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The next day I put on my favorite pair of jeans, a striped T-shirt, and grab a sweater I knitted ages ago, just in case. The house on Skerry Street seems drafty. My old friends were talking about taking a trip over the summer, but I have a treasure map in hand, and I’m going to see where it leads.
First, I have to try to find JJ.
I walk the few blocks to Skerry and get butterflies at the sight of the old house at the end of the street. It isn’t haunted per se, but it is occupied, I suppose. Well, hopefully, these little butterflies in my belly will bring me to their cause. A tall boy with messy dark hair, alluring gray eyes, and a personality that isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But I’ll gladly drink it.
I knock. No answer.
Courage later. Bravery now.
I push the door open. It creaks just as I expect it would. The sunshine through the windows casts dusty squares of light on the wooden floor. The corners hide in the shadow. Cold sweat pricks my forehead. It’s likely the ice cream sandwich is melting in my bag.
“JJ,” I call.
The front door slams shut.
I am a witch. I can handle this. My hand lands on my wand in my bag and I pull it out. “JJ,” I say more loudly. I seriously hope this house isn’t actually haunted, and I’m not getting instant Karma for stretching the truth to Riley. “It’s Maija.”
I walk through the main room to the kitchen. There, I find a faint figure seated at the table with his head in his hands. A top hat sits by his bent elbows.
“JJ?” I whisper. I gently put my hand on his shoulder. He’s hardly solid.
He slowly looks up at me as though pulled from a trance or as though waking from a dream. His eyes search mine for recognition. Then snap into focus. I take his hand in mine, and he brightens.
“Where have you been? What happened?” I ask.
He gets to his feet, wrapping me in a hug and pecking me on the lips in quick, relieved bursts. Then he kisses my cheek, my jaw, my neck, in between each saying, “I,” then moves to my ear and says, “Missed,” then my forehead, and finishes with, “You.” He pulls me even closer before settling into a longer, much longer, kiss.
Despite how cold JJ is, it’s like little stars spark to life all over my skin. Where there was once so much animosity and frustration, now I feel something else entirely. Warmth. Care. Maybe something more.
I let myself drift in and out of it like when stargazing, trying to focus on each individual star and then letting them blur and taking in the vast expanse—something so infinite it’s almost impossible to grasp.
His hands grasp my shoulders like I’m his anchor, holding him to this life. Then his palm caresses the soft part of my neck before sliding into my hair. JJ squeezes me close to him, breathing deep. I imagine he doesn’t want to let go and slip away.
“I was hoping you would come,” he says when we part. He guides me to the main room.
In a patch of sunlight he magicks a picnic blanket. He waves his wand and a board with grapes, cheese, crackers, and other snacks appear. I pass him the melting ice cream cookie sandwich.
He shakes his head. “I can’t. I’m fading. Fast. My time is nearly up.”
I lick the edges and then take a big bite. He’s staring at me, the intensity usually in his eyes replaced with sadness.
“What happened?” I ask, hoping he’ll answer my question. If not, I’ll use a wish to find out if I have to. I’ve never seen someone trying so hard to keep from falling apart.
He describes how he was repeatedly jinxed at the rumpus game. Then he confirms the incurbate spell that Dina mentioned. “I managed to fend it off using a particularly difficult spell Chancellor West taught me—I vanished myself, just barely.”
“He did too, I presume,” I say.
JJ nods. “Presumably.”
“Did you magic yourself here?”
“Yeah. Turns out, I made it for my brother’s last moments. It was as if he was waiting for me. This was our father’s house in the States. My parents lived here for a long time. My brother liked it best because it smelled like the sea on a summer day. He liked roaming through the rooms and imagining adventures.”
“You mentioned your brother was born like you, liminal.”
JJ gazes into the distance. If he were physically capable of crying I’m convinced, he would. “Born already fading, he was stuck here, in this house all these years, slowly disappearing. Now he’s gone.”
“But you’re not,” I say, rallying. “Our school needs us. We have a prophecy to fulfill. This isn’t only about what happened on campus and Imogen Hawkes using grim magic. They’re related, but it goes deeper. It comes down to power. The Golden Hive is using the Marauders. They’re trying to take over and restore things to the way they believe things were in the beginning. We can’t go back. We can only go forward.”
“I’m afraid it’s too late for me.”
I take his hand, and he brightens noticeably.
“Two stars, shining light. One dim. One bright. What came before cannot be undone unless the latter frees the son,” I say, repeating the prophecy. “We can do this. Together. But first, will you play a game of chess with me?”
JJ gives me a straight-up quizzical look. It’s his turn to ask questions.
I explain what happened since I left campus, telling him all about the Iron Tower, Magog, and then the cave.
JJ pulls me against his chest, hugging me closely. “Maija,” he breathes as though between when I told him and now he stopped believing that I’m still here, alive.
