School Spirits (Hex Hall Novel, A) (16 page)

D
ex and I spent the rest of the afternoon playing video games. I’d never done that before, but it turned out all those
years of training paid off in wicked hand-eye coordination. So while I couldn’t beat Dex at Dragon Slayer IV, I didn’t get totally embarrassed either. Once we’d slain dragons, we ate with Nana. Like her cookies, her spaghetti
recipe clearly came from heaven, and by the time we left for
the cave, I felt happier—and fuller—than I had in weeks.

Okay, so maybe Dex’s Nana seemed a little overly protective. But Dex was her only grandkid and all the family she had. That was probably normal. And Dex was normal, I reminded myself as we drove to the outskirts of town. In the dim blue lights of the dash, I studied his profile. Normal. I’d never thought that word could sound so appealing.

The cave was easier to find than I’d thought it would be. There were signs and everything. Granted, they didn’t mention Mary Evans or ghosts, but according to the legend, this had been where Mary and Jasper—the teacher—had met, and done…whatever. And, more important, where Mary had died.

Once we got there, Dex opened my door for me, holding out his hand. “Milady.”

The night was cold enough that I wished I’d brought a heavier jacket. Dex was decked out in a new purple jacket, a thick green scarf knotted at his throat. He looked warm and cozy, and I wondered if his jacket was as soft as it seemed.

Dex must’ve picked up on my longing, because he went to unbutton his coat. “Cold? You can have it.”

“No,” I said quickly. “It’s just…purple suits you. Which is good since you wear so much of it.”

Preening, Dex raised his head and pushed his
shoulders back. “It brings out the color of my eyes.”

I didn’t giggle this time, but I did give him a playful shove as I moved past him and into the cave. Once we were inside, we turned our flashlights on.

“Well, this is…”

“Creepy,” I finished.

“I was actually going to go with ‘pants-wettingly
terrifying,’ but, sure.”

“You really think Mary and Jasper used this place to get all…romantic?” Running a hand over the damp walls of the cave, I shuddered a little. “Because seriously, I wouldn’t even take my
hat
off in here.”

“Their relationship was already pretty gross. Maybe they were going for some kind of grossness record.”

“Lovely,” I muttered, walking farther back into the cave. As I did, I had to crouch slightly. Dex had to practically fold in half. “Whoever used to hang out here, they must have been pretty tiny,” I joked.

Dex turned his flashlight on me. “Um, Iz, pretty sure they weren’t standing up,” he said, and I blushed.

“Right,” I said, trying to sound extra brusque so that he wouldn’t notice my discomfort. “Okay, so. Proof of the supernatural. Let’s find some.”

Kneeling down, Dex yanked a melted candle off a little shelf carved in the rock. “You think this was supposed to be sexy or spooky?”

I was never going to stop blushing. I was actually going to die of blood loss because there wasn’t any left to pump through my heart. It was all in my face.

“Nothing in this place is sexy,” I told him, and he laughed.

“Oh, come on, Izzy. Even you, Miss Anti-Romance, can admit there’s something just a little bit appealing about making out in a candlelit cave.”

“Bats live in caves,” I reminded him. “And where there are bats, there’s bat poop. Lots of it. Did you know there’s a cave in Mexico where they have a whole mountain made of guano?”

Dex leveled a fake-sultry gaze at me. “Are you coming on to me?”

I shined my flashlight at him, making him throw up a hand to guard his eyes. “Hey, watch it! You want me to actually see the ghost stuff, right?’

“Just…start looking, okay?”

“Fine,” he grumbled, and we made our way deeper into the cave. The ceiling got lower and we both had to drop to our knees and crawl.

“Salting graves, crawling underground…you really are the most fun date ever,” Dex mused. I bumped him with my shoulder and kept crawling. After a few feet, the cave opened up again, the ceiling soaring at least twelve feet overhead. Dex stood up and stretched with a happy groan, but all I could focus on was the magic bouncing off the rocks, filling the air, making my hair nearly stand on end. “This is it.”

Frowning, Dex spun in a circle. “What, this? This is where the ghost stuff went down? How can you tell?”

“I just…can.” It was maybe not the greatest answer ever, but I couldn’t think of any other way to explain to Dex how I could sense magic.

Luckily, he didn’t question it. “Whoa!” he cried.

