23 Elle To Solve #2
I close my eyes and spread my fingers across her collarbones.
Like when Liney was near death on the rocks, I imbue her with the scalding Devil’s power.
But while I was careful with Liney, I’m not with Bridget.
Like a dam breaking, my arms shake with the force coming out of them.
Through my eyelids, I see bubbling red light.
Bridget tries to speak. It turns to bubbles as I push her down again.
“Stop!” screams a voice behind me. High and broken. No.
“Get away!” I roar back. Pratterman’s spiral sent too much heat, prepared for another feeding and now circling in my system. It won’t drain back until the deed is done.
“You get away!”
Liney slams into me, then bounces off, ending up spluttering in the sand.
Bridget struggles beneath me, her mouth inches from the surface.
None of the heat is seeping into her. Because she’s not technically on the island?
Does that matter? Surely not. I drag her back as Liney grabs at my arms and shrieks with pain when the heat is too much.
My hands wrap around the girl’s neck. She claws at my hands, but it’s like the light scrapings of leaves compared to the power I’m wielding. This is the dark ambition that’s always at the edges of its hold on me.
Then Liney says the only thing that could make me stop.
“If you kill her, you’re no sister to me, Eleanor.”
How did she know to say that? I still immediately, fighting against the hunger to loosen my grip. Bridget gasps beneath me.
If Liney isn’t my sister.
And she was the first living person I saw.
No.
“Take it back,” I grunt. “Now, Liney!”
I turn to her. Tears streak down her cheeks. She’s hyperventilating. I need her to calm down.
“I told you to stay there,” I spit. Rage is all I’ve got fueling me. “Why couldn’t you do what I said?”
Bridget strains to speak and kicks my legs. Liney looks from me, to her, to me again.
“Let her go.”
“No.”
We’ve reached an impasse. I haven’t killed Bridget, but Liney’s threat was clear. My suspicions were correct. Between us two, she’s chosen a side.
I shove Bridget down one last time and get up, backing off and tumbling into the sand. My breath comes as ragged as hers when she leans into Liney’s waiting arms. She coughs out seawater. An oily dark substance stretches out from the sand and flexes its tendrils to grip Bridget.
A cacophony of violence and frustration roils inside me. While the spiral’s power has fizzled into nothing, its aftershocks linger. That heat, that purpose. Now that I’m coming down, the world is hard to keep in focus.
“That was uncalled for,” Bridget croaks.
Uncalled for. That’s mild. An attempted murder. And a failure. At the words of my own sister. Why did I think a Devil’s task would be easy?
We sit in the sand, staring at each other. She wants me to explain myself, but exhaustion clouds me. I ease the power left in my body back to the spiral, which finally accepts defeat. My arms ache from the inside out. There’s electricity in the air, like before a thunderstorm.
“Your eyes glow,” Bridget mutters. “Do you know that?”
I can’t fathom how to explain. I don’t want to explain to a woman who should be dead.
The cogs of her mind turn, trying to determine my motive for attacking her so furiously, then giving up. “I’m no demon.”
A laugh bubbles up from my chest. I lean up to look at her. “I know you’re not a demon.”
Bridget’s expression stresses taut. I’ve bewildered her entirely. “Then why—”
“I know now,” I correct, my wits finally catching up. “If you were, my power would’ve exorcised it. Back to hell.”
The lie flows perfectly. It may save me.
Except for Liney.
“What nonsense!” she spits. “Power? Exorcise? Why would you think Bridget’s evil?”
Bridget leans forward, hacking.
“A misunderstanding, Liney. That’s all. But we can work together,” I continue, a new plan forming faster than the next wave can cover our feet. “You can’t go to the mainland.”
“I can’t?” Bridget clutches the sand beneath her and glances at Liney, whose gaze hasn’t wavered from me in the harshest defiance I’ve ever seen from her.
I laugh again, and the movement hurts my ribs.
We need to ease the tension, or Liney could run out of my life forever.
“What do you think will happen? A young girl, the only one to survive a wreck…” I shrug, looking back out to sea.
The surf shimmers in reds. “Suspicious doesn’t cover it, Miss Coleman.
Who will the widows blame? Who will the insurers go after?
They’ll be merciless. But I know someone. Perhaps he can help.”
Bridget considers this for a silent moment, allowing me to regain my breath. I don’t know how much of her hesitation is fear of offending me and how much is fear of me.
