“Hello, Marney. May I come in?” Mom must have hesitated because he added, “this will only take a moment.” Marc looked around as he followed Mom into the dining room.
Gray had vacated her seat in case Mr. Phillips chose to pull it back for his own use.
“Is Charlene here?”
Gray’s heart pounded in her throat. She inched her way along the wall and hovered in the corner. The Beetle was parked in the driveway; obviously she hadn’t left the house.
“She’s sleeping in,” Mom said. “Still jetlagged from her flight home.”
Mr. Phillips stopped behind the chair Gray had occupied seconds earlier. She gave thanks that she’d abandoned her spot. He wrapped his fingers around the top of the seatback.
Mom’s eyes narrowed on his hands. “What brings you by, Marc?”
“Not much, I thought we might catch up. I haven’t seen you since… well, since last year.”
Mom frowned. “You said this would be brief.”
Mr. Phillips released the chair. “Is this any way to treat an old friend? I know you, Marney. I know everything.”
“Everything,” Mom repeated, lifting a brow. There was a hint of amusement in the way she said the word.
It did nothing to deter Mr. Phillips. “I know you tried to bring Graylee back from the dead and that she and Charlene got stuck sharing a body. I know that Charlene solicited the help of Adrian Montez and… with the help of my son, successfully extracted the invasive presence of her sister.” Marc stared hard at Mom as though trying to read her mind. When she didn’t respond he asked, “what happened to you, Marney? You used to be a model member of our coven.”
This time, Mom reacted. Her eyes narrowed to menacing slits. “I lost a daughter. That’s what happened.”
“That’s no excuse and you know it.”
Mom moved briskly to the space between the dining room and the entryway. “What I did is no one’s business but my own. Any parent who has ever lost a child would understand.”
Marc turned but made no move to follow her out of the room. “But it is our business. It was your actions that led to Adrian’s release. You upset the natural order, and there will be consequences. There already have been consequences, haven’t there?”
Gray was tempted to throw one of the apples from the fruit bowl at Mr. Phillips for speaking to her mother that way.
“I think it’s time you left,” Mom said.
This time, Mr. Phillips released the chair. He took his time walking into the entryway. He paused once his feet hit the small squares of tile on the floor. “What would your new boyfriend think if he knew you were a witch?”
Mom’s voice turned to acid. “Are you threatening me, Marc?”
The jerk smiled in response. It gave Gray the creeps that he used to date her mother. Mr. Morehouse was Mr. McDreamy in comparison. Gray followed their voices as they receded to the front door. She steered clear of the tile to keep Mr. Phillips from hearing her steps. When he came into her line of vision, he was still grinning.
“Don’t worry, Marney. I won’t out you. It’s not as though you’re a witch anymore.” He gave her an assessing once-over. “Are you?”
“Leave, Marc,” Mom said. “Leave and never come back.” She slammed the door on Marc the second the soles of his shoes touched the porch.
By the time Mom turned around, Gray had filled herself in. She gave a little start when she saw Gray. Mom forced a laugh. “Oh, Gray, I forgot you were down here.” Mom patted the spot below her throat where the nazar Lee had given her the night before was hidden under her sweater. “I’m beginning to understand why you and Charlene never wanted to date warlocks.”
Mom moved to the table and opened her laptop.
Gray followed her into the dining room. “What did Mr. Phillips mean when he said you’re not a witch anymore?”
“Marc doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Mom said. She craned her neck to the left, read a few lines from her book, and began typing.
“Mom.”
Mom kept typing.
“Mom, I told you everything. Shouldn’t you tell me?”
Finally, she stopped typing and looked up. “What do you want to know?”
“Who is your contact?”
“I already told you last year. I can’t tell you. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t.”
“Fine,” Gray said. “What did you have to give him in exchange for my life?”
“What do you mean? I hired someone. That’s all.”
Gray let out an exasperated breath. “Mom, you don’t just hire someone to do a resurrection spell. There has to be a cost—no doubt a high one. What did you give him?”
