“So now what?” Joni asked, looking from Tess to Flora. “We just wait around for Konstantin to kill us?”
“We’re not important enough to kill,” Tess replied. She tried to say it with as much confidence as possible, but she had no idea whether it was true.
“Did you see that man?!” Joni scoffed. “It doesn’t matter if we’re important—he’ll murder us and care so little he’ll forget he did it five minutes later.”
“Can I humbly suggest we get the fuck out of here before he gets that chance?” Flora interjected. “We can go to my place if you want?”
“Fern’s gonna figure out pretty quick you were involved in the escape,” Tess said. “We need a place that isn’t tied to any of us. Someplace they won’t expect.”
“Can that place also serve food?” Joni asked. “I haven’t eaten since yesterday.”
“Good, fine. Food!” Flora threw her hands up, and an icy blue circle swooped over them—without warning, they were standing in a parking lot of a diner off a suburban highway.
“Where the fuck are we?” Joni asked.
“New Jersey.” Flora pointed at the diner’s sign, which read Six Brothers Diner! Best fries in Jersey! “I used to come here in high school.”
Tess and Joni both gaped at Flora, who shrugged. “You think witches don’t go to high school? Have you not seen The Craft?”
“She makes a point,” Joni agreed. “Okay, let’s get some fries.”
Twenty minutes later, they were jammed into a vinyl-covered booth, Joni inhaling a burger, Tess picking at a tuna melt, and Flora moaning elaborately as she ate a plate of thick-cut fries smothered in gravy and mozzarella cheese.
“Disco fries.” Flora caressed the plate. “I missed these so much.”
Tess took a bite of one of her own fries, but making herself chew and swallow was a real effort. Her whole body felt tight. Everything was too bright in this diner, the pastel neon lighting and the rotating pastry case with little plastic slices of pie beamed in hot spotlights. Last night, she was in bed with Callum on an island that never saw the sun, and now she was just…here? With a witch, and her ex–best friend, eating fries, and possibly running for her life?
“What are we gonna do?” she murmured to no one in particular, but Flora and Joni both stopped eating and looked at her.
“Maybe Callum and Octavia were right?” Flora suggested. “Joni, if you just lie low for a few days, this could blow over? And there’s no reason to think he has it out for you, Tess. You might both be safe.”
“You don’t really believe that, though, right?” Tess said quietly.
Flora waited a long beat, then sighed. “No. I guess I don’t.”
“So that’s it, then,” Tess said. “We have to go.”
“What, leave New York?” Joni was incredulous. “Uproot our whole lives without even waiting to see if this turns into a problem?”
“Joni, you just spent a day tied up in an attic!” Tess protested. “If that doesn’t meet your definition of a problem, what does? Maybe you’re okay risking that happening again, but I’m not.”
“Yeah, well, I guess it’s no surprise you think that.” Joni stabbed a fry with her fork. “Kinda tracks with your whole vibe.”
“That’s not fair,” Tess shot back.
“Isn’t it?” Joni’s voice was too loud, and a few people turned to look. It was ten o’clock on a Friday night, and the diner was crowded with teenagers gossiping and laughing, people stumbling in from nearby bars looking for a snack or to sober up, even a couple of parents out with their insomniac babies. Tess knew this crowd—it was her crowd. Nighttime people. The only people she’d seen in years. How could she make Joni understand that none of this was something she chose?
“Oh shit, Fern’s calling.” Flora cut through the silence. “She’ll know something’s up if I don’t answer. Be right back.”
Flora rushed out to the parking lot, leaving Joni and Tess alone in the booth. It was the first time Tess had been alone with Joni in three years—unless you counted that awful moment on the street outside her birthday party. Tess thought of Joni’s text from while she was on the Isle, the text she’d first seen just an hour ago.
Please don’t be dead. I still want to yell at you about my birthday.
“You can yell at me if you want,” Tess said, and Joni looked understandably confused. “About your birthday? That’s what you said in your text.”
“Oh.” Joni looked down at her fries. “Yeah, I was pretty pissed. Like, what was the point of you showing up just to ruin the night?”
“I didn’t mean to.” Tess closed her eyes. She could still feel Rick’s hand on her arm, the nausea that took hold when he smiled at her. “I was really excited to see you.”
“So why did you leave?” Joni asked. “Did I—I mean, whatever I did to make you move out, did I do that again?”
“Joni, no.” Tess looked at her friend in shock. “How could you think that? I didn’t move out because of you.”
“I don’t know why you’re saying that like it’s so obvious.” Joni shoved a fry into a glob of ketchup on her plate. She didn’t pick it up, though, just kind of smushed it around. “When your best friend moves out of your shared home, stops speaking to you, and refuses to return your calls for literal years, you kind of assume you had something to do with it.”
Tess took a deep breath. Count five things you can see right now. The insomniac baby lolling off to sleep in his mother’s arms. The teen girl in a Weezer shirt drinking a strawberry shake. The green tables. The pink booths. The bored waitress pretending to listen to the ramblings of the older manager. Was there ever a time when Tess slept through the night? Was there ever a time when she was happy?
“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to admit it to myself,” Tess said quietly.
“What does that mean?” Joni put down her fry and looked at Tess.
“Every time I thought about it, I would panic. So I just—tried not to think about it. Except being at school, I couldn’t not think about it. So the only thing that made sense was not to be at school.”
“Tess.” Joni leaned forward, her expression intense. “What happened?”
“Rick raped me.” The words fell out of Tess’s mouth, jagged and impossible, a word she hated to hear or read, let alone speak out loud—let alone apply to herself.
“What?!” Joni’s whole body went tense. “When?”
