“Nah, two things seems like a lot.” Harvey grinned. “Ask me. Whatever it is, I’ll do my best.”
“Go home. You can’t stay with me. It’s my day to do the quest. I have to walk into the woods alone.”
She saw the request hit Harvey like a blow. He shut his eyes. But he didn’t tell her not to do it.
“What’s the other thing?”
“Do you remember when I was in the hospital?” Roz asked. Harvey looked even more pained. “And you stayed with me all night. You sang to me. Will you sing to me again?”
She could read the pure panic and refusal on his face, clear as day. She wished she couldn’t.
“Uh. Right now?”
“No,” Roz muttered. “Just … sometime.”
“He sang to her, but he won’t sing to you. Does he draw you as often as he drew her?”
Shut up, spooky bird! Roz thought.
Harvey swallowed. “Sure. Sometime. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
“I want to see …” Roz began, and noticed how Harvey tensed. “Never mind. Let’s get through this quest first. I’ll ask you later.”
They went downstairs to say hello to her dad. Harvey left shortly after.
“How was your music lesson, sweetie?” her dad asked.
“Great,” Roz lied.
It wasn’t only awkward with Dad when Harvey was there. Roz couldn’t forget Dad wanting to send her away when she was blind.
He’d said it would be better for Roz to go to a special school. She knew the truth. Some people you could count on, and some people you couldn’t. You never knew, not for sure, until the test came.
Roz had always believed Dad loved her no matter what, but now she felt like he loved her only when he thought she was whole. With Roz’s sight miraculously restored, he wanted to keep her.
More people had joined his church because of his daughter’s wonderful cure. Roz’s dad walked around these days with his chest puffed out like a clerical peacock. Roz couldn’t help resenting him for that.
It wasn’t your miracle, Dad.
“Think I might go for a healthful walk!” Roz told her father.
Very healthy. Nothing but fresh air and demons.
She walked out alone, shivering at the thought of the demons. The Lady said Roz should go into the woods to find a jewel in the shadows, and Roz had no idea how.
She’d never gone looking for magic.
Except she had. She’d asked Sabrina to cure her.
Roz hadn’t been able to count on her family, but her friends had come through for her. Sabrina had restored Roz’s sight. Now Roz had to get Nick back for Sabrina.
It was already dark in the woods. Roz felt very alone. She couldn’t help thinking of the evening, more than a month ago, when Nick Scratch walked her home.
Roz liked Nick. Most girls probably did, though Roz went more for the sincere type. Years of Bible camp left their mark on a girl. But Nick did seem as if he was trying his best to be sincere with Sabrina.
Roz had been walking through the woods, marveling at all that she could see and worrying about Harvey, Sabrina, and satanic portents. Then she saw Sabrina’s new boyfriend moving through the dark beneath the trees.
“Hi,” Roz said. “Hey, Nick? I can see you.”
“Ah,” said Nick. “Yes. Well. Hi. Walk you home?”
“Sure.” Roz remembered salacious stories Sabrina had told her about witches. “Platonically! I have an exclusive boyfriend.”
“Do you?”
“Yeah,” Roz reminded Nick. “Harvey?”
Nick frowned. “Don’t think I know anyone by that name.”
“He was at the diner with us the other day? He’s tall.”
Roz held up a hand over both their heads. Nick squinted at her hand.
“Is he? I don’t recall.” He gave her a glittering smile. “You, I remember. Roz, the lovely best friend. Whoever’s dating you is a lucky guy.”
When a guy made an effort with the best friend, it showed he definitely liked the girl. Roz charitably decided Nick must be bad with names.
“Well. Who knows how long his luck will last.”
“Because he’s … not smart?” asked Nick.
“Oh no, Harvey is smart,” Roz told Nick, while Nick made a doubtful noise. “But there are a lot of complications. He used to date Sabrina.”
“Did he?” asked Nick. “Gosh. News to me.”
Roz worried she’d gotten Sabrina in trouble.
“It’s totally over,” Roz assured him. “Sabrina’s crazy about you! She said you were sexy.”