The chair wailed when Mom pushed it back. She stood eye-level with Gray. “I gave him my powers,” she said. “All of them.”
It took Gray a moment to follow her mom into the kitchen. At first, she stood dumbfounded as Mom filled a tea kettle and set it on the stovetop. Gray walked in slowly and watched her motions for several seconds. “You have no powers,” she said slowly. “That’s why you started using a key to open the front door.”
Mom stilled over the stovetop. Then, she nodded. “That’s right.”
“But… but…” Gray felt like crying. The mere thought of tears brought them into her eyes.
Mom turned and pulled her into a tight hug. It was the first real hug Gray had felt since coming back as a duplicate. She wanted it to last longer, but Mom was already pulling back. “It’s not so bad,” she said.
“Not so bad,” Gray repeated. Magic was everything. It set them apart from the ungifted. A witch without power was like a song without sound. “This is terrible. What can we do to get it back?”
Mom smiled sadly. “There’s no getting it back.”
“There has to be a way.”
“Graylee, listen to me. Magic means nothing to me without you. I got you back. That’s all I ever wanted.”
Gray blinked back tears. “There’s something I forgot to tell you about our encounter with Adrian the other day. He said Charlene was extracted, but not purged, when I came into consciousness. Her soul is floating around France. I suppose she’ll want her body back.”
Mom sucked in a breath. Relief flooded her features. Her mom had no way of knowing her reaction tore through Gray’s replicated soul with a brutality that left her in shreds.
Mom’s expression changed, but it wasn’t because she’d sensed the bitter ache in Gray’s heart. “There’s one problem. Charlene can’t take over a healthy body.” Mom made for the stairs. “I have a contact.”
“As in The Contact?”
“No, a different contact. A soul seeker. She might be able to locate Charlene. Charlene’s a clever girl. For all we know, she’s already figured it out.”
For all they knew, she’d taken on the form of a dude. Maybe she was French now.
Well, France could have her. If Charlene hadn’t gone wacko over her lame-o boyfriend and accidently killed Gray with poisoned chocolates, Mom would still have her powers, Gray would have her real body—the one now rotting underground—and there’d be no duplicates. At this moment, Gray would be at McKinley High meeting her best friend Thea for lunch. It would be Gray, and not Lee, counting down the days till graduation.
But would she have kissed Raj if she hadn’t died?
Before the resurrection, she wouldn’t give him the time of day. It wasn’t until Raj revealed the compassionate and loyal side of himself—his true self—that Gray had started falling for the headstrong warlock.
Meeting Raj after school was a bad idea, but Gray needed someone to talk to. Worse, when she’d sent a text suggesting mochas at The Daily Grind, he’d instantly messaged back: “I’m there!”
Those two words sent Gray’s heart flapping inside her throat.
Dope, she told herself.
Gray half-expected Lee to walk in beside Raj, but he entered the coffee shop alone. She watched him from the corner table—their table. Gray lifted her hand and waved
then dropped it quickly, feeling like a dork. But Raj smiled instantly and lifted his left hand.
“Hey,” Raj said when she joined him at the order counter.
“Hi.”
“Have you ordered yet?”
“No, I was waiting for you.”
The barista pressed her slender, tattooed body against the counter and looked from Gray to Raj. She lifted a pierced brow.
“I’ll take a mocha, tall, with soy milk.”
“I’ll have the same,” Raj said. He reached into his pocket, but Gray beat him, setting a twenty on the counter. The barista snatched it up. “Hey,” Raj said. “I was going to pay.”
Gray smiled. “You got it last time.”
“Well, thank you.”
“How was school?” Gray asked once they were seated.
Raj shrugged out of his jean jacket and draped it over the back of his seat. The ribbed tee he wore underneath fit snugly. “Shay still doesn’t understand why I’m upset. She’s my best friend and she deceived me. That doesn’t strike me as something a best friend would do.”
