I put my hand on one hip. “How do you figure?”
Eli waved at Lance. “He must’ve found the note and decided to investigate it himself. It did say it was a matter of life or death. And he couldn’t have known when I was going to get back from dinner with my dad.”
“Yeah.” Lance bobbed his head in agreement.
Selene snorted. “Why would you even care what the note said?”
Lance shuffled his feet, looking uncomfortable.
“Because he wants to join the Dream Team,” said Eli, grinning. “It’s an excuse to be near Selene.”
Lance jerked his head toward Eli, a scowl twisting his features. “Thanks, man. A lot.”
Eli shrugged. “Sorry. But hiding your feelings is just stupid. Being upfront is always better.”
Look who’s talking, I thought. He and I had spent another day sitting in the same classes and not talking about that kiss. Actually, if it hadn’t been for me finding the piece of that joker card, I didn’t think Eli would’ve talked to me at all today. He was still unhappy about the Paul situation.
Frustrated all over again, I pointed my hand at the joker card and the piece I’d found. “Diorthon.” A bright flash of yellow light erupted from my fingertips. The magic struck the two pieces, and a loud crack echoed around the room. The bigger one shot up five feet into the air while the smaller one burst into flames.
Eli reached out with his right hand and snatched the bigger piece as it fell, and with his left he stamped out the flames before the desk caught fire. “Nice.”
Lance clapped his hands, grinning. “Bravo! So much for evidence.”
I plopped down into my chair, annoyed with my shortcomings. I scooted over next to Selene and Buster. Selene’s face looked slightly pink, but I knew the blush wasn’t on account of my embarrassment. She was used to my magical mishaps and probably relieved that she hadn’t been in the line of fire this time. No, she must be thinking about what Eli had said about Lance. I suppressed the urge to gag.
“Are you sure you don’t remember anything from that night?” Eli said as he brushed the ashen remains of the card off the table onto the floor.
All the computers in the room beeped at once, the noise like a high-pitched foghorn going off. I jumped in my seat and nearly fell out of it. Selene wasn’t so lucky. She tumbled to the floor as Buster gave another hard buck and rolled to the right.
“I’m sorry!” Eli shouted to the room at large. It wasn’t the first time one of us had upset the place. “I’ll bring a vacuum next time. I promise!”
The computers beeped again in final scolding then fell silent.
“Great headquarters you got here,” Lance said, rubbing his ears.
“Just one more reason for you not to join us,” Selene said, getting to her feet. Buster wheeled toward her, but she put a hand up. “No. You stay. I warned you last time what would happen if I fell off again.”
If it were possible for a chair to look crestfallen, Buster did.
Lance shook his head, his expression both amused and disgruntled at the same time. He turned to Eli. “To answer your question. No, I can’t remember a thing. But I think the curse is still having an effect. I’m having a tough time sleeping, and I can’t focus at all.”
Despite my aversion to doing such a thing, I took a good long look at Lance. Deep, dark bruises rimmed his cheekbones beneath bloodshot eyes. And it was clear from the baggy jeans and ripped up sweatshirt that he hadn’t put his usual level of effort into getting dressed this morning. I wondered if his socks matched today.
“You should go to the infirmary,” Selene said, the tiniest hint of concern in her voice.
“I can’t,” Lance said, not looking at her. “Not now.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because they’ll want to know what happened to him and where,” said Eli.
I frowned, coming to grips with the truth that we weren’t going to turn Lance in. Only, who was I kidding? I’d known from the start we weren’t going to. He was our best clue yet, but if the sheriff found out he’d been there, who knew when we’d have access to him next.
Holy crap, I’m turning into Eli.
I exhaled, not entirely displeased with the revelation. “What we really need is a way to jog Lance’s memory.”
Eli turned to me, his expression brightening for the first time since he failed to mend the joker card. “That’s a great idea.”
I blinked. “Um, you know that jogging a memory is just an expression of speech, right?”
“Not among magickind it’s not. With mind magic it’s possible to extract memories.”
Duh, I realized. We learned about that particular police procedure after the fight with Marrow.
“We need to ask Deverell how it’s done,” Eli went on. “If anybody would know, he would. Tomorrow, I’ll—”
“No,” I said, cutting him off. “I’ll do it. He likes me better.”
Selene giggled. “You mean you like him better.”
Eli glanced between the two of us, frowning. “What do you mean?”
“Dusty thinks he’s hot.”
I felt a blush threaten to warm my face, but I managed to fight it back. I shrugged my shoulders instead and grinned. “Well, it’s true.” I glanced at Eli, wanting to see his reaction. He was watching me with his mouth opened and eyes narrowed.