“Your mother is gone,” Elizabeth said.

How did she know that? Nadia struggled for words. “That’s—none of your business.”

Elizabeth cocked her head. “Your father forgot to mention my visit, didn’t he?”

Wait—Elizabeth was in my house? Nadia felt her arms tightening around her books, as if using them to shield her heart.

“People often forget where I’ve been,” Elizabeth continued. “I prefer it that way. Once they’re aware of me—of what I can do—it’s harder. But I could make you forget about me. Forget my name. Forget your own name, if I chose.”

Every bad thought she’d had about Elizabeth was true. Nadia remembered Mateo—the danger he was in because of the curse, how vulnerable he was to Elizabeth’s manipulation—and that plus her fear for her dad seized her, turning her fear to rage. “Tell me what you’re doing to this town. What are you after? What do you want?”

“Nothing I haven’t earned.”

“Then what are you doing to Mateo? You’re friends. You have to care about him, at least a little. Why haven’t you told him about the curse? Why aren’t you protecting him from it?”

To her surprise, Elizabeth smiled. The expression was fond, in a patronizing way—like how she might look at a puppy before she petted its head. “You’re very young. You don’t have your full power yet, and you have no teacher to guide you. So you’ll never be a real witch. You and I both know that. So why are you prying into my life? And Mateo belongs to me in ways you could never even begin to understand.”

“He’s not your property,” Nadia shot back.

“Oh, but he is. You know I can make people forget, Nadia. I can also make people remember. If I wish it, Mateo will ‘remember’ that he’s in love with me. That he always has been. He’d be so intensely in love with me that he’d do anything I asked, as quickly as a snap of my fingers.” Elizabeth’s eyes crinkled slightly at the corners, like someone remembering a good joke. “They say it’s better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. But you’ve loved and lost, haven’t you? You know how it hurts. Are you going to keep investing all that emotion in Mateo, knowing I can separate you two forever at any moment I please?”

Loved and lost. Nadia had gone out with guys, had cared about a few, but she’d never truly fallen for someone—not the way she sensed she could fall for Mateo. The only love she’d lost was her mother’s love.

And that loss had gutted her beyond anything else Nadia had ever experienced or imagined. It still hurt so badly, every single day—

The thought of setting herself up for that kind of pain again made Nadia feel faint. She put one hand out to steady herself against the cinder-block wall of the school. Elizabeth’s chin lifted—she’d seen Nadia’s weakness, and Nadia hated herself for it.