“What?” Had he felt it? Was it just a delayed reaction? But Dex wasn’t exclaiming over all the magic radiating inside the cave. He was walking forward to another little alcove carved in the rock.

“Aha,” he said, poking around on the ground. “You’re right, this is it.”

I knelt next to him, turning my beam of light onto the cave floor. There was another melty candle and a few scraps of charred paper. Rooting around a little more, he uncovered a tiny golden charm. I leaned in closer as he laid it in his palm and shined the flashlight on it.

“A heart,” he murmured.

I was suddenly aware that our heads were very close together, and took a deep breath. “Yeah.”

His eyes dropped to my mouth. “That’s both sexy and spooky, don’t you think?”

“Depends on how you look at it, I guess,” I said.

Now I was watching his mouth. Like his hands and eyes, Dex’s lips were pretty. Beautiful, even. And suddenly I wanted them on mine more than I had ever wanted
anything. Even as we moved closer together, some tiny part of my brain that was still a Brannick and not a silly girl losing her head over a cute boy registered what the magic in this cave must be. No ordinary spell had happened here. This was different. This was a love spell.

And now here Dex and I were, soaking in all this love spell energy. That was why he was staring at me like he wanted to devour me. Why I
wanted
him to devour me. It was residual energy from the spell, nothing else. I don’t know how I did it, but I managed to get to my feet and back away from him.

Clearing my throat, I started shining my flashlight around the rest of the cave. “There might be more stuff. I mean, that’s definitely magiclike, and—”

“I’ve never kissed anyone in a cave,” Dex mused. When I turned around, he was still on his knees, watching me. “Or in any kind of underground structure, really. Cave, bomb shelter, secret government bunker…” His light was on me again. “What about you? You seem like the kind of girl whose romantic life is full of thrills and danger.”

My “romantic life” consisted of watching cheesy teen soaps and sneaking the occasional drugstore romance novel, but wasn’t the kind of thing I wanted to share.

And I definitely wasn’t telling him that I’d never kissed anyone anywhere before. “Lots,” I told him, going for breezy. “There was a secret tunnel connecting my school to the boys’ school down the road. So it was all underground making out all the time.”

“I knew it,” he said, making me laugh. “So these boys you were sneaking off to meet in tunnels. Was there a…special one?”

Since there hadn’t actually been
any
boy, much less a special one, I wasn’t sure what to say. Finally I settled on, “I didn’t have a boyfriend, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“I was trying not to be that tacky about it, but yes, I was asking if you had…or if you
have
a boyfriend.”

My heart was pounding fast now. This time I couldn’t tell myself he was being friendly, or that this was “just Dex.” Boys don’t ask if you have a boyfriend unless they are interested in you.

And then something else occurred to me. I could tell him I did. Invent some long-distance guy, someone I e-mailed and Skyped with. And that would be that. Dex and I could be friends, nothing more. He might feel a little disappointed, and maybe he’d pull back a little.

Just the thought of that hurt. I hadn’t known Dex very long, but I liked him. Genuinely. Hanging out with Romy was fun, but it wasn’t the same as the time I spent with Dex.

I’d been quiet too long. “So that’s a yes, then?” he
asked, his voice every bit as light as mine had been moments
ago. But I heard the hurt creeping around the edges.

Tell him yes. Tell him yes.

Turning around, I let the beam of my flashlight fall on the floor. “No. I don’t have a boyfriend.”

I thought I’d seen every one of Dex’s smiles. The goofy one, the ironic one, the delighted one. But the grin that broke across his face was a whole new specimen: the sexy one.

“Oh, thank God,” he breathed, and then he was crossing the cave and pulling me to him.

D
ex was taller than me, and as he pressed me against him, he actually hauled me up on my tiptoes. His arm was around my waist, his other hand plunged into my hair, and he was kissing me. I mean, really, really kissing me.

I was kissing him back. And I was
good
at it.

I didn’t know if it was the spell, or if I was some kind of kissing prodigy. Everything I’d worried about—weird head movements, awkward lip placement, the Spit Dilemma—none of it was an issue. Dex and I kissed like we’d been doing it forever. That buzz I felt every time I touched him was still there, but now it was wrapped up in all these other feelings, feelings that seemed a lot more potent than any magic.

My fingers curled against his shoulders, the material of his jacket as soft as it had looked, and I shivered.

