Page 84 of A Game Cursed and Deadly

“She’s not wrong, you know,” Esme says out of the blue.

I hold back a groan. “You’re taking her side?”

“She’s stuck by your side for… what? Forty years?”

I wince at the reminder. “Give or take.”

“She can’t be all that bad if you never got rid of her.”

That makes an unexpected laugh bubble up from my chest. “Trust me, I tried a few times. She wouldn’t budge.” Twisting so I’m facing her, I cup her face with my hand. “I’m no witch, little gem. I may have powers, but making spirits cross over is not one of them.”

Esme worries her bottom lip. “What powers do you have, by the way?”

“Anything you can do with magic, I can do also. The magic witches claimed is nothing if not a gift from the Beyond.”

“Wait a minute. If that’s the case, can’t you make the missing trinket?”

If only it were that easy. “Not really. Just like you, I’d need instructions — my kind uses sigils, not spells — and even if such a sigil existed, the only place we’d be able to find it is the Beyond.”

Her face falls. “Which you can’t return to.”

“Exactly. Even if we found the spell here in the mortal world, it wouldn’t be in the right form for me to execute. It’s possible to translate the intention of spells into sigils and vice versa, but not on days’ notice.”

“Oh,” Esme whispers. “So if we don’t find the grimoire…”

I grab her hands in mine, bringing them to my lips and kissing her knuckles. “Absolutely none of that. Every day, we’re a step closer. We’ll find it, Es, I swear.”

I realize I don’t have the means to keep this promise I’m making, at least not right now, but as I say the words, I also vow to find a way to make it possible, no matter the cost.

And my people’s word is binding. Now more than ever, I can’t fail.

chapter 40

a spell to find lost things

esmeralda

I’m sitting on the couch, feet propped on the coffee table and my computer open in my lap, researching more places in Barcelona worth exploring, when Mei’s head pops through the front door — and I mean literally.

At this point, it doesn’t even phase me anymore.

“Hey,” I greet her.

“Where’s Tei?”

I shrug. I didn’t get a whole lot of info out of him when he left this morning. “He said he was looking for something he thought could help.”

There’s something about Tei’s past in Spain that grates my subconscious, a missing piece that feels as massive as it is elusive. “He seems to have very strong feelings about this city.”

“That’s an understatement if I’ve ever heard one before,” she says with a scoff.

“He was cursed here, was he not?”

Mei bites her lip furiously, but doesn’t answer.

I throw my arms in the air. “Seriously? You’re going to do this to me, too?”

“He might rip my throat out if I tell you anything he doesn’t want you to know.”