“Did he turn your eyes like that?” Liney asks.
“They’ll fade,” I say dryly, like it’s an obvious scientific phenomenon.
“How do you control it?” Bridget, this time. Thank God these two are curious.
“Gifts aren’t controlled.” I wave my hand dismissively. “They’re appreciated.”
The woman I attempted to murder only moments ago looks at me ruefully, a grimace spreading. “Sisters are gifts too, are they not?”
A flash of heat threatens to flare up. I glance at Liney. “Did you mean what you said?”
Liney’s lip trembles, her grip tight on Bridget’s soaked-through clothing.
“Yes,” she says, barely hesitating. “I don’t know what happened to you, Elle, or whatever it is you think you’re doing. If you hurt her, you’ll never see me again.”
She couldn’t be clearer. I couldn’t be further from salvation.
I make it a few steps, treading around them with plenty of room.
“Aren’t you going to apologize to me?” Bridget’s voice holds its own steel.
I turn back, surprised by the question. Bridget stays lying on the sand in Liney’s arms. She looks up at a star-filled swath of sky between smears of cloud. Oddly beautiful, but all the wrong colors as my vision slowly drains of red.
“Pardon?”
“You tried to kill me. That warrants an apology.”
She should be thankful, not demanding. My sister’s foolishness has saved her. Temporarily. I need to reach Mr. Pratterman, especially since he’s doubtless sensed this calamity.
“I can’t apologize for protecting my sister, Miss Coleman.”
Bridget nods, surprisingly polite. Though I’m her attempted murderer, I’m also her friend’s older sister promising a way out for her.
I head back to the lighthouse, the two of them in tow.
I show them the soup, hoping they’ll follow my lead to pretend the last ten minutes didn’t happen, and head upstairs to check on the supplies.
Always on to the next task. My final list of items to purchase doesn’t match the numbers Liney was putting together.
Because she expects to need enough for three, not just two.
When I head back down, Liney asks endless questions lined with bared teeth. Since when can you exorcise people? What made you think Bridget was a demon? Why are you such a terrible sister? When are we leaving?
I’ve never heard her more vicious or more like me.
“We?” I repeat, rounding on her. “No. You’ve proven you’re not ready for the responsibility of the mainland.”
The waterworks begin. But I’ve had enough. Liney has nothing to truly cry about. The safest place for them both, if they like scheming so much, is on the island while I’m away.
“You’re not the only one hurt here!” It bursts out of me, loud and sharp. Her lip quivers, but the rest of her stills. “Do you know how humiliating it is to know you’ve been sneaking off to kiss some stranger?”
Bridget, sitting on the couch, side-eyes me.
“If she were a man—”
I roll my eyes. “Caroline. You know that isn’t my problem.”
Her expression turns sheepish. “I haven’t been hiding this. It was our first. I swear.”
I raise my arms, an invitation. “Here’s your chance, then. No overreaction, no anger, nothing. You and me. Is there anything else that you’re hiding from me?”
Liney gulps. What I’d pay to hear her thoughts now as she considers what’s safe between us. Seconds tick by, rough as sandpaper.
“That’s all,” she whispers. As though speaking softer will make it true.
“Do you swear it?” I prod, voice sharp as our mother’s once was. “No other plans? Like, say, with the boat?”
She nods. “No plans. I want to visit Ireland someday. That’s what we were talking about when you found us.”
“Swear it, Liney. Swear on…” I look around. No Bible in sight. “On our last orange.”
I take the fruit from its bowl on the counter and hold it out to her. She puts a hand hesitantly on the peel. Her fingers cross over mine. They’re cool while mine still smolder.
“I swear.” In the dim firelight, Liney’s dark eyes flicker the flame back at me.
I move to retract the orange, but Liney brings her other hand to capture mine.
“Your turn.” Her face is set in alien resolve.
“I’ll do you one better.” My love outweighs my honesty. While my core is solid, all my edges are rough and torn, ready for her to rip apart if she dares to try. “When I get back, and if you’ve both been good, I’ll answer anything you wish. No secrets barred. But I’ll know if you cross me again.”
I don’t know how I’ll handle Liney after I kill Bridget. What could keep her loyalty without breaking my deal? But I can manage her from afar with this temptation. Above all else, she’s curious.
Above all else, I’ll do what’s necessary.