Nick seemed startled. Roz had been startled too. Sabrina was never interested in anyone but Harvey, not in all the years when Roz and Theo had crushes on innumerable guys in movies and bands.
Nick smiled at the ground.
“And—Harvey’s with me now,” Roz continued. “He said—he loves me.”
“Sorry,” said Nick, an edge in his voice. “I’m not following. Do mortals not want their mortal boyfriends to love them? Seems the kind of thing mortals would want.”
“I mean,” said Roz. “Maybe.”
“Do you … not love him?” asked Nick. “Maybe you could get to like him? Possibly he has some good points.”
He had many good points, as Roz had been uncomfortably aware for years. Tall and kind, sweet to the bone. He was easily hurt, but being hurt never stopped him. When her vision failed and she was sure of nothing else, Roz could be sure of him.
“I do love Harvey,” Roz confessed. “He’s someone you can’t help loving.”
“How nice for him!” said Nick. “I don’t know him. So what’s the problem here? Why don’t you think it’s going to last?”
“There are a lot of problems. Going out with your best friend’s ex is frowned on. Among mortals.”
Nick shook his head. “There are so many rules to mortal dating. How do you remember them?”
“I didn’t obey that one.” Roz felt wretched with guilt. “I should have. It didn’t matter if I—liked him. Then there’s my dad. Generally I got with guys at camp, where my dad wasn’t there to judge. Dad’s a minister, and he’s not used to me having a boyfriend in Greendale. He’s known Harvey all our lives, only—he’s never seen Harvey as a threat to me before. But Harvey isn’t a threat to me now!”
Somewhat to Roz’s surprise, Nick Scratch gave her a reassuring nod.
“Don’t break up. I can fix your problem,” Nick announced confidently.
“Please don’t ensorcel my dad!”
“No need,” Nick said. “This will only take a minute.”
“What are you going to do?”
Nick winked. “Watch.”
Her dad was waiting on the porch. He often did that these days, suspiciously looking out for her.
That evening, Reverend Walker didn’t have a glance to spare for his darling daughter. Instead, he was surveying Nick: the much-gelled hair, the fancy boots, the expensive-seeming black clothes, the good looks that were kind of too much. The everything that was too much. The slow, sinful smirk.
“Hey there,” drawled Nick, “and Hail Satan.”
“WHAT!” said Roz’s dad.
“Just walking Roz back,” Nick continued. “She insisted on coming home, though I made several suggestions about other … exciting places we could go.”
“No, he didn’t,” said Roz, afraid her father would have an aneurysm. “This is Nick. He’s just a friend.”
“For now.” Nick kissed Roz far too close to her mouth. “Later, babe.”
Reverend Walker seemed lost in despair. “What happened to Harvey?”
“Harvey’s still around,” Roz answered.
“Thank God. Let’s have Harvey over for dinner!”
Roz glanced to where Nick was already disappearing into the trees. Nick was looking over his shoulder, smiling his sly smile.
Roz liked Nick as far as she knew him. But she had to admit what she liked most about Nick was that he made her life less complicated.
Getting Nick back from hell was complicated.
None of her friends had faith in entirely the same way Roz did. They didn’t realize how hideous Roz found the prospect of going to hell. She kept remembering pieces from her father’s sermons.
“Hell is the second death,” the silver bird whispered. “Hell is the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. No boy and no friend is worth this.”
Roz walked through the woods now, flinching at every movement. She wished Nick Scratch would appear among the trees and solve her problems again.
In the dying light, with her new clarity of vision, Roz saw a shadow that wasn’t a demon. It was the shadow of a boy, sauntering away with his back to her.
“Nick?” Roz murmured, wondering if she should step off the path toward him.
“Who’s Nick?” asked a woman’s voice.
Roz spun around. “Lilith!”
The tall dark woman blinked behind her delicate spectacles. “It’s Mary Wardwell. Your teacher—ah, principal?” She gave an embarrassed laugh. “Still getting used to that.”
“Oh,” Roz said. “Hi, Ms. Wardwell! How’s life?”
She didn’t know how to phrase, How was dying and being resurrected by the Mother of Demons, who wore your face, tempted Sabrina to darkness, and incidentally got you a promotion?
