Page 130 of Brambles and Bellflowers
I grasped his sleeves, pulse-pounding, and said, “I-it’s fine…”
“I’ll do better from now on,” he promised. “All I need is—” He paused. He pushed back from me and pointed over my shoulder. “Mushrooms!”
Mushrooms? My stomach sank as I looked after him as he stepped past me, only for my fears to be confirmed.
Miles’s magical mushrooms had reappeared, including a trail we had left behind at one point but must have been previously blocked from surfacing.
“They’re back!” Miles exclaimed. I’d never seen him so pleased. He approached one of the ancient tree trunks and pointed at the orange abomination.
“Ugh.” I glared at the offending object. “Don’t you trust me to get us out of here? I was doing just fine without them.”
He turned to me and placed his hand on my shoulder. “It’s not that I don’t trust you,” he began, and I narrowed my eyes. “I do. Even if sometimes your ideas are a bit scary—”
“What do you meanscary?” I asked.
“Like the time you made me trap an angry spirit in a salt circle.”
“That wasn’tscary,” I told him. What a baby. “It was necessary. Plus, I never forced you to do anything.”
“Regardless,” Miles continued, not addressing my correction. “There’s a reason we work so well together. You and I”—He pointed between us—“we’re the most likely to find the loopholes to bring their plans and our agenda together. Plus, we’ve got plenty of aces up our sleeves that we don’t always disclose to the others.”
“Are you saying I’m sneaky?” How dare he.
“I’ve been watching you,” he continued, and I frowned.
I preferred the term ‘mischievous.’ It was much nicer.
“And I know damn well you’ve got survival experience,” he said, and my breath caught. “I’m not going to ask why or how you’ve learned to live this way—I figure you’ll tell me if you want.And I’ve been depending on that since we’ve lost our way. I trust you. Now it’s your turn to trust me.”
I looked away, my skin warm. “I—I do trust you,” I muttered. “I asked you to make the circle, right?”
“Then,” Miles said, grasping my hands. He held them between us as he peered earnestly into my face. “I want to do it now. I want you to be a part of it.”
I blinked and tilted my head. “Do what?”
“The spell,” he said. He held my hands between us, and I could feel his fingers trembling. “Kathleen left me the potion, and it’s a full moon. It’s the perfect time.”
“Um.” I bit my lip. “Kathleen said you’re missing one ingredient.”
Miles paused, glancing away, before he took a deep breath. “I know,” he said. “And I’m kind of trapped. Most of my supplies were left behind when we fell in the river. So only you can help me now.”
“What do you mean?” Kathleen had said all that was left was blood, surely—
“I need the blood of a virgin,” he said.
My throat closed, and my stomach dropped. “W-what?” I pulled back from him and stepped away.
Kathleen had said he needed blood, but I thought…
I thought she meant his.
He was giving me a curious look. “It won’t hurt,” he reassured me, holding his hands. “It’s only a prick.”
“That’s not i-it,” I squeaked through my rising anxiety. The corners of my vision were turning dark, and I bit my fingertip. “I—I can’t! I’m not a v-virgin…”
He knew this! There was zero chance that they all didn’t know.
A dark expression cloaked his features, and Miles narrowed his eyes. “Titus said he went over this with you.”
