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“It’s not something I advertise. If I did, the next thing you know, they’d hang me in the middle of the next party and use me as a disco ball.”

“If you are ever a disco ball, I hope that’s a party I go to.” I turned and headed back to the house, feeling slightly better just because the burden of Sage wasn’t entirely on me, even though he hadn’t really given me any good advice.

He’d also never said what, exactly, had happened to his sister.

Monday morning, Sage was ready to face the world. Even if she didn’t face it with a smile, she went to the bus stop with the kids, and I walked with them. Donny wasn’t there, and he never came while we waited for the bus.

The next day was the same, no Donny. And the next.

By Thursday afternoon, the fence was finished, and I was starting to worry about the kid. When I talked to Sage about it, she shrugged. “It’s his fault for letting my existence affect his GPA.”

“It’s not your existence,” I began, but she gave me a hard look and climbed on the bus with the boys. I waved as it pulled out, and Jerome waved back. Did he have a jar of bugs in his hand? I watched the bus go while I considered the odds that I’d get a call from his school to talk about bugs. He was pretty good at not getting caught.

I shrugged and started walking back up the road, but when I got to the cemetery, I hesitated. Maybe I could talk to Donny. What could I possibly say to make anything easier for him? Maybe Scilla could say something. I hadn’t seen her since she came to the house and freaked out about the grimoire. I hadn’t seen it for a long time.

I had a flash of memory that I hadn’t paid attention to at the time, of Donny heading out the door while Ray said no, they didn’t need the leftovers, but there was a book corner poking out past Donny’s silhouette, like he was hiding most of the book with his body but missed with that one alligator edge.

Scilla said the book was dangerous.

I turned in at the cemetery gate and walked through the quiet headstones, absently touching my neck at the remembered feel of bones pressing into skin.

Ray of Sunshine said that their house was around here somewhere, but I’d never seen a driveway near the bus stop other than ours.

If only I could use my dark magic to find a path through the woods. I’d never actually set foot in them, but they seemed protective, not dangerous.

I reached the other side of the cemetery, stepped under the cover of the trees, and then stumbled onto a path that led somewhere. Probably back to the house, but maybe it led to the Millers’ place instead. Either way, it was a lovely walk. There were so many interesting mushrooms, red, orange, and blue.

I came around a bend, and there, at the far end of a clearing, was a little cottage, a clothesline on one side, an outhouse on the other. It was cute but had an air of neglect. The line was drooping with a pile of black fabric in the middle. The yard was overgrown, with unpicked produce overflowing the edges of boxes made with rough branches.

I hesitated for a moment on the edge of the clearing, feeling something roll down my spine, a warning, or an awareness of something dark ahead of me. Of course, because we were all dark magic users.

I straightened my shoulders and stepped forward, feeling the brush against my senses as I crossed an invisible boundary, an alarm of some kind. Good, then they’d know I was there. I went to the front door and knocked. It was a low door, too short to allow easy passage to Ray or my husband. Happily, my husband wasn’t there. Soon-to-be-ex-husband.

I was frowning when the door swung open and there was Donny looking hollow-eyed and eaten up by hatred and misery. In other words, like an ordinary teenager.

“What do you want?” he asked, sullen.

I smiled brightly. “Is Scilla here? I wanted to talk to her, but I don’t have her number.”

“No.” He stared at me for a long time, while I just stood there, staring back at him. Did Sage and him really kiss? Did they make out? How much skin-to-skin contact did they have? Did I need to give her a serious talk about safe sex and even safer abstinence? But I was here on a mission, and it wasn’t to talk about their relationship.

“I wonder, have you seen Hoar’s grimoire?” I asked carefully.

A flash of panic crossed his face before he doubled down on the sullen. “No, I haven’t. Do you want to wait inside for Scilla? She’ll be back in a little while.”

Did I want to wait inside with this incredibly moody teen who was absolutely lying about the book? I didn’t need the buzzing over his words to tell me that. Then again, maybe I could talk to him while we waited, tell him how miserable Sage was, and see if I could find a way to help him get out of his funk. Also maybe imply that if he did take advantage of her, I might chop off his hands.

“I don’t want to intrude,” I said, politely.

“Then why are you here?” He scowled down at the floor and scuffed it with his boot. “Sorry. You’re welcome to come in. I’m just feeling defensive lately.”

“I get it. His family slaughtered my parents and everyone else thirty years ago. Defense is the obvious solution when you’re under attack.”

He hesitated then stepped back, gesturing me inside the small living room. It had a real stuffed grizzly bear in the corner, paws raised like it was going to get you, and a couch with someone sitting in the middle. Someone with dark hair, but it looked natural, and she had the same tannish cast as Donny and Ray. The room wasn’t tidy.

“You can sit down,” he said.

I looked at the person and then at him. “I don’t mind standing. If you have company, I shouldn’t come in.”