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Working my jaw, I cranked up the heat for her benefit. Reaching behind the seats, I pulled out the wool blanket I kept for emergencies and tossed it at her.

“Th-thank you,” she said, her teeth chattering. She wrapped herself up in it. She leaned her head against the window, failing to react to the fact that I dragged her out of her beloved Grandmaddox’s house in the middle of the night.

“You smell like blood, Jame Asher,” she said, finally breaking the silence. Her eyes had drifted close.

I gripped the wheel with my knees and pulled on a spare T-shirt. Half a dozen bite marks bled into the fabric where the leeches had bitten me.

I tugged at my collar, airing out my inflamed skin. Ooh, it boiled my blood.

What was left of my blood, at least.

Couldn’t tell if the dizziness was from a hangover or blood loss. No doubt Grandmaddox had been gathering it to curse me, and she’d gotten more than enough. My middle name might as well beFucked.

“You led me right into the lion’s den,” I said, barely controlling my rage. “Right into a goddamn witchhouse.”

“Which part are you mad about now, Jame?” Lana said, folding her arms tightly over the blanket. “You kissing me, or me wanting to be Nicole, or the beads, or me kissing you back, or dinner, or what? What is it now? Why are you so mad?”

“How about the army of leeches that tried to eat me alive in my sleep? That’s a start.” I dragged my hand down my face. “You know, she put leeches in the jambalaya, too. It’s like she can’t figure out who should be eating who. I’m telling you, that woman is sick.”

“So you’re still mad about the jambalaya?”

“No, I’m mad about the leeches, Lana. Theleeches.” I sighed and slumped in my seat. “Not at you. I’m not mad at you, I’m just...mad.” It took saying it for me to feel the truth of my words.

I wasn’t mad at Lana.

God, what was fuckingwrongwith me?

You’re losing your edge, Asher.

Lana stared straight ahead. “Huh. So that’s what Grandmaddox was doing in your room. I was wondering about that.”

“Madwoman,” I muttered.

“You didn’t have to drag me out,” she said. “You could have just asked to leave nicely.”

“And what did we get? Did you lift your spell? No. Do we know where the portal is? No. Do we knowanything?No. We just spent the night in an insect zoo for no reason.”

“Actually...” Lana rubbed a strand of her faintly glowing hair against her cheek, “we might know something.”

“Yeah? What?”

“Well, while you were sleeping, Jame Asher—”

“Getting eaten,” I corrected.

She gave me a look like I was being a baby about it.

“—I snuck into Grandmaddox’s potion room, and I drank the remem... I released myself from the memory block.”

My eyebrows drew together, and I peered sideways at her. “Wait, you did what?”

“I got my memory back.”

“Of...?”

“The portal...”

I swear she was about to add something else.