Seeing my face, he came to me and put his hands atop my shoulders. I could feel the ash, gritty between his hands and my skin. “It’s okay,” he soothed, his narrow face smiling. “I’ve done this before.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” I said, stepping back to make room for him.

As Nick tossed the zippy bag of ash to land next to the shoe box, I tried to wipe the ash off my shoulders. Nick got in the closet with me, and then, with a grunt of remembrance, wedged a piece of wood into the crack of the hinges. “He shut the door on me once,” he said, shrugging.

This is not good, I thought again as the small of my back started to sweat.

“Ready?”

I glanced at the lit candle and its little mound of ash. “No.”

My fingertips tingled as Nick closed his eyes and opened his second sight. An eerie feeling of my insides being rearranged started in my belly, swirling up into my throat. My eyes widened. “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” I cried as the sensation wrenched into an uncomfortable pull. “What is that?”

Nick opened his eyes. They were glazed, and I could tell he was seeing everything in that confusing mix of reality and ever-after sight. “That’s what I’ve been telling you about,” he said, his voice hollow. “It’s from the binding spell. Nice, isn’t it?”

I shifted from foot to foot, making sure I stayed in the circle. “It’s awful,” I admitted. “I’m sorry. Why didn’t you tell me it was that bad?”

He shrugged, closing his eyes.

The pull through me strengthened, and I struggled to find a way to deal with it. I could feel the ever-after energy slowly building in him, paralleling what I experienced when I tapped into a ley line. The power swelled, and though it was a fraction of what I had channeled in Trent’s office, it urged me to react.

With an excruciating slowness, the levels built to a usable level. My palms started to sweat and my stomach clenched. I wished he’d hurry up and close the circle. The eddies of power went deep through me, the need to do something growing.

“Can I help?” I finally asked, gripping my hands together so they wouldn’t spasm.

“No.”

The tingling in my palms rose to become an itch. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t know you could feel all this. Is this why you haven’t been sleeping? Have I been waking you up?”

“No. Don’t worry about it.”

My heel started tapping, the jolts going up my calves feeling like fire. “We have to break the charm,” I said, jittery. “How can you stand this?”

“Shut up, Rachel. I’m trying to concentrate.”

“Sorry.”

His breath slipped from him in a slow sound, and I wasn’t surprised when he jumped, mirroring the sudden cutoff of ever-after energy I could feel running through him. Through us.

“Circle’s up,” he said breathlessly, and I resisted the urge to look at it. I didn’t want to insult him, and having felt its construction, I knew it was good. “I’m not sure, but I think because I’m carrying some of your aura, you can break the circle, too.”