He asks a dozen questions. I answer all of them because I want him to know the full story and because I’m demonstrating in real-time what it’s like to answer questions—something he needs a lesson in and I mean that in the most loving way.
His hand rests gently on my ankle. “Is your foot okay?” he asks. “Dragon fangs are notoriously poisonous.”
“Magog helped me heal. Should be good as new...sometime.”
JJ wraps me in another hug. For the first time since I was locked in the dungeon of the Iron Tower, I let myself feel how close I came to dying. Then again when Magog, in dragon form, got carried away spinning loop-the-loops over the Atlantic. I caught sight of how fragile life is when I had a close encounter with some giant waves. I sink into JJ, diffusing the fear and feeling safe at last.
As we play chess, I recall the vision Magog showed me and the other one I had when dancing with Bobby at the party before the Hallows Eve ceremony.
I don’t crave power. I crave peace. How to obtain it is another story.
JJ has my pieces surrounded. It looks like I’m going to lose. I realize he’s probably had many years to perfect his game. I go through each of my pieces, outlining moves that could get me out of this fix. My father taught me to plan ahead, but I have nothing. Then JJ moves his knight. I blink once, twice, not sure if he realizes how he left himself vulnerable.
Then I move my queen and put his king in check.
His mouth falls and I smile as I realize I may not have a plan, but sometimes one is revealed in the knick of time. Of course, I gloat for a few minutes, but then take out the map and hold it up to the window, revealing the X.
He looks at it and says, “I didn’t want it to come to this.”
“Whatever it is, let’s get going. Time is wasting.”
“I can only travel at night under stellar or lunar power,” JJ says.
“Even with my energy helping you?”
He nods. “I tried to reach you, to get back to campus, but—” He holds his hand up in front of the window like the map. I can practically see through it. “We’ll leave as soon as the moon rises,” he says.
We recline on the picnic blanket, gazing upward. I ask JJ to tell me about his brother and his life before he realized the curse kept him in the liminal space. I listen to stories of high seas adventures with his father, afternoons spent imagining adventures with his brother, and what would have been a professional rumpus career if it weren’t for the fact that he stopped aging and no one wanted a cursed teammate. Again, I take this moment to ground myself in reality and not the madness that’s become my life.
What about a cursed boyfriend? How do I handle that? “We’re going to do something about that curse,” I say.
When the stars and moon finally rise, JJ and I set forth. He makes a temporary portal back to campus. For once, we make a gentle landing. The Whispering Willows remain quiet as we pass through the gate and along the lane. No one guards the gate. It’s as though the campus itself is asleep. The lamplight casts eerie halos along the footpaths.
When we reach the orchard, JJ’s brother, who first appeared in my dreams waits for us.
“Hi,” I say, pinching myself to test if I’m actually dreaming. “Is this a dream?” I ask anyway.
“No, silly. But you sure do have a hard time figuring things out. Come on, this way.” He gestures in his faint, ghostly way.
He leads us through the orchard to the cemetery. I stop outside the wrought-iron gate. “Do we really have to?” It’s dark, there are likely ghosts or at least spirits, and we all know the outcome last time we were hanging out in a graveyard.
“What you’re looking for is through there,” says the guy that looks remarkably like JJ.
“The wand?” I ask.
He nods.
“What’s your name?” I ask.
“Willem,” he replies.
“Nice to meet you. Thank you for helping us.”
He nods and glances at JJ. They exchange a sad smile. Then he dissolves into the surrounding dark. A year ago, heck even last summer, I would have been freaking out, searching for the guy, concerned that he disappeared, but at this point, I’ve seen stranger things.
JJ says, “He’s an izard.”
“A lizard?” I ask.
“No, a very rare form of magical that can detect sources of magical energy.”
“He just disappeared himself,” I say as the surprise catches up to me.
“Nothing about magic is regular. He visits my dreams. In fact, I think he’s been guiding me here all school year long. I guess my subconscious didn’t want anything to do with the cemetery.”
JJ laughs.
“We’re looking for where X marks the spot. Maybe a treasure?” Then it occurs to me with a sharp jolt. Imogen’s wand must be buried here. “Isn’t digging things up in a graveyard wrong? Wait. Don’t answer that. It’s a definite no-no.”
JJ’s hand lands on my shoulder. Even though it’s cold I warm through, but not the same way Bobby practically makes me feel feverish. “We’re not digging up anything. We’re taking a trip.”
“Gregor’s Axe. Do you really think it’s in there?”
“I hope so,” JJ answers. His face is as flinty as the headstones. “We have to go to the otherside.”
On the ground is a stone carved with two crossed wands to form the letter X. More like do not enter, but as a shimmering door appears much like the Jubilee portal, I take it JJ isn’t going to heed the warning and no way am I letting him go there by himself. He may not be able to return.
