Page 95 of The Magic We Made

“Wake up,Ash.”

I open my eyes to the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen in my life: Francesca Giovanni peering down at me, her dark eyes worried.

When she sees I’m looking at her, however, those eyes soften with relief.

“Oh, thank God,” she whispers. “Ash, you’ve got to get up.”

“I love you,” I tell her, because my heart is so full. She found me. She found me! That must mean she still likes me a little.

But I’m not sure she understands what I’m trying to tell her—it did come out sounding likeRye Roo You—since she whispers, “Shhh, Ash, not so loud. Come on, we’ve got to go—”

I can’t believe it. Frankie has come to rescue me, and my hands and feet are free. She’s cut through the bow lines the girls used to tie me up.

She’s amazing. I always knew she was amazing, but... she reallyisamazing.

Then I remember what Haley has in store for me—and how Gaia is going to react—and I panic. Somehow Frankie has climbed up onto the stone altar without being seen—the girls are kneeling down below, their heads bowed reverently as Haley, her back to us, drones on. All it would take is for one of them—just one—to raise her head and notice us, and it’s over. This is the least safe place on earth for Francesca to be right now.

I turn my head to tell her this—she has one arm around my waist, to help me down off the backside of the altar—and find I’m still unable to form intelligible words... and I’m still a little bit uncoordinated. This is unfortunate since the escape route Frankiehas planned for us is up the side of a steep ravine behind Satan’s Seat.

I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to climb down from a sacrificial slab at night while still high on an extremely poisonous plant belonging to the nightshade family after having been repeatedly kicked and punched by a bunch of witches.

But I can now say with confidence that I have, and it did not go as planned.

I don’t even make it off the altar before I stumble. My lips collide with Frankie’s ear, but she only tightens her grip on me and whispers, “It’s okay. It’s okay, just hurry—”

But it’s not okay. It’s not okay at all, because one of the girls kneeling in front of the altar finally does lift her head, and immediately sees Frankie up there on the slab with me.

“Stop her!” the girl shrieks.

“She’s taking our sacrifice!” yells someone else.

Frankie tries. I have to give her that.

Only there’s no escape when one of you has limited upper body strength (her) and the other has just been beaten up, then doused with a psychoactive plant. As much as Frankie is trying to shove me, I’m not moving fast enough to avoid the sudden stampede of enraged, white-robed witches that is coming directly at us.

So I can’t really blame Frankie for what she does next. Slipping an arm around my neck, she presses something very firmly to the side of my throat, then whirls around to shout, “Stop! One more step and he dies.”

The witches stop. Even Haley stops. From where I’m standing on top of the altar, I can see the surprise in their eyes—surprise coupled with anger.

I guess I’d be angry, too, if someone was threatening to kill the guy I’d gone to all the trouble of kidnapping.

“Really?” Haley sounds amused. She’s standing at the base of the altar, staring up at us. But she doesn’t look angry or scared. She looks pleased with herself. “You’re going to slit his throat with a pair of pruning shears?”

“Yes, I will, if you don’t back off and let us go,” Frankie says. I can feel her heart slamming hard against my chest. She may be scared, but neither her voice nor the arm around my waist, holding me upright, is shaking. “I’ll do anything I have to keep you from using him in your twisted little scheme.”

I’ve always known Frankie is a badass, but I never realizedhowbadass until now.

“You’re never going to get your money now,” I say smugly to Haley. Only what comes out of my mouth is mere gibberish since my tongue is still numb from the devil’s weed.

Haley isn’t impressed. She doesn’t even acknowledge me. She’s still smiling as she says to Francesca, “You do realize it doesn’t matter who provides the blood sacrifice, only that the blood sacrifice is made, right? So please, go right ahead and kill him. You’ll be doing us a favor.”

Wait.What?

I’m going to die here, I realize. Francesca and I are both going to die tonight.

And there’s nothing I can do about it.

Frankie