26
BY FRIDAY AFTERNOON, Jax had taken to stabbing his math book with the tip of his father’s dagger. That would make two ruined textbooks he had to turn in, but he had bigger things to worry about than the disapproval of his science and math teachers.
The Donovans hadn’t been in school on Thursday or Friday. Jax should have been relieved. They’re probably on the lam, and they’ll never be back. But their absence made him nervous, as if losing track of them were dangerous.
Billy, on the other hand, was in his face every day. “You’re skeeving me out,” Jax complained.
“That’s what everybody says about you,” Billy retorted.
Across the aisle in science class, Giana hunched in her seat. She hadn’t hissed any insults or tried to trip him since their last encounter. Jax ignored her. He couldn’t believe he used to want to talk to her. She was mean and a bully and a coward. Giana wouldn’t have had the guts to stand up to an armed bank robber.
Which made the seat behind Jax seem even emptier.
Billy lowered his voice. “Enzo’s telling everyone you put a spell on him.”
“Yeah. I’m a witch,” Jax whispered. “You got me.”
“Wish it was true, dude. ’Cause that would be cool.”
Alone at home with Riley still gone, Jax considered getting a pair of handcuffs and inviting Billy to spend the night next Wednesday. Then he stabbed the algebra book again. What if he handcuffed himself to Evangeline? Could he pull her into Thursday? Or would she yank him forward seven days and into the next Grunsday?
It was worth a shot. But she’d told him to leave her alone. This time Jax stabbed the cover of the math book so hard, the dagger stood upright, quivering.
The front door burst open, and Riley and the Crandalls spilled into the living room, laughing and carting in rifles as if they’d just returned from a hunting trip. Thinking about Terrance’s gun, Jax’s stomach turned over.
That gun was for you, Thomas had said.
They seemed oblivious to Jax, who watched for a moment before calling out, “Was it a successful mission?”
“Yeah,” Riley answered. “Everything okay here?”
“Never better,” Jax grunted. Terrance, he’d discovered from online news, was behind bars. Authorities were “puzzled” by the circumstances of the robbery but didn’t plan on letting their suspect go anytime soon.
Jax wondered what made his guardian any different from Terrance. “Did you make your first kill?” he asked.
Riley stared at him. “What?”
A.J. and his father exchanged glances.
“Did you make your first kill?” Jax repeated. “Miller didn’t think you’d do it.”
Miller didn’t think you’d do it. Jax saw Riley mouth the words silently. Then he whipped his phone out of his back pocket. “You little sneak,” Riley said, thumbing keys on the phone to find his text messages.
Mr. Crandall clapped Riley on the shoulder. “Told you! Having an inquisitor in the house is going to give you some trouble.”
Riley stabbed at the buttons on his phone, probably deleting messages.
“Nobody got killed,” Mr. Crandall assured Jax.
“Where’s Deidre?” Jax demanded. “Why did you need all the guns? Why does she even have so many?”
“Deidre’s back at college,” Riley said. “And the rest is none of your business.”
“Tell him, son,” Mr. Crandall said to Riley. “This would go a lot easier if you’d accept that the boy belongs with us.” Pushing A.J. toward the door, Mr. Crandall called to Jax, “Keep at it. I know talent when I see it.”
Jax and Riley looked at each other warily. Then Riley grabbed his duffel bag, brushed past Jax, and headed upstairs.
Jax wrestled his father’s honor blade out of the math book. His honor blade. If Melinda was right, he needed to think of it as his to make it work for him.
“So, what does she have to say this week?”
Riley, coming back down the stairs, asked the question with a casual air, as if he didn’t care, but Jax wasn’t fooled. “Nothing,” Jax said. “She wants me to leave her alone. She says making friends hurts.”
Riley stiffened. “I warned you.”
“Why does she have to live like that?” Jax demanded. When Riley didn’t answer, he added, “Do you want me to keeping snooping on my own?”
“She’s an Emrys.” Riley sat on the edge of Jax’s desk. “Merlin Emrys cast the spell that created Grunsday. He collaborated with Niviane and Arthur, betraying his own people and going willingly into imprisonment with them. But fifteen hundred years is a long time for a spell to last, unless it’s carried by a bloodline. The Emrys family keeps the spell active, and if they die out, the alternate timeline will pop out of existence.” Riley snapped his fingers. “Along with all the people trapped inside.”
Jax flinched, imagining the eighth day popping like a soap bubble.
Riley pointed next door. “This girl’s father plotted to break the spell. He joined up with some very bad Kin clans, but he was stopped before he could act.”
“Stopped?” Jax asked suspiciously. “You mean he was killed.”
Riley nodded. “Even without him, his allies kept trying. Twenty years ago, a Kin lord attempted to alter the Grunsday spell, and the magical backwash from his failure devastated a Midwestern town. An entire housing community was blown apart between Wednesday and Thursday—dozens killed. It was blamed on a freak midnight tornado. After that, my father volunteered to help keep the remaining Emrys heirs under protective custody.”
“So Evangeline isn’t the only one left?”
“There’s at least one more. It’s not my business to know who or where. But remember how I was gone your first Grunsday? I was tracking down a Kin man who’d been offering to sell information about a hidden Emrys heir. Turns out he was a scam artist. He knew nothing.”
“You’re not really Evangeline’s jailer,” Jax said. “You’re her guardian too.”
Riley shrugged. “From her perspective, it probably looks like the same thing. My family’s been watching over her since before I was born, but from a distance. I’m the one who decided to move next door.”
“Why?” Jax asked.
“Because when you’re the only person left to guard something important, you don’t want it let out of your sight.” Riley met Jax’s eyes. “When your dad showed up here, I was worried, but it turned out he only wanted to help.”
“My dad . . . ?”
“He was hired to find her and decided not to complete his end of the bargain. His employer was a Kin lord named Wylit—the same one who blew up that town. Wylit’s vassals have been hunting for Evangeline for years, thinking she’ll help them break the spell. Your father knew my father, from long ago, and tracked me down using the same talent you have. He was trying to do the right thing.”
Jax swallowed hard. Every time Riley told him something about his father, a little piece of his old life was hacked away. This time Jax felt like he’d gotten a chunk back. His father had chosen the side protecting Evangeline.
“Would it be such a bad thing?” Jax asked. “For the spell to be broken? To let Evangeline and her people live in all the days of the week?”
“Yes,” Riley said grimly. “You wouldn’t want to turn Wylit and some of these other Kin loose on the world. As for Evangeline, I’m sure you don’t have any idea how strong she really is, or could be, if trained by the right people. Or by the wrong people.”