Sorceress by Claudia Gray

messages, knowing he should contact Nadia. What was he supposed to say, though? I know you didn’t mean to nearly kill us?
    Then he thought of Nadia’s stricken face and realized it didn’t matter what he said. She needed to know that he still loved her no matter what.
    Quickly he tapped out, Are you okay? I’m thinking about you. If you want to call or talk or anything—let me know. Love you.
    Nadia had managed to get upstairs without her dad seeing how soaked she was. She knew she ought to go downstairs and talk with him and Cole, but instead she sat on her desk chair, swaddled in her thick robe, hardly able to think, much less move.
    How could I let Elizabeth taunt me into doing something that terrible? How?
    And the way Mateo had looked at her outside the Guardian —if he hated her now, she couldn’t take it.
    Don’t be stupid , she told herself. Of course Mateo still loves you.
    If she talked with Mateo, maybe she’d feel better. First she’d test the waters with a text. Grabbing her phone, she typed, I’m sorry I ran off like that. Everything is scary, and I feel so mixed up. Can we talk tonight? I need to talk to you.
    Nadia pushed Send, feeling as though she’d just been tossed a life preserver. Now someone would tow her back to shore.
    Elizabeth sensed the opportunity, and struck.
    As Mateo tapped out his message to Nadia, Elizabeth watched him through Gage Calloway’s eyes. His father called to him, asking him to change into dry clothes. His message, not yet complete, remained unsent. The moment he was gone, she used Gage’s hand to pick up the phone.
    Through him, she sent magic that would destroy any messages sent or received that night, plucking them out of theelectronic ether if needed, to ensure they never found their recipients. Back in the day, the spell used to make letters burn within their envelopes. Now? Elizabeth had no idea how cell phones worked and did not care to learn.
    She knew how magic worked, and that was enough, because magic itself would know how to make sure Mateo and Nadia would not reach each other tonight.
    When Mateo came back to the table, Gage was munching on chips and salsa. “Helped myself,” Gage said. “Since I’m kinda familiar with the layout.”
    “You should work here,” Mateo said. He finished his message, hit Send, and waited for Nadia to reply. Surely she’d get back to him right away.
    But she didn’t.
    Nadia stared at her phone’s screen for the better part of an hour before she accepted that Mateo wasn’t going to reply.
    Maybe he fell asleep. He had to be exhausted.
    Try as she might, Nadia couldn’t convince herself of that. Mateo just—didn’t want to talk to her. Wasn’t ready.
    Maybe she could believe that much. That he just wasn’t ready.
    That night, Mateo was so exhausted and miserable he didn’t even bother taking his usual Tylenol PM. His worry about Nadia had escalated to fear, but there was nothing he could do—not if she wouldn’t even talk to him. The hopelessnessdragged him down even further, until all he could think about was going to sleep. He showered to get the weird musty smell of floodwater off him, then passed out almost the moment he collapsed into bed.
    But he wasn’t too tired to dream.
    Mateo’s hands rested on the thorny halo around his head. Usually the dark, twisting thorns were something he could see only in the mirror because of his Steadfast powers, but now they were real and tangible. One of the thorns pricked his skin, and when he pulled that hand away, a single bead of red blood welled in the center of his palm.
    “Don’t take it off,” Nadia pleaded. She stood next to him in what looked like a room in an abandoned house—cobwebs in every corner, windows gray and opaque with dust, and bits of old paper strewn on the scuffed floor. “You can’t take it off.”
    “I have to.” Mateo could feel the thorns pressing through his scalp, as though the halo was digging itself into his flesh. But the pain