Ramona paused. Half anticipation, half dread. “And?”
“It’s in a grimoire. Fifteenth century. I left it—” Iris stopped. “I left it for you. I thought if you found it naturally, you’re smart enough that if you were looking for something else and came across it?—”
“You left the grimoire for me to find?” Ramona’s voice was flat. “Instead of just telling me? Instead of just performing the spell? So you’d never have to take accountability and just letmedeal with it?”
Iris shifted her weight. Eleanor sniffled.
“It’s late, girls. Let’s go inside,” Eleanor said, holding out her arms as if ushering them.
Iris turned, but Ramona stayed put.
“I did find it.” Ramona’s voice was cold. “In the donation bin at work. I even performed a spell from it, and then I summoned a demon. So, thank you. It worked out even better than you’d imagined.”
Eleanor made a small, surprised sound. “A demon?” she asked. “Zara?”
“Yep,” Ramona said, popping the P sound. “She’s a demon I’m now tethered to.”
Eleanor closed her eyes briefly. “Ramona?—”
“Don’t.” Ramona’s voice was sharp. “Don’t lecture me aboutanythingwhen you’ve been lying to me for decades.”
Their breath fogged in front of their faces, and Ramona shivered again. “The spell,” she said. “In the grimoire. How does it work?”
Iris pulled out her phone, scrolled through photos, found one. A page from a manuscript, dense text with marginal notes in a handwriting Ramona recognized from the grimoire.
“It’s a severance ritual,” Iris said. “It’s fairly simple and straightforward. I can?—”
“That’s it?” Ramona interrupted. She didn’t want or need Iris’s help, ever again.
“It’s more complicated than that. The ritual takes three hours. It requires specific components — lunar water, blessed iron…” Iris looked at Ramona. “And it has to be performed during a new moon. The next one is?—”
“Nine days, or maybe eight now,” Ramona said, glancing up toward the night sky as if that might tell her the hour. “I know.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I’ve been researching severance rituals for a month trying to break a demonic binding.” Ramona’s voice was sharp. “Funny how both problems have the same timeline.”
Iris’s expression was pained. “Ramona, I’m so sorry. I know I should have told you sooner. I know I should have?—”
“You’re right. You should have.” Ramona turned. “And now I’m leaving.”
“Ramona, wait,” Iris said quickly, pressing a tiny slip of paper into her hand. “Give this to Kashvi.”
Ramona nearly dropped the paper out of spite, but instead she tucked it into her pocket.
“We’ll give you a ride,” Iris insisted.
“No, I’ll be fine. I’ll call someone I trust,” Ramona said over her shoulder, holding her sweater tighter around her as she began walking back down the driveway. She could have spent the night in her old bedroom, but after that discussion, she didn’t want to spend one more moment with her mother and sister. Did her dad know? Did Simone know? Dideveryonebut her know?
The grounds were dark. The drive stretched out ahead, shadowed and still.
But there, near the tree line, a darker shadow. Moving.
Zara materialized from the shadows like she’d always been solid. No longer shadow-form — just herself again.
“Took you long enough,” Zara murmured.
“They wanted to talk.” Ramona grabbed her hand. “Felix?”
