He never showed up for English. He wasn’t in French, either. I spent all of snack break, scanning the halls for him. By Marine Biology, I was a mess. I realized then that I didn’t even have his number to try and call him. He’d never given it to me… Or asked for mine. Perhaps that should have tipped me off.

But still, part of me couldn’t help but be terrified. What if something had happened to him? What if some other cultists had waylaid him before he got the book to Neil’s? What if he—

What if now, with his mission complete, he had no more need to attend Portsmouth High?

Had no more need to… see me?

We had saved the Grimoire, stopped the doom of the world as I knew it. It was over. Done. Why would he bother coming back to school? He was done with me. And the world as I knew it felt more doomed than ever it could have been before.

“Miss Slate!” Ms. Epistola’s voice snapped at me. I jerked out of my despair, and looked up at her, disoriented.

“If my class is that uninteresting to you, please, don’t hesitate to take a trip down to the principal’s office,” she sneered scornfully.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, stealing a glance at Bree and Vik. They both looked at me with confusion and… concern. I wanted to cry.

I don’t know how I made it through the rest of Bio—Ms. Epistola focused particularly on harassing me after my slipup. My chest felt like it was cracking under the strain. When the bell rang, I leapt up, just trying to get my things and get away—it was lunch time, I could just hide somewhere and—

“Not so fast,” Bree said at my ear, grabbing me by the arm. Vik stood behind her, looking concerned but remaining silent and not making a move. “We need to talk.”

Bree put her weight into it and pushed, pulled and shoved me into an empty classroom across the hall. Just outside the door, the corridors were filled with the rest of the school excitedly making their way to the cafeteria. Soon enough though, the hallway fell silent, and I stared at Bree and Vik before me.

“You could have just asked, Bree,” I snapped, rubbing my arm. I felt cornered.

Bree looked at me strangely, but then took a deep breath and rubbed her face. “I’m… I’m sorry, look, I just wanted to talk.”

“Well, here I am,” I snapped again. I could feel myself wanting to lash out at my two friends like a trapped animal. I tried to restrain myself, but my fears and worries about Riley had run me to the edge of sanity.