Page 69 of School Spirits
There was no sense in lying. “No. As soon as my mom gets back, we’ll leave.”
“And do what?” he asked, looking up at me. “Go to some other town? Fight some other evil?”
“Your Nana wasn’t evil, Dex,” I said, but he shook his head.
“You know what I mean.”
I sighed. “Yeah. We will.”
Standing up, clutching the blanket in front of him, Dex met my eyes. “Great. Because I’m coming with you.”
“Dex,” I said, but he cut me off.
“Look, I know you have to do the big hero thing of, ‘no, I must work alone, my love for you can only be a hindrance,’ but.… Izzy, what else am I supposed to do?” His voice quavered. “My parents are dead. My Nana is…is dead. And magic and monsters are apparentlyreal. I can’t just forget that. And I get that if you more or less adopt me, that will make things weird for us, but we don’t have to be… We could just be friends.”
I looked into Dex’s blue eyes, remembering how brave he’d been. He’d been willing to die to save Romy’s life, willing to do it in an instant. He might not be able to run or fight, but Dex had the biggest heart of anyone I knew. And I needed that. I needed him.
“I think there may be a friend-shaped spot for you, yeah,” I said softly, and he smiled.
“But first—” I hesitated, chewing my lower lip. “I…I need to show you something.”
Turning, I led Dex down the hall to the guest room.
I paused with my hand on the doorknob. “What I’m about to show you, it…it’s pretty weird,” I warned him.
“Oh, right, because everything else that happened tonight was totally typical.” He was going for quippy, but there were tears streaking his cheeks and his voice sounded shaky.
Normally, I would’ve smiled at his attempt at humor, but what I was about to do was too big for smiling, and Dex must’ve sensed that. “Sorry,” he said, laying a hand on my arm. “I just mean…whatever weirdness there is, I’m prepared for it.”
I didn’t think there was any way he could be, but I nodded. “Okay, then.”
Torin’s mirror was covered up when I opened the door, but I could hear him as he said, “Ah, you’re back! All hail the conquering hero.”
Dex paused in the doorway. “Who was that?”
“You’re braced for weird, right?” I asked, moving toward the mirror.
He visibly swallowed, but after a second, Dex nodded. “Braced. Weird. Bring it.”
I pulled the canvas down from the mirror, and there stood Torin, leaning against the bed as always. Dex glanced back and forth between the bed in the mirror and the bed in the room before letting out a slow breath. “Okay. Yeah, that is…that is weird, all right.”
“Who the sodding hell is this?” Torin narrowed his eyes. “Oh, right. That boy who plays all the video games. The one Isolde fancies.”
“Torin,” I said warningly, but Dex smiled a little even as his eyes roamed over Torin’s mirror.
“Oi,” Torin snapped. “Fancy-dress boy, my eyes are up here.”
Dex met those eyes, one corner of his mouth still lifted in a half-grin. “‘Fancy-dress boy?’ This from a dude who dresses like Prince?”
I snorted with laughter and Torin scowled. “Prince who?”
Then Dex laughed, too, and after a while, the sound actually sounded normal and not choked with tears.
“I do not like him,” Torin declared, pointing at Dex. “I disapprove of your choice of paramourimmensely.”
“He’s not my paramour,” I said, rolling my eyes. “He’s my friend.”
“Right,” Dex said, finally letting the blanket slip from his shoulders. Rolling them as though he were free of a great weight, Dex looked down at me and stuck his hand out. “Friends.”
