Chapter 69

“All right, all right, no tears,” Jesse says while he laughs, sitting and wrapping an arm around Midnight’s shoulders and tugging her close. “So, we’re doing this? Fortune telling or…whatever?”

Orion sighs, looking around and then heaving a big shrug of his wide shoulders. “I mean, if you’re all good with it, so am I.”

Midnight nods quite firmly, wiping at her cheek and Orion leans down to pick up the rolled map of the Underworld that he dropped by the side of the chair. Jesse leans forward as Orion unrolls it, curious.

“Seriously,” Jesse murmurs. “What are we looking for?”

And then I go cold, realizing that in the weird rush of stories that we filled each other in on tonight…that certain details…got left out…

“Um,” I say, whipping my head frantically to Anton, who is already watching me, a wide grin on my face. “Maybe we should…wait?”

“No, June, no time to wait,” Anton says, lounging delightedly back in his chair as I squirm anxiously in mine. “The moons are right. What, you don’t want to find your fiancé anymore?”

I scowl at him, hard. “God damn it, Tony –“

“Your fiancé –“ Jesse gasps, grabbing my arm. I spin to him, blushing.

“It’s not –“ I say, shaking my head vehemently.

“Oh, but it is,” Anton sighs, villainous and thrilled.

“How can you have a fiancé!?” Jesse snaps, shaking his head at me. “You’re – you’re just little Juniper! You’re a baby! And you’re – you’re in a competition to marry him!” He tosses a hand out towards Orion.

“Trust me, the irony is not lost on me,” Orion murmurs.

“Juniper is a grown woman, and I for one am not surprised that many suitors wish to have her hand,” Laila says, straightening her shoulders and giving a steady nod.

I spin my head to Laila for an instant, giving her a nod of thanks for her support, before Jesse’s hand squeezes around my arm, drawing my attention back to him.

“Juniper,” he says, leaning forward towards me, baffled. “Who the hell are you engaged to!?”

“Um,” I say, awkward, my blush deepening.

“I mean, she says she’s not a whore, but…” Midnight murmurs, her eyebrows raised as she digs again into her slice of cake.

I scowl at the girl.

“Juniper, who!?” Jesse almost shouts, shaking my arm, desperate to know.

“It’s Redman Blythe,” Anton bursts out, leaning towards Jesse, clearly unable to hold it back anymore.

“Dead to me!” I gasp, spinning and smacking at Anton as Jesse gasps and presses his hands to his mouth in shock. “You’re just the worst handmaid!”

Anton laughs and raises his arms against the blows I rain on him, all of which of course pass through his blue and sparkly light. “You engaged yourself to him, June! It’s not my fault you’re all ashamed now!”

“Yes it is,” I snarl, giving him one last smack for good measure.

But then I spin back to my cousin, desperate to know what he thinks despite myself.

Jesse just stares at me, his hands cupped over his mouth. We all just sit and stare at each other in silence for a long, long moment.

Until Jesse’s entire body seizes. I gasp, reaching for him, worried something is wrong.

But then he just turns to the side and pretends to vomit all over the floor, making a show of displaying precisely what he thinks of my choice of fiancé.

“Jesse!” I snarl, flopping back in my chair and kicking out at his with the flat of my foot. “Don’t be such a dick.”

He just continues to pretend to retch. Anton bursts out in laughter, and it’s only a short time before Orion, and Laila, and Midnight join in. My face flushes red and I scowl, leaning back in my chair, horribly embarrassed.

Because seriously? Jesse hates him too?

God, am I that much of a fool to have fallen for Blythe’s charms when literally everyone else hates him?

Jesse, laughing along with the others, sits up straight and leans back in his chair, pressing a hand to his chest as he cracks up. When he comes back to himself a little he fixes his eyes on me, shaking his head. “June, what on earth were you thinking?”

“I don’t know,” I moan, tilting my head back, miserable. “He was nice to me! And hot!”

“He is handsome,” Midnight murmurs, nodding as she takes another forkful of cake.

“How do you know that?” Jesse asks, spinning towards her, grinning.

“Because I was spying on you,” she says, rolling her eyes. “For like, a long time! He was in your warrior classes. He’s very tall.” She bites the bit of cake off her fork. “I like tall.”

Jesse grins at her and turns back to me. “June, when did you even meet him?”

