Faustus, who had his face deeply buried in his chest, looked up at me, tongue still hanging out of his mouth.

“Yeah, I don’t believe me either.” I swung a leg over my bicycle. I pressed down on the pedal and hopped up onto the seat.

Hopefully my spell hadn’t gotten too much of a head start.

Chapter 34

The frosty night air cooled my cheeks as I sped over the darkened streets, my scarf trailing behind me. I tried to stave off the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, but I didn’t have much success.

Gideon had tried to warn me. For months I had pushed away my powers. What did I expect to happen? My behavior went against everything I had been raised to believe. Magic was a gift, not an entitlement.

In my defense, though, everything had happened so fast. The town hall. Nora’s confession about Liz’s father. The police coming to the door. I had turned to magic because that’s what I had always done. But how had Gideon put it? That what I had done was like asking a friend for money after years of not speaking? I hadn’t seen it that way. In all honesty, ever since Adam’s death, I felt like my magic owed me.

I squeezed the grips of my handlebars. Was that true? Did I really feel like my magic owed me? I was still angry the powers that be hadn’t helped me save my husband’s life, but that had never been promised. That wasn’t part of the deal.

I pushed the thoughts away. I couldn’t think about this now. I had to stay focused. I had set something in motion tonight, and now I had to see it through.

I glided over the pavement, lit up in the glow of the nearly full moon. My heart pounded at the base of my throat, quickening with every turn of my bicycle’s wheels. I didn’t slow my pace until I reached Liz’s street. I had looked up her address online. Fingers crossed this is where my spell had ended up. And, hopefully, it was in a more cooperative mood.

Under other circumstances, I would have enjoyed the sleepy feel of the neighborhood. It wasn’t hard to picture the people who owned these homes, inside, tucked snug in their beds. But these were not normal circumstances, and I could only imagine what the dreams of all those sleeping people would be like if they knew there was a witch riding through their neighborhood chasing a rogue spell designed to stir up a killer.

I stayed on the opposite side of the street, tracking the house numbers until I reached 36 Maplewood Lane.

Liz’s house.

I got off my bike and guided it over to a small cluster of trees. I wasn’t sure what the spell would drive Liz to do, if anything at all, but I knew I’d have a hard time staying hidden with my bike. Once I had it tucked away, I crept back up to the road, being careful to stick to the shadows. I chose a lookout spot beside a tall lilac bush. The shrub had dropped its leaves, leaving nothing but a tangled mess of gnarled branches to cozy up against.