When we finally broke apart, his eyes were bluer than normal. He seemed dazed—and I wasn’t feeling particularly clearheaded either. “Izzy,” he murmured.

I pulled back. “It’s a spell.”

Dex blinked twice, shaking his head. “What?”

I was still trying to catch my breath. Trying to keep myself from jumping back into his arms. “This place. It’s got some kind of love spell thing happening. That’s the only reason we…we, uh…”

I was moving back toward him, my hands already itching to grab his lapels. One of his fingers curled around my belt loop, pulling me in, but before our lips could meet again, I slammed both of my palms against his chest. “You don’t really want to kiss me,” I blurted out.

“I…I’m sorry, what?”

Stepping back, I crossed my arms. “This cave. Someone did a love spell here. That’s what all this—” I went to point to his hand, but it was empty now. Somewhere in the middle of…everything, Dex had dropped the heart charm. Clearing my throat, I rushed on. “Anyway, love spells are, like, crazy powerful. They can…seep into places. Make other people feel the effects of the magic. That’s what’s happening to us.”

I was babbling and I knew it, but I just wanted to
find something I could say that would erase the dawning horror on Dex’s face.

“So…we kissed because of
magic
?”

“Right,” I said, relieved. “So it doesn’t mean anything.”

His expression twisted, and now he didn’t seem
horrified. He seemed…
angry
.

“Is this something else you learned on the Internet?” he asked, his voice cold. “The effects of love spells on people who don’t like each other?”

Confused, I shook my head. “I do like you.”

Dex laughed, but it was a laugh I’d never heard him use before. It was sarcastic and harsh. “Of course you do. As a friend, right?” And then suddenly, all the anger seemed to drain out of him. He ran a hand over the top of his head, ruffling his hair. “Look, it’s fine. We kissed because magic made us do it. Whatever. Let’s just…let’s just go.”

He moved toward the tunnel and made what I thought was another harsh laugh. But it wasn’t. It was a cough. Then a wheeze. And suddenly he was sliding to the floor, his shoulders and chest working, but no air coming in or going out.

I rushed over to him, thrusting my hands into the pockets of his jacket, but he shoved me off.

“I know things are weird with us, but now is
not
the time
!” I shouted. In the dim glow of the flashlight I could see the skin around his lips turning blue. Dex made another wheeze, but this one sounded like it was trying to be a laugh. “Car,” he mouthed.

I was bolting out of the cave the second the word was out of his mouth. Ducking to keep from whacking my head, I crawled faster than anyone has ever crawled before. By the time I got out to the car my hands were shaking. I yanked open the door and started pawing through the glove box. All that got me was a box of tissues and some hard peppermints.

Every bad word I knew was spilling from my lips as I thrust my hands between the seats. Finally, my fingers closed over metal, and I could’ve wept with relief when I pulled out Dex’s inhaler.

When I got back to him, the wheezing had given way to a terrifying silence. Fumbling, I shoved the inhaler at him, sinking back on my heels when I heard him take several deep pulls on it.

It took much longer than it had that day on the football field, but after several agonizing seconds, Dex started breathing again. Color rushed back into his face, and he closed his eyes, shaking.

“Well, that was different,” he whispered once he could finally talk. He opened one eye. “Never had an asthma attack from making out. You are one heck of a kisser, Izzy Brannick.”

I would have hit him, but I was so glad he wasn’t dying that I just patted his shoulder instead. “I think it was the arguing rather than the kissing.”

“Heh,” he breathed. “Maybe.” Both eyes opened. “I’m sorry, by the way. I shouldn’t have gotten so pissed, but—”

“Forget about it,” I said. “And…maybe it wasn’t just
the magic that made me kiss you. But, Dex. I can’t…we can’t…”

I didn’t know what else to say. That seemed to sum it all up. I couldn’t.
We
couldn’t. My life was full of ridiculously dangerous stuff. And Dex, in his own way, was ridiculously brave. I thought about the clothes he wore, the unabashed affection he showed toward me, Romy, even his Nana. Every day of his life, Dex was uniquely himself, and he didn’t care what people said about it. And I knew that if he really knew what my life was like, he’d want to be a part of it. That was the kind of guy he was—all in.

And being “all in” with me would get him killed.

“It’s fine,” Dex said, breathing more slowly. “As long as we can be friends, I’m…I’m good with that.”

“Me, too,” I said. And even though I knew that was true, I wondered why it made me so sad.