Page 34 of Endless Terrors
Bea would never forgive me.
“Okay,” I said, breathing hard. I nodded even though Savannah couldn’t see me, holding the phone so tight I worried it would break. “Okay. Tell me what to do.”
“She would’ve had to ingest something for a spell this powerful. We’re going to make one of the ingredients harmless, which will unbalance the entire thing and hopefully free Gretchen.” Savannah rattled off a list of ingredients.
“Stay on the line,” I said once she was finished. “I don’t want to risk losing the signal.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
To have full use of my hands, I put my phone on speaker mode while I found a piece of scrap paper on the desk, plucked a pen out of a sawed-off beer can, and wrote down the ingredients. “I need you to trust me,” I told Bea. “I know how insane this looks, believe me. But if you want Gretchen to live, you’ll do exactly as I say.”
Most of the things on the list could be found right down the street, at the florist. The owner was a practicing Wiccan, and she had a small corner of the shop dedicated to white magic. Bea took the paper, her eyes going to what I’d written down then back to my face. As if she was debating whether or not I was insane.
She left without a word.
The next ten minutes were hell. As I waited for Bea and Seth to come back, I prepared Gretchen for the spell. I maneuvered her to the center of the floor and cleared everything away. The plastic chairs, the faded rug, the small garbage bin. All the while, Savannah was speaking in my ear, running me through the spell we were about to do.
I was wiping some worrying black fluid off Gretchen’s chin when Bea returned, a plastic bag dangling from her hand.
I didn’t waste any time getting started. We put some of the ingredients in a chipped bowl—the items Bea and Seth didn’t find at the florist, they’d apparently found elsewhere—and I began the invocation. I didn’t stop, not once, because faltering meant giving the doubt a chance to creep in. I placed the remaining herbs in the right places. I set the wicks alight. I did the spell perfectly.
And it worked.
More smoke seeped out of Gretchen’s mouth. It reminded me of the night we’d extracted a demon from Finn, only not as violent. I glanced over at Bea, worried about how she was handling all this. My boss’s eyes were huge, her mouth partly open. Savannah had gone silent. I checked my phone screen to make sure the call hadn’t dropped. Reassured, I put it back to my ear and stared impatiently at Gretchen.
“She isn’t waking up,” I said. Bea shifted, and her knee cracked.
The necromancer stayed calm, just as she had throughout this entire thing. “That’s normal. Her body just went through a shock. You can take her to the hospital, if you want, but she’ll probably be conscious by the time you get there.”
“My battery is about to die,” I said, hearing the warning trill. “Savannah, I—”
“You’re welcome, Fortuna.” Savannah’s voice had gone soft again. I knew things had changed between us today. I wasn’t sure how that would affect Damon and Matthew, or if it even would.
But the prospect didn’t frighten me like it used to.
We finally disconnected the call. Knowing that Bea was anxiously waiting for an update, I took my sweater off and tucked the thick wool beneath Gretchen’s head. I’d been too frazzled to think of doing it earlier. The sight of her lying so still filled me with hot, heavy guilt.
“My … contact said to wait. She should come back to us soon,” I told her worried partner.
Seth, who I’d pretty much forgotten about, got to his feet. He’d been kneeling behind us, probably ready to offer assistance the second we needed it. “I can hear people wondering if they should come in. They’re worried about Gretchen. I’ll go let them know she’s all right,” he said.
The goblin slipped out as quietly as he always seemed to arrive. Once he was gone, I leaned back and rested my spine against the desk. Bea stayed at Gretchen’s side. I could see her fighting an inner battle again, debating if she should trust me. Her fingers curled around Gretchen’s shoulders, and the short distance between us quivered with tension. Don’t ask me. Please don’t ask me, I thought.
“What the fuck just happened here, Fortuna?” Bea asked.
Her fear floated in the air, and when I sensed how powerful it was, it gave me the push I needed to overcome my own. No more avoiding. No more stalling. Bea deserved the truth, and it was time. I tipped my head back, resting that against the desk, too.
“The first thing you should know is that I’m not human,” I started.
“Bea? What happened?”
We both jumped at the sound of Gretchen’s voice. Bea made a strangled noise and bent over, hugging her partner fiercely. Nearly a full minute ticked by. When Bea straightened and met my gaze, her own was filled with wonder.
“I believe you,” she said. She waited for me to keep going. Bea must’ve seen hesitation in my expression, because she gave me an encouraging nod. “It’s okay, Fortuna. You can tell me.”
I swallowed. No going back now. I glanced at Gretchen, who was still conscious, thank God. She was listening as closely as Bea when I continued. “The second thing you should know is that it’s real. All of it. Those fucked-up fairy tales you grew up hearing? Most of them are based in truth. All the things that go bump in the night.”
Bea absorbed this with raised brows. The expression made me wonder if she was in shock, a little. My boss leaned back on her haunches, and her grip on Gretchen loosened.
