Lenora's Grimoire

Chapter Fourteen

Cherish swallowed nervously and ripped her gaze from the shadowy figure. It wasn't real, she tried to tell herself. It wasn't real—Raven couldn't see it, so it wasn't real—and that also meant it couldn't hurt her.

"So now what?" Raven asked.

Cherish slid her gaze to him. "We have a few hours, I suppose we could go grab something to eat if you're hungry?"

Raven shrugged. "Will everything here be safe if we leave it?"

Cherish nodded, standing. "I'll lock the library. No one can get in without a key, so we shouldn't have anything to worry about."

Two grocery store sandwiches and a pair of sodas later, Cherish led Raven to a table at the park across from the library.

"I don't think we really had much of a chance to talk outside of all of . . . this," Cherish said, breaking open her soda before taking a sip.

"About what?" Raven asked.

Cherish shrugged. "I know you mentioned the plant belongs to your girlfriend—where is she now?"

Raven frowned. "We definitely already talked about this," he said. "I told you, she's at her grandparents, up north."

Something about that statement didn't quite sit right with Cherish. She couldn't tell if it was the way he said it, or if there was weight behind his words that didn't quite align with what he was telling her.

"There's more," she said, trying to prompt him to open up about it.

Raven hesitated. He started peeling the plastic wrapping away from his sandwich—then his gaze drifted towards the ground.

"She's really sick," he said finally. "I wanted to go with her, to help take care of her, but she insisted she didn't want me to see her like that."

Cherish could tell his voice was growing thick with emotion and she regretted pushing him to tell her more.

"I--I'm sorry," she said. She wasn't sure what else she could say.

She could offer to heal his girlfriend, she supposed—or, she would, if she weren't so terrified of what would happen as soon as she completed the spell she was already roped into performing.

For all she was aware of, she could get sucked back into Lenora's hallucinations and nightmarish memories for the rest of her life after the spell was complete.

"She gave me the plant because she trusted me to take care of it—and if she's gone, it's all I'll ever have left of her—and she would be so disappointed if it died--"

Raven swallowed and sucked in a deep breath. "Sorry," he added quietly, after a second. "There's just a lot that I can't control about this whole situation, so I'm focused on the plant because . . . it's the only thing I can control."

"Understandable," Cherish murmured. She turned back to her soda. "Well, I'll help with the plant as much as I can."

She glanced at the clock above city hall. "Well, we've got time, and you've shared, so I guess it's my turn."

Raven laughed and popped open his soda. "I think I've heard a good amount of it," he said. "With your mom making you summon things for her, running away, you not-really being a witch even though you definitely are--"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Cherish scoffed.

Raven shrugged. "You don't do magic, but you can. So you're not really a witch, but you are."

Cherish rolled her eyes. "If you say so," she murmured, before taking a bite from her sandwich.

"I'm still a little concerned about you talking about Lenora constantly, though," Raven added.