“I was taking a walk to clear my head,” said Ms. Wardwell. “Life can feel complicated and overwhelming sometimes, can’t it?”
“Yes,” whispered Roz.
Ms. Wardwell surprised Roz by taking her hand. “For you too? I’m sorry, my dear. Would you like to walk with me a little way?”
Roz nodded. Ms. Wardwell was a frail mortal, like Roz herself, but somehow Roz felt stronger walking beside her.
“Do you want to talk about it? I’ve had … memory lapses myself lately. It seems like a dream, being principal. I was never even in administration! However strange what’s going on in your life is, I might understand.”
Roz couldn’t betray Sabrina’s secrets, and she didn’t want to terrify this kind woman. She shook her head.
Ms. Wardwell pressed her hand. “Whatever’s happening, at least you have your friends.”
“Yes. I have them.”
“They’re the problem,” said Roz’s bird.
“I always thought you and Sabrina were a sweet pair,” said Ms. Wardwell. “You so grounding, and her striking out for the sky. I—I always wanted a best friend.”
“I love Sabrina,” Roz said quietly.
“There was a man I was … fond of,” Ms. Wardwell confided, in her shy way. “He seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth.”
Roz bit her lip.
“I tell myself men aren’t the be-all and end-all. I must live my own life. That’s the important thing.”
Roz said: “You’re right.”
“One thing that used to distract me was collecting the town myths about witches,” Ms. Wardwell continued. Roz forced herself not to wince. “These days they don’t seem so amusing. There’s so much evil in the world.”
Roz could see shadow demons slinking through the undergrowth, on both sides of the path.
She whispered, mouth dry: “Sometimes evil seems very close.”
Ms. Wardwell nodded. “I try hard to believe there is good in the world too, and good matters.”
She reached up a thin hand to touch a cross at her throat. Roz watched, amazed, as the shadow demons cringed and retreated.
“I have faith too,” said Roz. “It comforts me.”
Ms. Wardwell gave her a timid smile. “Would you like to come back to my house for tea—is something wrong?”
Roz had doubled over.
“No,” Roz gasped as the cunning showed her what lay ahead, off the path. She straightened up now. “I just remembered something I have to do. Thank you so much, Ms. Wardwell! I hope everything works out for you!”
She wasn’t sure it would. But she did understand now why Ms. Wardwell was Sabrina’s favorite teacher. Roz hated to leave Ms. Wardwell alone on the path, and hated plunging into the dark woods on her own.
“Did magic really help her? Or you?” the bird whispered.
Because magic had brought Ms. Wardwell back, she’d been there to walk with Roz. The demons had stayed away from Ms. Wardwell, as though her goodness offered them protection.
It was nice to think of goodness having power.
“Go back to the path,” sang the bird on her shoulder. “Stay with that sweet woman. Make friends with that kind girl Lizzie instead of the devil’s daughter. Make the right choice.”
She’d missed Sabrina so much when Sabrina ran off to witch school. At the same time, Roz understood the allure of having options. Like getting into multiple great colleges.
With her eyes healed, Roz could do so many things.
She could be a cheerleader. She could learn to drive. She could do a thousand fun, normal things the kids around her took for granted.
“You could have a different world,” said the bird on her shoulder. “You could have a different boyfriend, who would look only at you. All you must do is walk away from the witch and the quest.”
She wanted a different world. But she didn’t want to forsake her friends.
Between the trees were gathering shadows.
Roz shook her head and walked into the blinding dark. She choked, not on the smoke but on her own fear, as she saw a shape forming. High above Roz’s head, neck arched, was the dark outline of a dragon. The creature was made of smoke, each scale a piece of insubstantial shadow, and its eyes burned.
“The great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world,” Roz quoted. “The great dragon was … was cast out …”
She plunged her hand into the seething breast of the smoke dragon and drew out a jewel. The gem fit in the hollow of her hand, red as a dragon’s heart and glowing with inner fire.
Roz turned and ran out of the dark woods to Sabrina’s door. To Roz’s extreme relief, none of the freaky ghosts appeared. Nor did Sabrina’s aunts, or the Academy students. Roz wanted only her best friend.
