“She must have performed sentry spells—guards around the kind of magic that could damage her plans. Sort of like the barrier around town but more specific.”

His memories of the wreck came flooding back. Looking down at that shattered car, seeing Nadia there, bloodied and trapped in the muck—that was what Elizabeth’s barrier had done. Any step outside the margins Elizabeth had set for them could mean death. “If that’s how we’re going to stop her—but she can sense that we’re doing it—”

“I know.” Her voice was so tired, so shaky. Mateo wanted to put his arms around her; if they hadn’t been in the middle of the quad, with Verlaine only a couple of feet away and people walking by every second, he would have. “I’ll have to think of another way, or—or I’ll have to wait until Elizabeth’s in the middle of her own magic, when she might be too deep in one spell to cast another, or too distracted to notice.”

Verlaine chewed on a fingernail. “Waiting until the last possible second doesn’t sound like the ideal A-game.”

Nadia nodded. “Believe me, I know. But we’re so out of our depth here.”

For a few seconds they all sat there, depressed and slightly scared—and then Gage suddenly sat down at the table with them. “Hey, guys. What’s up?”

“Hey,” they all said in unison. Mateo thought they couldn’t have sounded sadder if the funeral march had been playing.

“Whoa. You guys look like your dogs just died.” Gage paused. “Oh, wait, did somebody’s dog actually die? If so, I’m sorry. Way sorry.”

“No dead dogs,” Mateo said. He managed an expression that might pass for a smile. “What’s happening with you?”

“Something that should cheer you guys up, so I’m guessing I got here in the nick of time. Night before Halloween, my aunt’s place on the beach, it’s party time. An actual fun party, Mateo—you might want to check one of those out sometime. Not the same jerks standing around being rude to one another while everybody acts cool.”

“A party?” Verlaine frowned in confusion, like that was a word in English she didn’t know yet. Then again—nobody had ever asked Verlaine to any of the parties before; at least Mateo had never seen her out. Probably she wasn’t used to being invited. For his part, Gage only now seemed to have realized he’d asked Verlaine, too, but he didn’t seem to mind.

Mateo said, “The jerks are still going to be there, though. They always show up.”

“Yeah, but after the first hour they’ll blow it off because they’re too cool, and then the rest of us can enjoy ourselves.”

“Like, Kendall Bender would be there?” Verlaine didn’t look reassured. “I can think of more fun things to do than hang out with her. Lots more. Up to and including reorganizing my dads’ spice rack.”

That was weird—Mateo didn’t usually think of Kendall as being that bad. Yeah, she was as dumb as a box of hair, and about equally sensitive, but it wasn’t like she went out of her way to be mean to anyone. Well, anyone except Jinnie, but those two hated each other and Jinnie was one of the jerks.

And Kendall was also mean to Verlaine.

Come to think of it, everybody who didn’t ignore Verlaine was mean to her, even the people who weren’t mean to anyone else. Mateo knew he’d always ignored her; Gage had, too. Why had he ignored someone who was—now that he thought about it—actually great? It didn’t make any sense.

Before he could really think about it, though, Nadia said, “The night before Halloween, huh?”

The night before disaster struck Captive’s Sound if they didn’t do something to stop it—yeah, not the ideal time for going out. “Are we, um, busy?”

But Nadia surprised him. “Who knows? If we aren’t—it might be good to take our minds off everything for a couple hours.”

He could see that. In fact, if Elizabeth was now watching Nadia so closely that she could pounce at any moment, going out might be the only way to throw her off. “So you’ll come with me?”

Nadia’s eyes met his, and he realized he’d just asked her out for the first time. It wasn’t that he hadn’t meant to ask her sometime; they’d become so close, so fast, that it was hard for him to remember that they hadn’t been out before. That he hadn’t even kissed her yet—

She hesitated. That moment in her attic, when he’d thought they might—Mateo had wondered whether she was holding back then but had decided he’d imagined it. Maybe he hadn’t.

But Nadia nodded. “Yeah,” she said in a small voice. “I’ll come.”

“In case anybody remembers I’m still here, I’ll come, too,” Verlaine said.

“Definitely. Come on along.” Gage gave them finger guns, trying to be deliberately dorky so it would be ironic but really just kind of being dorky, before strolling off to invite more people.

Verlaine took her sandwich up. “I like that guy.”

“He’s okay.” Mateo couldn’t look away from Nadia for long. “Yeah, Gage is great.”

Which he was. But Mateo wasn’t thinking about anything but the fact that Nadia had said yes.

The warmth of that moment stayed with him throughout the afternoon. Forget trying to concentrate on classes. Even the sickening haze of magic that clung to so much of Captive’s Sound didn’t have much hold on him today. He’d spent the last couple of months being either scared or furious; this was the first time he’d truly felt happy. And if he felt like that only knowing that Nadia was going to the party with him, what would it be like when they were together?