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Randy ran a hand through his hair and stared back at me, his lips turning into a thin line. “We’ve got to do something to help him, Norah. I’ve never seen him like this. He doesn’t deserve the torture he’s putting himself through. He acts like he asked for the familiar to attach itself to him, and he won’t let anyone else help him. He’s hurting himself daily.”

His hands curled into fists in front of me. I took a deep breath. I’d been thinking all those things myself lately but hadn’t expressed them. It was getting to the point that something had to be done though. “I want to help,” I told him. “I’ve tried talking to him, but he just won’t open up. I’ve even tried saying that I don’t care about the damn familiar. He’s still Liam, so what’s the difference? It’s like he doesn’t hear me though. He’s so fixated on it.”

“Same,” Randy said. “He doesn’t want to hear whatever we say. He’s so caught up in his own personal torment that he won’t see reason, which is so unlike him. He’s the king of common sense.”

“He’s driving himself crazy,” I agreed, uncertainty overwhelming me. “He has a one-track mind. I didn’t even expect him to go to school this morning.”

“Hopefully he stayed,” Randy said. “It’s not like him to miss school. He loves school.”

“Even if he stayed, he’s probably still thinking about the damn serpent on his skin. It’s not healthy.”

Randy looked up at the ceiling and sighed. When he looked back down, his eyes turned cautious and the air around us changed.

My heart flipped in my chest. Did he know something I didn’t? “What is it?”

“I swore to myself I’d never fucking do this, but it’s Liam we’re talking about and nothing else is working.”

I blinked at him, not having the foggiest idea of what he was suggesting. “Do what, Randy?”

“I know someone who—” He looked away. “Shit. Ugh, Travis is going to go ape shit.”

“What?” I said, grabbing his hand. I wanted to crawl across the counter and shake the information from him.

“I know someone who dabbles in the not-so-good side of magic.” He looked up. “He’s not all out bad. It’s on the border.” He ran a hand through his short-cropped hair. “I’ve been thinking lately that he might be able to tell us a thing or two about the familiar, including how to get the fucking thing off Liam so my best friend will go back to normal. The thing is, Travis can’t know. There’s no way he would let me do it, and I really don’t want to get a fucking lecture about Jax and Jennie and how easy it is to trip over to the dark side.”

I remembered my own lecture I got from Travis when I wanted to blast the pants off Madame Serena. I couldn’t actually disagree with him though. We all had to be careful. “How do you know this guy, Randy?”

His eyes practically closed over. It was as if they were open doors and they just slammed shut with bolts being shoved into place. He shifted from foot to foot. “I know someone who went bad. So, I know of this person because of that.”

“Jax?” I asked. That was the only one I’d ever heard them talk about.

“No,” Randy said. “My father.”

I sucked in a breath. Holy shit. “Your dad? He’s a bad witch?”

Randy’s throat worked as he got up the courage to look me in the eye again. I wanted to grab his hand and throw my arms around him. How had I not put two and two together before? He beat the shit out of Randy when he was younger. That much had all come out, but not this other part of him. “He went bad. That’s why I don’t know where the hell he is, and my mom doesn’t either. We’re both actively trying to avoid him. He doesn’t live in Salem anymore. No one knows where the hell he is, and I’d like to keep it that way. But, I know someone I could ask about this. He lives a few towns over.”

My throat felt thick, and I swallowed hard, unsure of what I felt about this. I wanted to help Liam, but something like this? I didn’t know if it was the best idea. “You think he’d help us?”

“I’m not going to give him the option, Norah,” he said, his voice hardening by the second.

I took a step back. “Okay, okay.” I came around the counter and stood in front of him. “Your dad’s evil. You want to talk to an old friend of his to help Liam. I’m getting all this correct, right?”

“Yes.”

A bundle of wrong formed in my stomach, but I pushed it down. Travis wasn’t my mother, and he definitely wasn’t Granny. That would be some scary shit. The truth was, I’d do whatever it took to help Liam out with this. He didn’t deserve it.

“They can’t know, Norah.”

Oh fuck. Here we were again. Keeping secrets. I hadn’t even come out with the one Gabe and I kept and now I had to secret another one away too? That didn’t change the fact Liam needed our help though. “I understand. I’m down.”

Randy peeked behind him as if Travis stood just behind us, frowning. “We can go there tonight. We’ll just tell everyone you want to take a ride on the bike again. We’ll have to cleanse ourselves before and after and your bracelet will help.” He touched the green beads at his wrist. Thank God I’d made those.

“We won’t be in danger, will we?”

“None that I know of, but when you go into the lion’s den, you have to be prepared. I’m not taking any chances, especially since you’re coming with me.”

I nodded, then stood there staring at the floor. It was still sparkling clean. Brand new, basically.