“You better,” he answers, fear plain on his face.
There’s more to say—there’s always more to say with Jaxon—but I really am out of time. So I just give him one last smile, and then I turn away.
110
Heeeeeeeeere’s
Hudson
I’m not that far from the arena door, but once I’m inside, there’s a long walkway I have to go down to get to the field. Hudson hassles me about hurrying the entire time, even though I’m doing my best. It’s not exactly easy when everything hurts when I run.
Or worse, everything hurts when I breathe.
Maybe that’s why I don’t remember until I’m halfway down the ramp. “Hold on a minute,” I tell Hudson as I careen to a stop.
“There’s no time to wait, Grace!” He shoots me an impatient look. “You’ve got to get on the field.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t think I can afford to get on the field without doing this, so they’re all just going to have to wait a little bit longer, whether they want to or not.”
I unzip the front pocket of my backpack and take out the small pouch I have hidden in the secret compartment at the back of it. I know it was a risk to bring these things with me to the cave of the Unkillable Beast, but I was afraid I might get injured while I was there—or worse. And if that happened, I wanted the others to have a way to get Hudson out of my head.
I didn’t want him to have to die with me.
Turns out, I wasn’t the one who died in that cave. And I will remember Xavier and regret his loss for the rest of my life—however long or short that might be. But I’m not about to go into another dangerous situation, one that can turn deadly at any moment, and not take care of everything—everyone—I can. Which means there is no other time. I have to do this now.
I open the pouch and slowly, carefully take out each of the four items inside it, one by one.
Hudson’s eyes go huge as he realizes what I’m doing. “You can’t do this right now,” he tells me, backing away from me in such a hurry that he nearly trips over his own feet—and probably would have if he was actually in his own body. “There are other, more important things for you to—”
“I might die.” Three little words, but they shut him right up, his mouth slamming closed fast and tight, even as his eyes implore me to stop talking. To not say what we both know I’m going to say.
But I can’t give him that, not now when there’s so very much on the line.
“Jokes about shoving the ball down Cole’s snout notwithstanding,” I continue, “we both know things could go really wrong in there today. Which means there might not be another time to do this. Ever. I know what I’m supposed to do—the Bloodletter told me—but can you help me? Make sure I don’t mess it up?”
“This isn’t what you need to be worrying about right now, Grace. You need to focus. Plus, if I’m still in your head, maybe I can help you. Maybe I can—”
“Die with me,” I finish the sentence with a firm shake of my head. “I know you like to do things your way, but you don’t get a vote on this. One way or the other, I’m getting you out of my head, so you can either help me or you can risk ending up haunting the hallways as Katmere Academy’s very first ghost.”
I throw my hands up in the air in a “what you going to do?” kind of shrug. “It’s your choice.”
“One, I wouldn’t be the first ghost at Katmere Academy. And second, the ghost thing doesn’t really work like that anyway.”
“And you know this because?” I ask, brows arched.
“I was dead…?” He pauses. “Well, sort of.”
“Sort of?” That’s news to me. “What does that mean?”
“It means I’ll tell you once you go in there and kick Cole’s whiny little ass,” he answers with his trademark smirk. “So don’t screw it up.”
“Not planning on it,” I say, “but you know. Shit happens.”
“It does,” he agrees, face pensive and eyes sad.
I’m pretty sure this is Hudson’s version of a sad puppy dog face—or as close as he gets to it—and I am not going to fall victim to it. There’s too much on the line.
So instead of looking at him, I crouch down and place the four items the way the Bloodletter told me to: bloodstone in the north position, dragon bone in the south, werewolf eyetooth in the west, and witch athame in the east, all arranged in a circle large enough for two people to stand in.
Once he realizes I’m not going to change my mind, I can feel Hudson watching me with a somber face. But every time I glance up at him, the expression in his eyes is completely unreadable.
After I’m done laying the items out, I light the special candle Macy gave me for just this occasion and put it on the other side of the square, as instructed.
I’m not a witch. I don’t have any of Macy’s magic in me. But supposedly, that’s what these four items are for. Their magic is so strong that I don’t need any of my own to make this work.
I’m not sure I believe that, but I guess we’ll find out one way or the other soon enough.
I close my eyes, take a deep breath, then step inside the circle—and right away, I know exactly what the Bloodletter was talking about. I can feel something start to happen. I have no idea what it is, but it’s definitely something big.
There’s a charge in the air, an electric shock that rides the air currents as they glide past me. As they do, every hair on my body stands straight up and my skin starts to tingle. My chest gets tight, my breathing labored, and it feels like I’m going to pass out.
“Get out!” Hudson yells at me, panic evident in his voice. “Get out of the circle!”
But it’s too late. I’m not going anywhere—I can’t go anywhere. The electric current that surrounds me is burning hotter, getting stronger, and the ground beneath my feet starts to vibrate.
There are loud gasps from the crowd, a few screams, and that’s when I realize it’s not just me who feels it. The ground beneath the whole arena is starting to shake.
I stumble back a little at the knowledge, nearly step outside the circle like Hudson begged me to, but the electric current catches me and refuses to let me escape. Instead, it zaps me and pushes me right back in.
Not going to lie—it scares me a little. I’ve never felt anything like this in my life, not even down in the tunnels with Lia when she called up that horrible black nastiness that nearly killed Jaxon and me.