“We better hope so,” Call said, sliding into the driver’s side of the Rolls-Royce. He put his hands on the wheel. The last time he’d been sitting in this seat was when he was a little kid, pretending to drive, making vroom-vroom noises.

Tamara took shotgun, leaving Gwenda to sit with Havoc and Jasper.

He turned the key and pressed his foot to the gas, starting the car.

Remember when I had to drive because you didn’t know how, Aaron said.

I’m still not sure I know how, Call thought back.

Tamara fiddled with the radio while Call carefully steered out of the parking lot and toward the road.

“You have your license, right?” Gwenda asked him.

“Provisionally,” he said.

“What does that mean?” she wanted to know, looking worried.

“It’s a provisional license,” he said. “I haven’t had a lot of practice, what with being imprisoned and then kidnapped and then nearly dying and then living in a cave.”

That did not seem to calm Gwenda, but Jasper didn’t seem worried. He petted Havoc and looked out the window.

“I like road trips,” he said, watching the landscape roll by. “And road-trip games. We should play one of those.”

Gwenda punched him in the shoulder.

“Ow!” he yelled.

“Punchbuggy.” She smiled. “What? I thought you liked road-trip games.”

He reached over and tickled her under her arms, sending her into fits of laughter as she squirmed away. Havoc barked and tried to relocate himself.

“Gwenda is so great,” Call told Tamara, looking at them in the rearview mirror. “Finally someone who dislikes Jasper even more than I do.”

Tamara rolled her eyes, like he was not only wrong but also maybe an idiot. Since Call had no idea what he’d said that was so stupid and didn’t want to admit it, he kept his eyes on the road.

Maybe she was jealous. Maybe she didn’t want to hear him compliment another girl. But Tamara didn’t look particularly uncomfortable. She was leaned against the window, hair in a tidy French braid, watching the cars go by, a small smile on her face.

A few hours later, though, no one was smiling. They were bored and restless and hungry. The route took them back the way they’d come, through Pennsylvania again, then through West Virginia, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and finally through Georgia to Florida itself. It would take nearly a full day — eighteen hours — to get there. Call figured they could break it up into two long days of driving with another hotel in between.

Eventually he pulled into the parking lot of a Taco Bell. The Rolls gave a little shudder when it turned off that made Call nervous. He hoped he wouldn’t have to repair the notoriously finicky car on his own.

“My butt is numb,” said Tamara, climbing out. “Let’s grab food to take away and go find somewhere to sleep.”

They were all starving, and wound up staggering back to the car laden down with sodas and bags of tacos. Jasper tried to use his phone to find them a hotel, and there was a lot of yelling and Call driving the wrong direction and then having to make U-turns. Eventually they made it to a Red Roof Inn and Jasper used his dad’s credit card to book them three rooms, which was all that was available.

“Tamara and Gwenda can share,” he announced, “and Call and I will each have our own room.”

There was a chorus of discontent, but Jasper pointed out that he had paid for the rooms, so he got his own, and if one of the girls wanted to sleep in the room with Call, it was their business. In the end, they wound up eating cold tacos and nachos in the courtyard of the motel as the sun set in the distance.

That night Call lay in bed for a long time trying to sleep. Everything felt like a weight on his shoulders. It was hard to stay focused when he knew that he was the reason they were all there, and he was the reason they had to fight Alex, and he was the reason pretty much everything bad in the world had ever happened.

Which was only sort of an exaggeration.

That’s not true, said Aaron.

There was a knock on the door. Call dragged himself out of bed, wondering if Jasper was here to ask for another favor. But it wasn’t Jasper. It was Tamara.

“Can I come in?” she said nervously. She was in pajamas and fuzzy slippers. The peach color of the pajamas made her skin shine.

“I, uh,” said Call.

Oh, just say yes, said Aaron irritably.

“Sure,” said Call, standing aside to let Tamara pass. He was glad he’d worn his less ratty sweatpants and a clean T-shirt. And that he’d showered about five times, because he still felt gross after being soaked at Niagara.

Tamara came in and sat down on the edge of the bed. So far on the edge actually that she looked like she was about to topple off. “Call,” she said, fiddling with her necklace. “Look, I wanted to talk to you about —”

“Will you be my girlfriend?” Call blurted.

Oh, no, not now, Aaron groaned.

“Shut up,” Call said.

Tamara raised her eyebrows. “I know you’re talking to Aaron,” she said. “Maybe we should wait to have this conversation until we’re alone.”

Oh, go on, Aaron said. I don’t have anything else to do.

“Aaron says he doesn’t have anything else to do anyway,” said Call.

“I’m not sure this is romantic,” said Tamara.

“But that’s the thing,” said Call. “You know me. You have since the beginning, and you always see the best in me. Even though I’ve been seventeen different evil mages.”

Eighteen, said Aaron. But who’s counting?

“You know the truth about me,” said Call. “All the truth. Everything no one else but Aaron knows. And you’ve still always — well, maybe not right at first — believed in me. You make me want to do good things, Tamara. You make me want to save people just to make you happy.”

“But not because you actually want to save them?” she asked.

Call had the feeling maybe his speech had gone a little awry. “Kind of. Sometimes?” he answered. “Other times I wish someone else would do it.”

“Fair,” she said, and smiled. “Proceed.”

“Well, I want to go out with you. I know I’ve brought a lot of weird stuff into your life and am currently possessed by our best friend, not to mention the whole Enemy of Death thing, so I get why you might be fed up with me. But in case you’re not, in case you were wondering how I felt, I want you to be my girlfriend.”

Tamara’s smile faltered a little. “Call, I really like you.”

Uh-oh, said Aaron, which did not improve Call’s spirits.

“It’s okay,” Call interrupted her, because if he already knew the answer, he didn’t need to hear her say it. “You don’t have to say anything now. Just think about it. You can tell me after we deal with Alex.”

She was quiet for a long, heart-wrenching moment and then let out her breath in a rush. “Are you sure you want to wait?”

Call nodded his head and gave a mock yawn. “We should probably get some sleep,” he said.

Tamara leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, making him feel overheated and confused all at once. When she went out, he experienced a pang of regret. Maybe he should call her back and hear whatever terrible thing she was going to say.