated.
Tai was waiting with her chin propped up on her hand, her Earl Grey tea drained. The scent of bergamot lingered in the air, making Ellory think reluctantly of Hudson. Tai’s phone was face down on the table, her full attention like a blunt weapon. “Thisisn’t about Cody or me. Are you ready to tell me what else has been going on?”
And Ellory finally was. Her entire school year, recontextualized through the framework of true magic, from the séance and the murder she had witnessed to the field and the nature she had healed. The longer she spoke, the more relieved she felt. Every moment had seemed so surreal that keeping it to herself, preserving it only in her notes, had helped her feel in control. But Tai listened without judgment, so much so that Ellory couldn’t believe she had taken so long to confide in her best friend.
“Wow,” Tai said when she was finished. “Magic, huh?”
“I know.” Ellory deflated atop the counter, her arms dangling dramatically over the front. “I couldn’t believe it either.”
“It’s been an unusual school year. Even before the séance, I’ve felt like…something is off.” Tai stared to the side, where nothing but empty tables and scattered chairs waited for acknowledgment. “I tried calling my aunties, but they couldn’t explain this inexplicable familiarity. The way the universe seems to bend to me sometimes. The way I feel too small and too large for this world.” Her expression melted into something sheepish. “I sound confused. I didn’t want you to think—”
“No, I—I’ve been feeling the same way.” Ellory had straightened at some point during Tai’s confession. Now her hands closed over Tai’s wrist, a comforting gesture to ground them both. “Graves has been trying to help me figure it all out, but part of me was still fighting this…until today.”
“What was it like?” Tai’s eyes were wide, her voice breathless. “Doing magic?”
Several words crowded the back of Ellory’s throat, each of them inadequate. It felt like loss—draining and all-consuming—and alsolike strength—as rightness in a world that had always been wrong. It felt like sickness; it felt like panacea. It felt limiting and limitless. Instinctively, her hand found the back of her neck again, rubbing against the tattoo she couldn’t see.
