I didn’t go anywhere the rest of the day. After days of being stuck here, I actually didn’t want to leave my house. Joel and I laid in silence at opposite ends of the couch, with our heads on the armrests and our feet occasionally brushing under two separate blankets as we tried and failed to get comfortable while watching TV shows I barely comprehended. Just hours ago I’d been dying. The sidewalk was probably still bloody and the laundry pile was still beside our bed, where Gretel must have shoved it when she tucked me in after saving me.

That was what she’d done. She’d saved me. But she’d betrayed me too. I should have been in a hospital where maybe they couldn’t do as much as she could, but there’d be less chance of me dying there on the sidewalk with no backup plan. Because that was exactly what would have happened if Gretel couldn’t pull off fixing me. 

She didn’t call at all that day. I kept looking over at my phone, where it was on the floor beside the couch. It was silent, not even ad texts coming in. Joel’s phone was in splinters in a magical attic on a street nearby. He’d run, he told me. Ezra called him when he got away from Declan. He’d managed to get the words out as Joel was handling what he thought was a fairly harmless magical artifact, but he’d jerked back at something Ezra said and the book lashed out, shattering the phone and giving Joel that shiner. He’d run, explaining it was a magical emergency to the woman and that she could keep her money, he’d try to come back tomorrow. She’d been too stunned to say anything on his way out, but if she was unhappy, there was no way for her to tell him that now, was there?

He’d attempted to teleport like he had that first day and he didn’t know if it was the artifact or his terror, but he’d ended up down at Derby Wharf. This was closer than his client’s house, but he’d had to run from there. So beyond the fact he knew I wouldn’t want it, he also knew if he’d attempted to teleport me to the hospital, things could go horribly wrong.

Just like with Gretel, not that she’d considered it. But my muscles hurt and I was alive, not in surgery or in the morgue. I owed her for that, but this wasn’t what I wanted from her. And as much as I wanted her to text, I didn’t know what I wanted to say back.

We didn’t eat, just lay on the couch watching old episodes of Star Trek for about eight hours. I didn’t sleep and Joel didn’t seem to either. Every time I looked over, he was staring dully at the TV, just like I’m sure I was. Eventually, well after midnight, I ended up falling asleep and woke up alone after sunrise.

I had no energy to make anything for breakfast. The idea of making food, of actually getting up and putting any effort in, was too much to even consider right now. 

Gretel was gone.

I knew she was safe. She was at her sister Ginny’s house. Ginny lived over in Peabody, like Ezra’s mom. She’d be fine there and she could take care of herself. I assumed Joel was up in his room. And Ezra was probably with his mom, not that any of us were going to hear from him again, were we?

And that was when my phone rang.

“Hello?” I said, my voice raspy and groggy from sleep.

“It’s Ezra.”

I rubbed my eyes. “What’s up?”

“Declan just tried to get into my mother’s house.”

That woke me up completely. “Is she okay?”

“She’s fine, she chased him off. But I was there, and he was sobbing to me about how he almost killed you and how you’d lied that you had magic.”

“I repeatedly told him I didn’t.”

“I know. I’m so sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” I said. “He attacked you.”

“Mom threatened to murder him.”

“Could she have?”

“No,” Ezra admitted. “But she’s very convincing. But he said he was going to go to you next. Joel said his phone is broken, but I only wanted to talk to you anyway.”

I wanted to tell him that Joel wasn’t going to hurt him. Despite it being the worst timing ever, I wanted him to know that, to be able to feel safe with Joel again. But I didn’t blame him for being scared. Even beyond the compelling thing, Ezra had seen what Joel did to me the night Ezra had brought him home. The night Gretel revealed her powers. He had every right to be scared, even if I wasn’t scared anymore.

“I think he’s going to you next,” Ezra said. “Please be careful.”

“I will be,” I said. “Joel and I are here.”

“Where’s Gretel?”