Gray leaned forward on her elbows. “At the very least, she should apologize.”
“That would be a start.”
They stared at one another, then looked in opposite directions. Raj began circling his finger on the surface of the table. “Lee thinks I should live and let live.”
“Yeah, well, she wasn’t there. Trust me, if Shay had done that to Lee, she wouldn’t be happy. She might even retaliate with a lying spell.”
A smile slowly formed over Raj’s face, and an instant later, they were laughing. Tears leaked down the side of Gray’s face and Raj shook in place. Rather than call them up, their barista came over and set the mochas in front of them.
Gray lifted her drink, took a sip, winced, then set it down. Raj was looking at her funny. The smile was gone, and his stare was intense.
“What?” Gray asked. “Do I have foam on my face?” She swiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
Raj shook his head slowly. “It’s just good to see you again.”
“Right, I guess it’s been awhile for you. Not the case with me—even though I’ve been off in the land of limbo. For me, everything is still… fresh.” Gray glanced down quickly.
Raj scratched at the table with his fingernail, then wrapped his hand around his mocha and took a sip. Gray snuck a peek as he lifted the mug, exposing his throat and Adam’s apple. The mug tapped the table gently as he set it down. “I wish I knew what to do,” Raj said. “When you were stuck sharing a body with Charlene it was tricky, but we knew we needed to find you another body.”
“Right,” Gray said. “What am I supposed to do about this?” She spread her arms.
“I don’t think there’s anything to do.” Raj leaned forward. “You’re here and you’re not going anywhere.”
They stared at each other then grabbed their mochas at the same time and took a sip.
After Gray swallowed she said, “well, I know one thing that needs taking care of: Adrian.”
“Agreed.”
“I’m headed to Valley Medical to snatch a needle from the supply closet.” Child’s play. Gray could walk down the hall invisible and unlock the supply room with her mind. “I still don’t know how I’m going to get Adrian to hold still, but at least I’ll have a way to extract his blood.”
“I’ll come with you.”
Gray shrugged and tried not to smile too big. “If you want to.”
“I’ve been looking through my mother’s spell books and bookmarking chants that might help us,” Raj said as they headed to the hospital in his car.
“Anything useful?”
“Unfortunately, my mom’s collection reflects her preference for spells that aid in a person’s well-being.”
“Darn her,” Gray said and laughed.
“There is a numbing spell,” Raj said, voice hopeful. “Maybe that would help?”
“If it made him immobile, it would help a lot. Now that you have the nazar, can’t you freeze him in place?”
“One problem: Adrian has that same power.”
“So?”
“So, he can cancel me out.”
Gray swung sideways in her seat. “What? How come they never told us about that at Gathering?”
Raj shrugged. “You took the Vow of Honor: no performing magic in front of normals, no magic performed on other witches. They probably figured it wasn’t worth mentioning.”
Still, that only proved there were things Gray still didn’t know about being a witch. Gathering had been the place for her to discover what she was capable of, and now she was banned from attendance. She couldn’t even ask her mom or Lee for a summary. Mom was technically no longer a witch and, as far as the council knew, neither was Lee.
A stray tear leaked down one side of Gray’s face. Raj pulled into a parking spot in front of the hospital’s main entrance.
“Gray… what’s the matter?”
“It’s nothing.” Another tear dropped. “It’s just… I found out that my mom gave up her powers to bring me back. Technically, she’s no longer a witch.”
“I’m sorry,” Raj said. He looked away. “I know about your mom.”
Gray stared at him. “What do you mean you know?”
“She told me last year before she left town. She was concerned for your safety.”
Gray craned her head toward Raj. “So Lee knows as well?”
“Lee doesn’t know.”
That would explain why she gave Mom a nazar. “But how can she not know? And how can you not have told her?”
“It would only upset her and it’s not for me to tell. It’s your mother’s decision.”