Roz’s heart leaped at the sight of Sabrina’s pale, tired face at the door.
“I got it,” Roz said, breathless. She dropped the jewel into Sabrina’s hand, and Sabrina gave a great sigh of relief. She drew Roz in toward her.
“Thanks, bestie,” Sabrina whispered into Roz’s shoulder.
Roz needed a break. They sat down on the split-level stairs of Sabrina’s house with the jewel in Sabrina’s lap. Sabrina turned the gem under her fingertips. The facets of the red jewel caught the light in strange ways, glinting sapphire blue, then silver, then black. The reflected gleams bathed Sabrina’s intent face in an eerie glow.
Sabrina had the soul of a revolutionary. It was one of the things Roz loved best about her. There was so much about the world that needed changing, and someone needed to be an unstoppable force.
But it wasn’t always comfortable, being best friends with an unstoppable force.
“I was glad to be able to do something for you,” Roz murmured. “I know I owe you.”
“For what?”
Roz blinked. “You’ve done so much for me.”
“You don’t owe me a thing.” Sabrina sounded surprised. “I do things for the people I love because I love them. Doesn’t everybody?”
Roz answered Sabrina with a kiss on the cheek. She leaned against her best friend, letting herself rest after the dragon and the woods, and she didn’t say what she was thinking.
Forgive me, Sabrina. I don’t want to go to hell.
In Sabrina’s hands, the brilliant red jewel captured a ray of light streaming through the stained glass. It shone like a bloodstained sword.
Normally when Nick opened a door to a pit full of demons, he said “Excuse me,” and closed the door fast.
The demons had tried physical torture on Nick first. It hadn’t worked, and they now seemed bored of trying, but Nick di
dn’t have fond memories of the pit.
This time, Nick opened the door to a pit full of demons and plunged in. The hollowed-out cavern writhed with the seething oil-black and mold-green shapes of demons and rang with the screams of the damned. There were stalagmites carved in the shapes of agonized faces. Above them towered stone walls. There were jagged spikes projecting from rough stone, and ledges jutting out from a rock face.
On one of the highest ledges above the pit was Sabrina. She was fighting demons with a sword in her hand.
Nick backhanded one demon, broke another’s neck, stole a third demon’s weapon and killed the creature with its own blade. By now, Nick was trained to leap to Sabrina’s aid.
When Nick was first getting to know Sabrina, he had believed wooing her would be no problem.
There were many problems.
She was fierce and lovely, and he wanted her. He could tell she wanted him. And the Dark Lord commanded Nick to win over Sabrina. Nick was pleased. Everyone talked about dark devotions in hushed voices, but Nick got told to make time with a pretty girl. Nick felt his dark god had a firm grip on Nick’s skill set.
But Sabrina kept talking about having a boyfriend, which was confusing. So what? Nick didn’t understand why Sabrina thought having a dumbass mortal boyfriend precluded her from having an awesome warlock boyfriend, but Sabrina was used to mortal ways. She needed time to adjust. Nick would do whatever he must to accomplish Satan’s will and be with her.
Bringing her forbidden books, offering her helpful advice—nothing worked. Every day Nick spent with her, it was clearer Sabrina was special. And Satan had chosen Nick for Sabrina. Satan meant them to be together.
It was the mortal’s fault. Why do bad things happen to good people? mortals asked each other. (They didn’t know it was because of Satan.) Nick wasn’t a good person and the mortal wasn’t a bad thing, but why did stupid mortals happen to brilliant witches? The mortal complicated everything.
“Kill him,” suggested the Dark Lord in Nick’s dreams, furnace-hot breath against Nick’s neck.
The devil was tempting, and Nick was tempted. The mortal was getting in the way of what Nick wanted. The mortal was a witch-hunter.
Only … on the night after the summer festival when he first saw Sabrina from afar, Nick returned to the place where the festival had been. The wheel of light was dark, the striped tents packed away. The illumination and music, the boy talking about love and art, and the beautiful witch smiling in a world of mortals as if she belonged—they were gone. Nick was alone in a wasteland under the trees.
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