“Oh, that sounds good, too. Save me a toston?”
Sage lifts one up—the thing is massive, like, the size of her palm—and tosses it to Sky, who catches it one-handed like she was trained to save delicious fried things from getting ruined on the ground.
Sky and I take the bench facing Sage and dig in. “How much do I owe you?” I ask, but Sage waves me off. That’s okay. I’ll figure out another way to pay her back.
“So, Sky,” Sage says between licking her fingers like a barbarian.
“Yes, Sage.”
“Do you have a plan? Like for real? Or are we winging this?”
“I told you, the plan—or spell, if you want to get specific—is in the book. We follow the book. The whole thing is in the book.”
I scoff between bites. “Say ‘book’ one more time please, I don’t think she got it.”
Sky sticks her tongue out at me before shouting “Book!” so loudly, I wish I’d covered my ears for it.
Sage grabs an antibacterial wipe from her purse and cleans her hands. “Well, I’m ready when you are.”
I stuff the last bite of taco in just as my phone pings with a text from Gerald Samuels.Just a quick update. No one remembersVivienne at the recent gallery. Going to find former employees to question.
I toss my phone back in my bag and remember to chew my taco. “Ready,” I say with an entirely too-full mouth. I know Samuels is doing his best, but I don’t think he’s going to find Mama. At this point, I’ve gotnothingto lose. Nada. “I couldn’t be more ready, honestly.”
“Me too.” Sky stands with the rest of us.
We toss the garbage in the trash can near the side of the building, then follow Sky to the front doors.
“I always thought this felt like walking into a vag,” Sage muses as Sky pulls out what are I am assuming her work keys.
“Like we’re fingers! Fingering the giant church vag!” Sky announces as she opens the door and walks in, making that godforsaken “fingering” motion with her hand lifted high above her head.
“God, I hope no one is in there and could hear that,” I mutter while Sage cracks up.
“Nope, it’s just us,” Sky announces.
“And you sure you’re not going to get in trouble for…you know. Spellwork after hours?” Sage asks.
Sky shakes her head. “You should see my boss. I’m pretty sure if she caught us, she’d give me a raise.”
Sage and I both look at each other and shrug. Whatever that means.
We’re all inside now, and it’s freezing in here. I shiver and fold my arms over my chest. “Damn, I didn’t think I’d need a winter coat.”
I haven’t spent a ton of time in the church library in my life, but it looks about the same as I remember. Extremely tall bookshelves stuffed with creepy-looking books: check. Small creepywindows that show the dark greenery surrounding the building and nothing else: check. Dark-ass creepy shadows everywhere because of the small creepy windows: check.
Sky leads us to an elevator, which looks like it was installed before elevators were even invented. The doors don’t line up right, and when they open, the little yellowed room inside also looks Escher-esque wonky. Like if I look up, I’m going to see our own feet and if I look down, I’ll see the tops of our heads or some shit like that.
“Why does it smell like when you solder something in here?” Sage asks.
“I don’t know. What does soldering smell like?” Sky says in response.
The doors open before Sage can answer—because hell if I know what soldering smells like—revealing a single-room basement, wide and dark and about one hundred times creepier than the ground floor.
“Jesus,” Sage whispers as our footfalls echo around us ominously. “I swear I just felt the presence of, like, sixteen ghosts walking by.”
“There was a massacre near here in the late 1700s,” Sky responds cheerfully. “That was probably those spirits.”
“I was trying to make a joke to lighten the mood, but now sadly, I’ve made it all worse.” Sage puts both hands on her belly, like she’s trying to protect the little guy from the seriously now-veryBuffy vibes. “How can you work down here all day?”
