My limbs shaking again, I reach for Gunnar’s necklace, feeling the stone bite comfortingly into my flesh. “How could you possibly know any of that?”

And this is when the person in Hope’s passenger seat leans forward into the light, another familiar face swimming into focus. It’s early, but despite the shadows in the car, Adriana’s face is unmistakably pale with worry. “Please just get in, Auggie. We’ll explain everything on the way.”

30

There’s already space in the trunk for my bike, and Hope has the car in gear before my butt hits the seat, sleepy neighborhoods whipping by as she speeds for the edge of town. It takes me a minute to choose my first question. “Where exactly are we going?”

“The city,” Hope answers, anxiety thinning her voice. “That’s where they’ve been staying. They’ve been here for a while, but…”

More silence, more blurry neighborhoods, and I see signs for the highway when I finally lose my patience. “But what? Look, I don’t mean to be rude, or whatever, but I am rapidly losing every last molecule of my shit back here, and I’d appreciate some details! How did you know where to find me?”

There’s another brief silence, and then Adriana answers, “Hope can read minds.”

“Oh.” I stare at the girl behind the wheel. “You’re … a sorceress?”

“The gift runs in my family,” she allows uncomfortably, flipping on her turn signal. “My uncle’s element is wood, and mine is water, which means that, yeah, I can read minds. I’m still working at it, though. Sometimes I can’t turn it on, and sometimes I can’t turn it off.” Hope gives a feeble shrug. “I didn’t come into my abilities until last year, so I’m kind of a novice, but it’s the reason I moved here—so I could train under the Nexus.”

Just like Ximena. I know I should be demanding more answers, but instead all I can think of is the number of vivid daydreams I had about Boyd Crandall during the independent art study Hope and I have shared all year long, and my stomach shrivels to the size of a raisin. My fantasies were detailed.

“Hope’s uncle is one of the other two witches Abuela told us about,” Adriana reports with a moody frown. “The ones training with the coven? Well … you need to tell him.”

“Uncle Marcus said I had to practice, and he suggested using you as my subject,” Hope blurts, glancing at me in the mirror as we merge onto the highway. “I swear I didn’t know why! When I started picking up scary shit from you—people being beheaded and burned alive—I thought my power was malfunctioning. I didn’t know it was … that—”

“That her uncle was using her to spy on you for the coven.” Adriana is concise.