Page 108 of A Game Cursed and Deadly

Mei jumps off the counter, pacing. “What is the point in waiting? I mean, we’re just delaying the inevitable, right?”

“But we still have time,” Esme rebuts in the feeblest of voices, like even she doesn’t quite believe it.

Just a few short days. But if we want to give ourselves the best chance to execute my plan successfully, we have to use whatever time we have left to our advantage; with the Veil thinning soon, we’ll have no better opportunity to request an offering from the Beyond. We just have to hope Mei can hold up her end of the deal — get herself to my Mother, and convince her to relinquish her precious book of sigils to a complete stranger, and a spirit no less.

It might be a complete shot in the dark. Mother might have Mei’s soul destroyed simply for asking. Void, the meddling little ghost might not even get far enough to request an audience with Minka. This certainly isn’t without risks for Mei, either.

We steal a furtive glance at each other. If she knows the peril she’s putting herself in — and Mei isn’t clueless enough not to — she doesn’t look scared of it.

“I really should go,” Mei says.

Esme chokes back a sound but nods. “Yes, okay, you…” She presses the knuckle of her thumb to the corner of her eye, first one then the other, before nodding again. “Yes. You should.”

She murmurs a spell under her breath, one I don’t recognize. Then her body slumps against the counter. The empty coffee mug falls from her hand and shatters. Her soul juts forward, throwing itself in Mei’s arms. The two hug for a long time, holding tightly as if trying to keep from getting swept under by a tidal wave.

“I’m going to miss you,” Mei whispers.

“I’ll see you sooner than you think.”

Mei simply mumbles. She doesn’t agree nor dissents.

If I have anything to do with it, that won’t be true. Esme will live a long and fulfilling life. Death isn’t in the cards for her.

They finally pull apart, and Esme’s soul retracts back into her body, which straightens back to life. She picks up her feet and tiptoes around the shards of ceramic from the broken mug. “I should’ve set that down, first.”

Mei and I both chuckle. When our laughter dies down, the room fills with silence.

The ghost is the one to break it. “Okay. It’s time.”

She turns her back to us and heads toward the entrance. The glowing door to the Beyond is there, too. Esme steps closer to me and snakes her arms around my waist, burying her face in my chest. I lace my fingers through her hair and stroke it back, holding her tight to me.

Mei puts a hand on the glowing door, pushing it ajar; the light swallows her, and she gasps. “It’s warm.”

“It’ll feel good,” Esme assures her. “Like a hot bath after getting caught in a rainstorm.”

I don’t ask her how she knows. Some things are just part of her nature.

Mei looks to each of us one last time before nodding and returning her attention to the door. She lets it swallow more of her arm. Then, with a deep breath that lifts her shoulders all the way to her ears, she steps in.

Esme and I both wait. And wait. And wait.

But after several seconds, it’s clear Mei is truly gone.

After over thirty years by my side, the meddling ghost has passed on.

Now we can only hope she finds what we’re looking for on the other side.

chapter 53

of blood and magic

esmeralda

With the grimoire in our possession, there isn’t much keeping us in Barcelona; so when Tei suggests we spend the last few days — my last few days, though he doesn’t quite put it that way — in Cadaques, I jump at the opportunity. If I’m going to die, at the very least I’d like to do it next to whatever family I have left.

Will Marta allow me to be buried with the other witches of our coven? I can picture my sarcophagus already, the way my liking would be emblazoned in stone, body wrapped in soft curves of marble.

I don’t share my dark thoughts with Tei on the car ride to Cadaques, accompanied by the same incessant rain that welcomed us into Barcelona, but judging by the way his jaw ticks, he can picture them on his own.