Someone was in my room.

My eyes shot open, and with one swift movement I shoved the person down and was on my feet, preparing to attack.

“Gemma,” Aislin hissed from the floor. “Calm down, it’s just me.”

I clicked the lamp on and I blinked down at her. “I’m so sorry.” I helped her to her feet.

“It’s okay.” She was wearing pajamas bottoms with little pink hearts on them and a pink hoodie. “Were you having a nightmare or something?”

“Or something,” I mumbled thinking of the light vision and how I couldn’t seem to get rid of it. And where had the fire and ash suddenly come from?

“Gemma….you know you can talk to me about stuff,” she said, smoothing out her hair. “I can be a really good listener if you’ll give me a chance.”

I thought of her room and wondered if we had more in common than I knew. “Okay, I might take you up on that.” I noticed she had her purse on. “Are you going somewhere?” She nodded, looking guilty. “And you are too….I mean, if you’ll help me that is?”

“Help you with what?” I asked with interest.

“A spell …”

“From the book you…borrowed.”

“Yeah, and I know Alex told me not to do any spells out of it, but I found one that might work.”

I took my hoodie off the back of the computer chair. “To remove the Mark of Malefiscus?”

“Yeah.” She took the book out of her purse and flipped it open. “The spell of Zaleena.”

I squinted down at the page and pulled a face. “It looks…

interesting.” On the page was a drawing of a woman, her head tilted back, her hands spread out to the side of her.

Normal, right? Except that her mouth was open and a spirit was rising out of it.

“So you think this spell ’s going to remove the Mark of Malefiscus?” I asked as she slid the book back into her purse.

“The spell ’s not exactly for removing a mark.” She zipped up her purse. “But it’s supposed to give the witch who performs the spell the gift of being able to separate and remove evil from those who are naturally good.” I put my hoodie on and zipped it up. “Yeah, I can see why you would think it might work, but….it’s not dangerous, right?”

“I don’t think so…” She seemed uncertain. “It shouldn’t be, but when it comes to magic, you never know.” A pause.

“You don’t have to come if you don’t want to,” she said. “I mean, I get it if you don’t, but I think your energy might come in real handy because it’s a really powerful spell …And I could use your company.”

“Alright, I’m in,” I said. “So, where are we going?” Nervousness rose on her face. “The cemetery.” Never in a million years would I have thought I would be wandering down the street, late at night, with a witch, heading to a cemetery. I felt like I had stepped into a ghost story or something.

The cemetery was located at the edge of the forest. The moon was a bright orb against the pitch black sky, clouds moving whimsically in front of it. The air was hauntingly silent and still, except for the crunching of gravel underneath our shoes.

“So…how intense is this spell going to be?” I asked trying to break the silence before it drove me insane.

“Honestly?” she asked and I nodded. “Probably pretty difficult.”

Silence filled the air between us again, and I fidgeted with the zipper of my hoodie as I searched for something else to say to her.

“Gemma,” she sputtered abruptly. “Do you like Laylen?”

“What? Like as I friends?” I asked, even though I was sure she didn’t mean it that way.

She shook her head, and the uneasiness could be seen in her expression even through the darkness. “I mean, like…more than as friends…like maybe the same way as you do with Alex.” She held her breath waiting for me to answer.

I felt extremely uncomfortable, in the vacant streets, covered by nighttime shadows. The prickle poked at the back of my neck, but I was unsure what emotion was trying to surface.

“Laylen and I are just friends,” I told her, but something felt wrong about the answer.

She sidestepped around a lamppost. “It’s just that sometimes you two seem….I don’t know. You just seem happier when you’re around each other.”

Were we? “Yeah, I guess…” It felt like I needed to say something here; something that would make her feel better.

“I think that’s just because we’re comfortable around each other. I mean, Laylen has always been honest with me, which makes things easier with him.”

She nodded, looking hurt and I wondered if I said the wrong thing. “Gemma, I’m sorry for lying to you…but I think if you’ll give me another chance, you and I could be really good friends.”

Friends. God the word was so foreign to me, but I didn’t want it to be anymore. “Yeah, I would like that.” She looked relieved. “Good, I’m glad.”

I wondered if she was referring to us being friends or to the fact that I said Laylen and I were just friends.

Suddenly, something stomped on the ground behind us and we both spun around, searching through the dark, but there was nothing there.

“Weird…” Aislin muttered as we turned back around.

“So, just how dangerous is this going to be?” I asked, changing the subject. “The spell, I mean.” She didn’t answer right away, pulling her jacket tighter.

“I’m not sure…”

I wrapped my arms around myself as I shivered. “But you don’t think it will be like zombies-will-raise-out-of-the-ground dangerous, do you?”

She gave me a tense smile. “I don’t think so.” The cemetery rose into view and goose bumps dotted my arms. It was a small cemetery, sealed up by an iron gate. A few trees trimmed around the edge and a gravel path ran up the center.

“I think—”

Another thump came up from behind us, this time much louder and closer. Aislin slipped a knife out of her purse and we both spun around again, preparing to kick whatever’s butt was behind us.

A girl stood there, dressed in a pink plaid pajama set, wide eyed and terrified.

Aleesa.

She let out a shriek that cut through the quiet air around us.

“Stop!’ Aislin covered Aleesa’s mouth. “Shhh…it’s okay.” Aislin and I exchanged a worried glance.

“What are you doing here?” Aislin asked, lowering her hand.

“I saw you leaving from out the window,” Aleesa said, her yellow eyes still bulging with fear. “And I followed you….I wanted to come with you.”

Aislin frowned unhappily. She grabbed my arm and turned us away from Aleesa.

“What should we do with her?” she whispered.

I glanced over my shoulder at Aleesa and shrugged.

“Take her with us, I guess.”

“I don’t know…” Aislin looked at Aleesa with uncertainty.

“What else are we going to do?” I asked. “Take her back

—the sun will be coming up in like an hour and I’m pretty sure we don’t want to be sitting out in the cemetery performing a witch spell when it does.”

“Yeah…I guess you’re right.” She motioned at Aleesa.

“Come on, you can come with us.”

Aleesa actually looked a little happy for a second, her yellow eyes flickering like two fireflies as she skipped after us.

We made it the rest of the way to the cemetery without any more bumps-in-the-night. Aislin said we had to find a fresh grave, which totally freaked me out. But I still wandered through the dark, helping her look for one, with Aleesa trailing along quietly behind us. We finally found one at the back of the cemetery in the midst of the darkest shadows beneath a giant oak tree.

Aislin took some black and red candles out of her purse and placed them on the ground in a circle.

“Alright, now we just need to sit in a circle around the candles,” she said, the glow of the flames lighting up the serious expression on her face.

I sat down on the cold ground of the cemetery and so did Aislin and Aleesa. Aislin sprinkled a black powder over the candles, making the flames shift from a bright orange to a deep red. Then she took out the book.