Page 86 of A Game Cursed and Deadly

“It’s just… a bit of a needle in a haystack situation. And even that might be better, because at least I could feel some sort of pull to the needle. This is more like we haven’t even found the barn yet.”

Her lips twist in a pout. “It’s not that bad,” she says, but even she can’t manage to sound convincing. “We just need to narrow down where to look.”

That’s when the front door opens. “And for that,” Tei says, holding up the old parchment he had tucked under his arm, “I might have just what we need.”

He joins me on the couch, crossing his long legs casually, and throws the parchment in my lap.

I unfurl it and start reading it. It’s a rhyme written in Spanish. “What is this?”

“A spell, of course.”

I roll my eyes. “Obviously I could tell that. But what does it do?”

He flicks my chin with his index. “Why don’t you tell me, little witch?”

My face scrunches as I work to translate the spell. My Spanish is only as good as my Catalan allows me to understand.

“Un hilo invisible nos guída con pasión, hasta el objeto sue creíamos perdido, en unassuming búsqueda llena de emoción,” I read out lout. “Something about an invisible thread guiding us to an object that was lost?”

Tei nods, though his face scrunches. “Your Spanish sounds like Catalan.”

I stick my tongue out. “I’m sorry, oh great linguist, if my pronunciation is not up to your liking. Maybe if you pulled the stick out of your ass it would sound better?”

Mei snorts out a laugh. Tei looks like he’s fighting against a smile, but in the end the grin wins out. It fills my chest with satisfaction. With more confidence, I read the next part of the spell. “La búsqueda es un juego del pasado, donde el recuerdo nos lleva sin cesar, hasta el objeto que creíamos olvidado.”

I repeat the spell a few times in my head before looking up from the parchment. “It’s a spell to find lost things? This says something about a memory, though. I know nothing about the grimoire, not even what it looks like. How am I supposed to muster a memory of it?”

Tei, if anything, looks impressed. “You’re getting the hang of it. Good girl.”

His praise makes my cheeks flame.

“But nowhere does it say anything about the memory needing to be yours,” he adds.

I quirk a brow. “So what, do you know what my grimoire looks like?”

“Of course not.” Then, he reaches across the bed for the spell book Marta gifted me, and opens it to one of the more ornate pages. “But your ancestor did.” He taps the page with a long finger. “What is a copy, if not a memory of the original?”

He passes the open book to me and I grab it, placing the parchment next to the ornate page. “So we use the copy as the memory. The spell also speaks of a thread, so it wouldn’t hurt to have that on hand as well.”

“There’s a convenience store two doors down, they might have twine or sewing supplies,” Mei suggests.

“Good thinking,” I say, and her face lights up like a Christmas tree. It’s obvious Mei wants to be helpful, as much as she can given the circumstances. “Anything else I didn’t catch?”

Tei smiles. “You covered it. Shall we reconvene in the alleyway at sundown?”

chapter 41

the prince’s feast

teizel

Esme returns from the convenience store just minutes later, sans Mei. I try to find enough strength to sit up from the ridiculous position I’ve found myself in, curled up on my side on the bed we share, but she crosses the threshold before I make it all the way to sitting.

“I got the…” her sentence dies as she takes me in, and her eyebrows knit together. A slight tinge of sea salt blankets the air. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

I shake my head, doing my best to look nonchalant. Finding the spell — and most importantly, stealing it — took longer than I’d thought. I planned on feeding before I returned home, but I didn’t want to waste an entire day. And if I’m being entirely honest with myself, the thought of coaxing a human into being my meal sounded entirely unappealing, when I had this beautiful gem waiting for me. “It’s nothing.”

My little witch joins me on the bed, both our backs to the headboard, and leans her head on my shoulder. “Please don’t shut me out,” she whispers.