Spellcaster

But then Nadia said, “Have you ever noticed anything odd about her?”

“What do you mean? No. Of course not.” Mateo smiled fondly. “The only unusual thing about Elizabeth is how kind she is. She’s the most understanding person in this entire town.”

“That’s so true,” Verlaine agreed. “Everybody loves Elizabeth.”

He hadn’t even realized they knew each other. Pretty much nobody paid attention to Verlaine, but if anybody would, it would be Elizabeth. She had seen someone on the fringes and reached out, like she always did.

Nadia looked back and forth between them. “I’m guessing neither of you knew that Elizabeth is a witch, too.”

Verlaine laughed out loud, kicking her heels against the chrome bumper in delight. “Oh, my God. She got even cooler. I thought that was impossible.”

Mateo wasn’t as sure how to feel about that. His first impulse was that Nadia had to be wrong—but if this witchcraft stuff was true, and it seemed to be, then she’d know another witch, wouldn’t she? Still, Elizabeth? His best and oldest friend? It seemed unreal to him that he wouldn’t know about such a huge part of her life.

Or that she wouldn’t tell him curses were real, that the dreams truly could be glimpses of the future—

But she couldn’t, could she? Nadia had said the witch laws or whatever didn’t let them talk about it with men. So Elizabeth couldn’t have told him, even if she’d wanted to. “She’ll be relieved that I know,” he said, starting to smile. “She’s probably wanted to discuss it for a long time now.”

“I doubt that.” Nadia’s full lips pressed together, as if she was holding back words but for only so long. “Listen—I know she’s your girlfriend and everything—”

“Elizabeth’s not my girlfriend.”

Nadia paused, obviously caught short. Verlaine said, “Wow, I always thought you guys were together. Or did you break up?”

“We’re just good friends,” Mateo insisted. “She’s like the sister I never had.”

Quietly Nadia said, “Well, she’s important to you, so this is still going to be tough to hear. I don’t think Elizabeth is just any witch. I think—I think she might—know a little about what’s going on here.”

Mateo stared at her. “What do you mean, ‘what’s going on here’?”

“Some of the darker stuff happening in Captive’s Sound.” Although Nadia was clearly nervous, she continued, “I don’t think Elizabeth plays by the rules.”

The anger spiked again so fast there wasn’t even a chance to hold it back. “That’s ridiculous,” Mateo said. “Elizabeth’s a good person. Really good, deep down. There aren’t many people like her. If she does perform magic—whatever, there’s no way she does anything evil. It’s impossible.”

“You saw something frightening in her,” Nadia insisted, but this made no sense. “In chemistry class, right after I cast the spell of liberation, you looked at Elizabeth and nearly panicked, before she got to you.”

“What are you talking about? That didn’t even happen! You’re making it up.”

“She made you forget.” Nadia folded her arms in front of her. “I know this is hard for you to accept, but I know what I saw.”

Mateo had heard enough of this. “You know what you saw. A few seconds in a room full of people who were all acting crazy, thanks to you, and that means you know my best friend—practically my only friend in the world—you think you know her better than me? You don’t know her at all.”

Nadia’s dark eyes blazed, like she had any right to be angry. All she said was, “How about you come back and talk to me when you’re ready to face facts?”

“How about you come and apologize when you realize you’re not right about everything?” Mateo shot back. He grabbed his stuff and stalked to his motorcycle. Once he’d gunned the engine, he wouldn’t have been able to hear Nadia even if she did call after him. He drove off without ever looking back.

It should have felt good to get away from Nadia and her lies about Elizabeth, but still something gray and wicked roiled overhead, between Mateo and the sky.

9

“I ONLY WANT TO ASK ONE QUESTION, OKAY?” VERLAINE’S voice sounded tinny on Nadia’s cell phone. “Is this maybe a stupid thing to do?”

“I’m walking through my new neighborhood. There’s still almost an hour of daylight. I already made dinner. It’s baking in the oven, and even my dad can handle taking a casserole out when the timer goes off. So what’s stupid about it?”

“You’re going to confront another witch, who you don’t even know for sure is a witch, but who might be evil? For no reason in particular?”

“Well. When you put it like that.” But Nadia didn’t turn back.

The entire length of Captive’s Sound could be easily walked in half a day, and Elizabeth’s home wasn’t even a mile away from her own. She remembered the way well enough from her trip on Mateo’s motorcycle—

—for a moment she remembered the way it had felt to put her arms around him, and her breath seemed to catch in her throat. Then she shoved that aside, replacing it with the way he’d driven off angrily after school. He’d rather accuse her of being paranoid or crazy than believe one word against his precious Elizabeth. Even though she wasn’t his girlfriend after all—a revelation that had briefly filled Nadia with hope so sharp it hurt—Elizabeth mattered more to him than anyone else. More than Nadia, anyway.