Apparently my silence was telling enough. “I’m so sorry.”

“Me too.”

There was a sharp knock on the front door of the building, audible from the living room. “Fuck,” I said. “I think he’s here.”

“Don’t answer it.”

“I need to go,” I said. “I’ll call you in a little bit.”

“Joel!” I heard Declan yell, his voice muffled by the two doors between us. “Joel Murphy! I know you’re in there, you son of a bitch!”

Said son of a bitch was halfway down the stairs now, his shirt unbuttoned as he hurried into the room. “What the fuck is going on?”

“Declan went after Ezra again. He’s fine, but he just warned me he was coming here.”

“Stay here.”

Joel moved toward the door, and I followed. He looked like he might be about to tell me to go back, then shook his head almost imperceptibly and kept going out the door. 

Once we were out the front door of my apartment, I could feel the slight change in the air that signaled we were leaving the protections of Ma’s spell. I shuddered slightly and Joel looked like he was about to comfort me, then saw that I was in no mood to be fucking comforted. 

Gretel’s magic was Ma’s basis for the spell. What would happen if she didn’t come home?

We didn’t open the front door, we weren’t that stupid. But the window was cheap plastic and easy to talk through. “What do you want, asshole?” Joel demanded.

“Come out and talk to me. I’m not going to hurt you.”

“You tried to kill Dar, you fucking liar.”

“Yeah, but your girlfriend healed you, so you’re fine,” Declan said, his tone so disdainful toward me, a massive change from how it had been when he thought I had magic. “You should have told me the truth, Dar. I wouldn’t have wasted my time.”

“I told you the truth from the beginning,” I snapped. “I don’t have magic, I don’t want magic, and I want to be left the fuck alone. None of that has changed since you arrived and started being a fucking creep.”

“Just go,” Joel said. “I don’t want to hurt you either, but I will.”

Declan laughed, but there was an edge to it, maybe fear. Hopefully fear. He deserved it. “I wanted to tell you I’m leaving,” he said. “You had your chance, Joel. We could have done something great.”

“I wouldn’t waste my time with you,” Joel said. “Even before you hurt my friends.”

I was beginning to really understand that ruthless comment now. He sounded like Declan was barely worth a glance, like it wouldn’t affect Joel in the slightest to hurt him. And Declan could clearly tell too, and it was infuriating him.

“I’m going to tell Corman you’re alive,” Declan said. “I bet he’d appreciate knowing that.”

Fuck. I glanced at Joel, but there was no concern on his face, so I did my best to make my own expression neutral. “He’s going to kill you,” Declan continued. “And he’s actually going to finish it this time.”

“Get away from my home,” I said. “You coward.”

“Fuck you!” Declan screamed, thrusting a finger toward me through the plastic. “I wish you had died!”

“You’re lucky I didn’t,” I said. “Go away.”

“I’m going to laugh when he kills you both,” Declan sneered, then spun around and stomped down the stoop toward the sidewalk.

I watched him go, storming off down the street. “Do you think he’ll come back?” I asked Joel.

“Not until he’s reached Corman and gotten on his good side.”

Not that Corman’s return wasn’t something we’d already anticipated. I waited until Declan had disappeared from sight, then walked back into our apartment. Joel followed me. “What do you want to do?” he asked. “Are you hungry? I’ll make breakfast.”

I looked at him. He looked about as bad as I felt, with a black eye that seemed to have gotten worse overnight. I nodded. “Yeah, that’d be nice. I should call my aunt.”

I needed to call Ezra back too. And I should call Gretel too, to warn her. Not to beg her to come home. Or to tell her I was terrified of her and never wanted to see her again. I didn’t know.

Joel smiled at me and started for the kitchen. I followed, but then kept going until I was out the door and in my garden. I sat down on the edge of the nearest garden bed and began to weed. The calls could wait a few minutes longer.

I’d pick up those new flowers later today, too.

END

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