I sigh and tell a shortened version of the story of how Blythe and I met, how nice he was to me, how fawning in his affection and his promises. Jesse’s face softens as I go, as he takes in the real embarrassment of my expression.

“Well, maybe we were all hard on Blythe,” Jesse sighs, leaning back in his chair when I’ve finished. “Maybe he’s a nice guy.”

“Oh, you’re just being nice because June’s upset,” Anton sighs. I turn to glare at him, but he just shrugs, unwilling to budge from this point.

“Seriously, Jesse,” Orion says, leaning forward with interest. “If you heard, without Juniper there, that she was engaged to this guy – what would your impression be?”

“I don’t know, probably somewhere along the line of Tony’s,” Jesse says, nodding towards the ghost. “Blythe was was…I mean, he wasn’t a bully or anything, he was just such a kiss-ass. He agreed with everything Rafe said, followed him around like a little puppy. And then the moment Rafe would walk away, he’d agree with whoever was most powerful next – even if they gave the complete opposite opinion.”

“Parasite,” Anton says, and I turn to see that he has a bit of pity on his face now, some of his smugness at being right washed away. “Just…moving towards power, wanting to get as close as he could.”

I sigh, dropping my head.

“June, you shouldn’t like…feel ashamed,” Jesse says, putting a hand on my shoulder. “If this guy was tricking you somehow then…you’re young, and he was handsome, and probably love bombing you, and you wouldn’t be the first person to fall for something like that. Plus, we could be totally wrong – maybe he does love you.”

I nod, trying to find a great deal of faith in that idea but…if everyone I love and trust seriously sees the bad in this guy, I’d be a fool not to consider that too.

“So, we’re finding Blythe?” Jesse asks, looking around the table, his hand still steady on my shoulder, radiating support even if I’ve been a fool. “In the Underworld? And then you’re gonna go…talk to him?”

“That’s the plan,” Orion says.

“Cool, then let’s do it!” Jesse says, clapping his hands together and eagerly rubbing his palms. “What’s the process?”

We take a few minutes to rearrange so that Laila, Orion, and I are seated together at the head of the table. Laila takes a moment to drop a kiss to my cheek as she settles next to me and takes my hand, whispering not to let the stupid boys get to me. I send her a grateful smile and she gives me a wink as Orion sits on my other side, likewise taking my hand.

I start a little at this, at the slide of his calloused fingers against mine. Because it’s not what I expected – Orion, he gives the impression of a much-petted and indulged prince. But when and how did he rough up his hands so much?

Orion – still so many mysteries for me to unravel.

I jump a little when Anton clears his throat, turning to see Anton, Jesse, and Midnight standing on the other side of the table, watching us closely. I blush when I realize that I had been staring rather blatantly at Orion. Luckily, he didn’t notice, focused as he was on ensuring that the map lays flat. But I sigh when I realize that Jesse, standing between the other two with his arms crossed and a frown on his face, certainly did notice.

I sigh, looking away, not really ready to deal with cousin drama right now.

“All right,” Laila says, gripping the contents of the divination bag in her right hand and looking over at me. “So, I will say the chant and perform the ceremony. All the time that I’m doing that, Juniper, you need to be thinking of your question in your mind. And Orion, you need to be thinking of the Deadlands, studying the map, remembering it in vivid detail so that it’s as solid in your mind as it can be.”

Orion and I nod, agreeing to the plan. Orion shifts his eyes to me and gives my palm an encouraging squeeze. I can’t help but smile back.

“And so it begins,” Laila says, her voice pitched low, the words ringing with magic. A shiver runs down my spine and I loose a long breath and look at the map, concentrating on Blythe, on asking the question of where he is. I ask it over and over again in my mind, pushing away any doubts, any questions raised about how I feel about him and whether or not I was a fool to fall for him.

Because none of that matters now. What matters is locating him, so that I can…go and check on his ghost. Ensure that he’s okay. And, yes, get some answers.

Laila chants a long series of words I don’t understand, holding her fist out over the map as she slowly makes three circles with her hand, the divination tools clutched within it. Her voice gets louder and louder as she makes the same three circles in the other direction and then raises her hand high.

As she does, I concentrate hard, asking again and again where is Blythe, where is he, begging the stones to tell us where he is.

And then, with a final gasped word, Laila opens her hand.

And the tools fall down onto the map, scattering like shattered shards of a glass.

Finally, they all come to rest.

We all lean forward, desperate to know what they say.