Gray nodded and stepped out of the car. Daffodils poked their way through patches of landscaping bordering the curb, signaling an early spring. As she walked, Gray looked down at her feet. She wore her old tapestry clogs. A year ago, Charlene had destroyed her wardrobe, but she’d missed this pair of Danskos under Gray’s bed. Mom had found them when she had the bed removed from her room.
Gray had worn the same shoes the day she came back to life, unbeknownst to her, and it had been totally embarrassing as she settled into first period on April first only to learn she was deceased. She’d thought it was a prank—a sick April Fool’s joke. But no one was laughing.
Then she’d stepped out of the counselor’s office and Raj had called out to her—her true name. He was the first person to say “Gray” and not “Charlene.” But she’d run from him because she had to get home, find her mom, and find out the truth.
A warm hand slipped into hers. Gray looked up, startled. Raj’s chest rose and fell. He appeared out of breath, as though he’d been running after her again. Gray thought he’d give her hand a squeeze of reassurance then let go, but he held firm. The touch of his fingers in hers was torture—scorching—but she squeezed them tighter, as though branding herself with his touch.
Gray took Raj’s free hand. Once their fingers entwined, she leaned forward and closed her eyes. Thank God he kissed her back. His lips sent fire scorching down her throat as though a fuse had been ignited, alighting her heart.
As his mouth moved over hers, she thought she’d lose her balance, but they were like two pillars of an arc, meeting in the middle, bending into the other, becoming one.
Gray found herself gasping for breath at the same time Raj pulled back, his eyes expanding from half-lidded to wide open.
“What am I doing?” He removed his hands from her as though she were a bomb about to explode and take bits of his appendages with her the moment she did. “I wasn’t thinking. Gray, I’m so sorry.”
Gray had nearly fallen forward when Raj pulled away. She righted herself. “It’s okay.”
Raj grabbed a fistful of his hair in his fingers. “No, it’s not okay. I’m going out with Lee.”
Gray shrugged. “Technically we’re the same person.”
She meant to be funny or at least ease Raj’s guilt, but her words had
the opposite effect. His eyes narrowed as though looking at a stranger. Gray had to stop herself from shrinking back.
“Don’t you get it, Gray? You’re not the same person.”
Then who the heck was she?
She and Raj barely spoke after that. “I’ll wait for you out here,” he said.
“I’ll be fine. Just go.”
But Raj, being the perfect gentleman, insisted he drive Gray back to her car once she stole a packaged needle and rubber tourniquet: a perfect gentleman who went around kissing girls who weren’t his girlfriend. Gray alternated between the flutters and fury on the silent return drive to the coffee shop.
She’d taken her time breaking into the supply closet in hopes that Raj would be gone once she reemerged. At least that way she could turn her emotions into outrage at being abandoned without a ride. Gray had even trailed after a nurse and watched the way she drew blood from a patient. But when Gray stepped outside, Raj was still waiting.
Raj’s thoughts appeared to be a million miles away, but Gray knew what he was thinking about: Lee.
As they neared The Daily Grind, feelings of guilt climbed their way up Gray’s brainstem. She turned to Raj. “I can talk to Lee. It’s my fault. Can’t she understand that in my mind you and I kissed a couple days ago? Suddenly I’ve been replaced by this other me who looks like Stacey Morehouse and it hasn’t sunk in that she’s not the intruder. I am.”
Raj pulled into the empty spot beside the Beetle. He drummed his fingers over the steering wheel and stopped. “It’s not your fault, Gray. It’s confusing for me, too. When I’m with Lee it’s like she’s you and, at the same time, she’s become someone else. Then you entered my life again and it was you, all you, and my feelings came flooding back as though you’d been missing from my life all this time.”
Gray’s eyes widened.
Raj focused on the fence outside the windshield. “But I’m in love with Lee. I only hope she can forgive me.”
Chapter Nineteen
The bouquet was gorgeous—an eclectic mix of buds bursting with color and scent. Quite frankly, it put all other bouquets to shame.
Duplicity (Spellbound #2) Page 12