“But he’ll still have the antidote—he’ll still—” I start, but it’s no use, Ava’s on a roll and she’s not finished yet.

“You’re right. He will still have the antidote, and he’ll probably be reluctant to give it to you. But that is a situation you cannot change. And your obsessing over it, and weaving all manner of spells, won’t change it either. In fact, it’ll only make it worse. By doing that, you’ve made him the focus of your universe, the exact result you didn’t want, and trust me, Roman is well aware of this. He works hard to steal your focus, it’s what every narcissist wants. So, if you truly want to resolve this and get your life back on track, then just stop. Stop focusing your energy on the things you don’t want. Stop putting your energy into Roman. Just refuse to even go there and see where that leads.” She leans toward me, tucking her wavy, auburn hair back behind her ear. “My guess is, once he sees you happily adapting to your situation, living your life and enjoying yourselves despite your limitations, he’ll grow bored of the game and give in. But like this, the way you’re handling it now, you may as well be hand-feeding prime rib to a tiger, you’re only satisfying his most primal need. The beast is inside you, Ever, because you put it there. But trust me, you can rid yourself of it just as easily.”

“How?” I shrug, understanding everything she just said, I mean, once she explained it, it all made perfect sense. And yet I can still feel that horrible, insistent pulse thrumming just under the surface, and it’s kind of hard to believe it’s just a simple matter of changing my focus. “When I tried to reverse it, it just made it worse. Then, when I appealed to Hecate for help, it seemed to work for a little while, but then, just now, when I saw Roman again—” The color rises to my cheeks as my whole body heats, horrified to remember what almost became of me. “Well, let’s just say I discovered it hadn’t gone anywhere, it was alive and kicking and ready to party. And while I get what you’re saying, at least I think I do, I can’t see how simply changing my thoughts is ever going to help. I mean, Hecate’s in charge, not me, and I’ve no idea how to get her to step down.”

But Ava just looks at me, her voice lowered when she says, “But that’s where you’re wrong. Hecate’s not in charge, you are. You’ve been in charge all along. And though I hate to say it, because I know how uncomfortable it always makes people to hear it, the monster isn’t some foreign being that’s found its way in you, it isn’t a demonic possession or anything like that—it’s you. The monster is the dark side of you.”

I tilt back in my seat and shake my head. “Great, that’s just great. So you’re saying my attraction to Roman is for real? Nice, Ava, thanks for that.” I sigh, loudly, audibly, and grant her a nice, dramatic eye roll to go with it.

“Told you it never goes over so well.” She shrugs, proving she’s pretty much immune to my insolent reactions by this point. “But you must admit that, superficially speaking anyway, he is stunning, quite gorgeous really—” She smiles, practically begging me to agree. But when it goes unmet, she just shrugs again and says, “But that’s not what I meant. You know about the yin yang symbol, right?”

I nod. “The outer circle represents everything, while the black and white parts represent the two energies that cause everything to happen.” I shrug. “Oh, and they each contain a small seed of each other . . .” I squirm in my seat, suddenly sensing where this is headed and not sure if I’m ready to tag along.

“Exactly.” She nods. “And believe me, people are no different. For example, let’s say you have a girl, she’s made a few mistakes”—her eyes meet mine—“and she’s so down on herself, feeling so undeserving of all the love and support that’s being offered, so sure she has to go it alone, make amends on her terms, her way, and ultimately becoming so obsessed with her tormentor, she ends up cutting off all those around her, so she has more time to concentrate on the one person she despises the most, channeling all of her attention on him, until, well, obviously I’m referring to you and you know how it ends . . . my point is, each of us has a shadow of darkness, every single one of us, no exceptions. But when you focus so heavily on the dark side, well, we’re back to the Law of Attraction again—like attracts like—hence your monstrous attraction to Roman.”

“A shadow of darkness?” I look at her, having heard something similar, just a few hours before. “You mean like—a shadow self?”

“So now you’re quoting Jung?” She laughs.

I squint, having no idea who that is.

“Dr. Carl Jung.” She laughs. “He wrote all about the shadow self, basically saying it’s the part of us that is unconscious and repressed, the parts we work hard to deny. Where’d you hear it?”

“Roman.” I close my eyes and shake my head. “He’s always ten steps ahead of me, and he basically said the same thing you did, that the monster was me. It was pretty much his final taunt before I fled the scene.”

She nods, holding up her finger and closing her eyes. “Let me see if I can—”

And the next thing I know she’s balancing an old leather book in her hands.

“How’d you . . . ?” I look at her, eyes wide, jaw dropped.

But she just smiles. “Everything you can do in Summerland you can do here too, you know? Aren’t you the one who told me that? But it wasn’t instant manifestation like you think, it was merely telekinesis—I summoned it from my bookshelf in the other room.”