The Knight (Endgame #2)(23)

“Give me that,” I say, reaching my hand out for the joint.

After a slight hesitation, Will gives it to me. “Not too much.”

I take a deep drag, desperate for any oblivion I can find. After a minute the world feels a little sharper, my body alive in a new way. As if my skin can smell and see and hear the world around me. As if the air around me speaks. “Wow,” I breathe.

Harper nods in satisfaction. “We’ll do a ritual cleanse.”

Another drag. “What?”

“My mom taught me this. In between husbands three and four she got into this pagan phase, like with divining crystals and tea leaves. Most of it’s bunk, but I like the cleanses.”

“Is this another one of your juice fast things? Because I don’t have a juicer in my motel room. Or, you know, fruits and vegetables.”

“No, silly. This is where you expel someone negative from your life.”

And then I can’t help myself. “I’m not sure Gabriel Miller is really negative. I mean, he is. But in his own way there’s a reason for it. He hasn’t hurt me specifically.”

Will looks skeptical. “He’s the reason you’re here?”

“He doesn’t have to be evil,” Harper says. “Even though he kind of is. It can even be someone who’s good and kind. It just means that they’re negative to you, so this helps you remove their influence. Like imagine there’s an invisible string between you and them. This is cutting the string, setting you free.”

Free. That sounded good.

Because where was I, really? With a million dollars and a father in a nursing home. A sad state of affairs but not an impossible one. I could build a life this way, if I could let go of my old one. If I could forget Gabriel Miller. “How does this work, then?”

“We need some herbs to throw in the fire. Sage. Maybe rosemary.” Harper bites her lip, looking all of eight years old as she struggles to remember.

Will glances around. “There might be some grass where the concrete’s busted.”

Harper pulls a small bundle wrapped in tissue paper from a paper bag. “This will work. It’s almost like an herb.”

“Is that marijuana?” I’m not sure why I’m even asking. Sage and rosemary won’t make me forget about Gabriel any more than this joint has.

“It’s medicinal,” Will says gravely, as if we’re performing a serious operation.

“Fine,” I say, taking another drag. I really do need to be high for this. “But if I’m going to do this, you guys have to, too. There must be someone you should cut out of your lives.”

“Christopher,” Harper says immediately.

Her stepbrother has been a thorn in her side ever since her father married his mother. The fact that they since divorced made things easier, but when her father died, they found out he’d put Christopher in charge of her trust.

“The cleanse isn’t supposed to have bad effects on the person, is it?” I ask, because Christopher’s a good guy. In fact the only time I met him, he was both nice and funny. Except whenever he has to deal with Harper, he seems to turn into the Grinch. They’re a bad match, but I wouldn’t want him harmed—even by a pretend ritual cleanse.

“No,” she assures me. “And oftentimes severing the link is the best thing for both parties. Like if two people are in some kind of infinite loop. Then it helps both people when the bond is broken.”

“It won’t matter to Gabriel either way.”

He was completely unmoved by the fact that I’d lost the auction. His expression had been blank, his attitude all business as he oversaw the stranger’s contract with Miller Industries. I waited until the very last page was signed, on the one percent chance that his backing would fall through. That Gabriel would find some secret way to let me buy the house instead.

He was completely stoic as he signed away the house, my mother’s diary inside.

“It will help Christopher,” Harper says, sounding aggrieved. “He spends way too much time focusing on where I go and what I do. I bet he’ll be relieved to cut the string.”

I glance at Will. “Do you have someone picked out?”

I’m a little nervous to learn about his life. Is there someone he’s hiding from? Is that how he ended up on the streets? Someone who threatens him? There’s darkness there. A history filled with shadows and violence. “Yes,” he says, sounding more sad than angry. “I picked someone.”

He doesn’t seem inclined to say more.

“Okay,” Harper says. “Hold the person in your mind. Think positive thoughts for them. You wish them well, away from you. Blowing in the wind.”

She touches the bundle of weed to the flame, catching the end on fire. Then she blows it out, its embers still glowing like the end of the joint. Then she waves it around my head and down my body.

“Over your eyes,” she says, as if remembering. “Your third eye. And maybe your chakras. I don’t really remember, but I’ll just do all of you to be sure.”

I cough at the thick swell of smoke. “I’m pretty sure all this is doing is getting me really high.”

Harper repeats the same motions over Will. “If you can’t get rid of the bastards, being really high is the next best thing.”