“At his party,” Tess said. “On Valentine’s Day.”
“But.” Joni was shaking her head. “I thought you liked him. I thought you went there to…”
“I did,” Tess nodded. “That’s what didn’t make sense to me. Why would he put something in my drink when I already wanted to sleep with him?”
“He drugged you?” Joni’s face was dark. “Tess, that’s like—I mean, that’s really fucking serious.”
“I know.” Tess was crying now, and she felt so stupid—that she’d let this happen at all, that she’d waited so long to tell Joni, that after all these years, even saying Rick’s name still flipped a fucking switch that turned her from a confident woman into a blubbering mess.
“Can I sit with you?” Joni asked. “Is that okay?”
Tess nodded, and Joni moved to the same side of the booth so she could put her arms around her.
“Come here,” Joni said, and it felt so easy just to be with her best friend, the person who had never let her down a single time, no matter how hard Tess tried to run away.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you,” Tess sniffled. “I just—it was ruining my life every time I saw him, and I felt so stupid, because like, I wanted it, you know? I didn’t understand why I was reacting like I was.”
“And you thought I wouldn’t understand either?” Joni asked.
“No, that’s not it.” Tess wiped her eyes. “But you guys were friends, and you were writing that article, it was such a big deal for you—I didn’t want to ruin that! Especially not if I was wrong, you know?”
“Wrong?” Joni looked puzzled. “How could you be wrong?”
“I was really confused about all of it. He was such a nice guy—you said so, everyone said so. And it was hard for me to remember what really happened, so, I don’t know. I thought maybe I got it wrong.”
Joni looked at Tess, her expression ferocious.
“Hey, I believe you, okay? You’re my best friend, and I am always gonna believe you, especially over some fucking guy who totally took more credit than he deserved for that article, by the way. He’s an asshole, and a monster, and—” Joni stopped mid-sentence and covered her mouth. “Oh my god, Tess. He was at my party.”
Tess nodded. “He talked to me, touched my arm. Like none of it even mattered.”
“Now we need to get our vampires back so they can fucking murder him,” Joni fumed. “Tess, I’m so sorry, I never would have invited him—”
“You didn’t know.” Tess shook her head. “I never told you.”
“You stopped sleeping, right? Before you moved out?” Joni asked. “I used to hear you up all night. Is that why you went to work for the hotel? Because it’s a night job?”
Tess nodded. “It’s not like I hate it—it’s a good job. I like my friends there. It’s an okay life, you know?”
“Just not the life you wanted.”
Joni’s words hung heavily between them.
“I shouldn’t have left without telling you why,” Tess said. “I’m sorry.”
“No, hey, you were going through something awful—”
“Even so.” Tess took Joni’s hands. “I was just trying to get through each day, each hour. I was doing the best I could. But I still hurt you, and I hate that I did that. And I’m really, really sorry.”
“Ugh, you stupid bitch, now I’m gonna cry.” Joni pulled Tess into a tight hug, and they both laughed, and they both cried, and it felt so unbelievably good to be back with the person who knew her best in the world, who loved her best in the world.
“What the fuck is going on here?”
They looked up to see Flora, who looked appalled and slightly freaked out by the emotional display unfolding before her.
“Sorry.” Tess laughed. “We just had some stuff to talk about.”
“I hate to break up what looks like a very fun party, but I have bad news.” Flora slid back into her side of the booth. “Fern told me it was super obvious to her and Konstantin exactly who helped Callum and Octavia escape, and now he wants to capture both of you and torture you until Callum and Octavia come back to save you. Ugh, she was so smug.”
“What about you?” Joni asked Flora. “Will Konstantin come after you too?”
“Oh, he definitely wants me dead, but if he kills me, it’s a whole thing with the witches’ council.” Flora waved her hand dismissively.
Joni turned to Tess. “Okay, I take back all the shit I’ve said about you running away from your problems. Sounds like a pretty good plan right now?”
“Where would we go?” Tess looked at Joni.
“Octavia said she’d wire us that money.” Joni was grasping at straws. “And, um, Flora could make us portals? If we were in danger?”
“So we spend the rest of our lives living off vampire money and running through witch portals until our luck runs out and Konstantin tortures us to death?”
“It doesn’t sound that great when you put it like that.”
Tess shook her head. “I’ve spent the last three years organizing my life around not seeing a man who terrifies me. I’m not doing it anymore.”
“Babe.” Joni put her hand on Tess’s. “With all due respect, what other choice do we have? We can’t fight an ancient, powerful vampire. We’re just regular people, not characters in Blood Feud.”
“Blood Feud,” Tess repeated, laughing a little. “Can you imagine what the fandom would think if they knew about this?”
“Stop, they’d lose their shit.” Joni laughed. “Hey, maybe that’s an option? We can just stay with all different Feudies until the end of time.”
“Hide out in basements decked out with vampire posters.” Tess snickered.
“Excuse you, I physically live in a basement already.” Joni was cracking up now, and Tess was too—god, it felt good to laugh.
“Maybe there is something…” Tess bit her lip, the seeds of an idea taking root. “There might be a way we could have a chance. But we’d need Feudies—a lot of them. Preferably in costume.”
“Uh…where?” Joni looked around. “Here?”
“No, we need a lot more space than that.” A light bulb went off in Tess’s mind. “The Georgia might work?”
“We could put out asks to the fandom?” Joni suggested. “Post on social?”
“Yeah, but how many people would that really get?” Tess sighed.
Flora sucked down some of her milkshake. “I can help with the Feudies.”
“How?” Tess asked. “With magic?”
“No.” Flora smiled. “Because I’m August Lirio.”