Chapter 205

As I watched Enzo storm off into the party, I felt my heart sink. The screen door slammed shut behind

him and wobbled a bit on its frame, leaving me alone and shaking in the cold. Up until five seconds

earlier, I was certain that our plan was going to work.

But maybe I was too confident in that assumption, because it turned out that Enzo didn’t remember me

after all. In fact, my attempts to make him remember not only proved to be futile, but also made him

angry with me and probably closed him off even more. Now, I was just the strange girl who cornered

him at a party. For all he knew, I could have been trying to drug him or something.

I couldn’t explain it; somehow, after everything, he didn’t remember me at all. Even as I looked at him

that night, begging him to reach into his mind and remember my face, my voice, my touch… He simply

looked at me like I was a complete stranger.

What had happened? How did it come to this? The last time we spoke, he had seemed as though he

knew who I was, or was at least beginning to know who I was. He even said himself that he knew I was

familiar. And yet, at the party, he looked at me like he had never spoken to me in his life.

As I stumbled down the dark street, I couldn’t contain the sobs that escaped my lips. I felt my face twist

and contort into an excruciating grimace, and I clutched my stomach as I felt nausea wash over me

from a combination of the alcohol and my heartache.

I knew my friends were probably looking for me, but I was too drunk and heartbroken to care. Up until

now, I thought for sure that I would have Enzo back on my side, and now here I was staggering down

the street with an aching pain in my chest.

Part of me wondered if Selena put another spell on him. Maybe she strengthened the one she already

had on him; I couldn’t know for sure. All I knew was that somehow, after Enzo had seemed to be

coming close to a breakthrough the last time I saw him, he was now back at square one. Surely she did

something to make him forget again. But would he ever be able to remember now? Or was this just

another hopeless endeavor?

Suddenly, I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. I pulled it out and struggled to focus my eyes on the

screen in my drunken state.

It was Jessica.

“Hey,” I answered. My tongue felt heavy and thick in my mouth from the alcohol.

“Where did you go? We’ve been looking all over for you,” she replied, sounding agitated.

I swallowed. “He didn’t remember,” I whispered. “I needed to get out. Don’t worry; I’m just going home.”

“Nina…” Jessica sounded even more agitated at this point. I knew that I did the wrong thing by taking

off like that, and I had worried all of my friends. “Stay where you are. You’re drunk. We’re coming to get

you.”

“I’m fine,” I insisted, but Jessica didn’t listen.

“Just tell us where you are, Nina.”

“Okay.” I swallowed again as I looked around. I was on a dark street full of closed businesses —

businesses that used to be open at this time of night, before the Crescents attacked. “I’m… Um… I’m

on the corner of First and Washington.”

“Alright,” Jessica replied hastily. I could hear now what sounded like Lori and Matt in the background.

They sounded like they were outside, already on their way. “Stay there. We’ll be there in a few

minutes.”