Chapter 9 #2
“There’s the girl I remember,” he murmured. “So easily rattled.”
Her hands squeezed into fists. “You don’t scare me.”
“Oh, my sweet Charlotte.” His cool fingertips lingered at the base of her chin.
“We both know that isn’t true. I’m a mare, remember?
I can taste your fear.” He leaned in, bringing the shadows of his face right up against her ear as he lowered his voice to an almost inaudible whisper.
“It’s like sweet licorice on my tongue.”
Charlie jerked backward, her stomach flip-flopping at his words even as she ordered herself to be repulsed by them.
Remember what he did, she thought. He betrayed you. He kidnapped your best friend. He tried to kill you and everyone you love. He’s not human; he’s a monster.
“Lucky for you,” Elias said, straightening up and taking a generous step away from her, “I’m not here to frighten you. Not this time around. This time, I’m here to protect you.”
“Right.” Keeping her face averted for fear that it was still flushed, Charlie spoke to the fall color on the ground. “Because my father asked you to.”
“He did,” said Elias simply. “And it doesn’t matter to me if you believe that he’s your father or not. All that matters is carrying out this assignment successfully and moving onto the next.”
Charlie looked up. “Were you not offended? When your precious Loki revealed he had two human children he never told you about?”
“I might’ve been.” He shrugged. “If I still felt petty human emotions like offense.”
“I knew it,” she said, vindicated. “You have no emotions at all, do you?”
“None.”
“So all the things you said to me the night of the football game? About me making you feel again?”
“A lie,” he said jovially.
These words stung more than she would ever let on.
“And now you’re here because Loki sent you. As one of your ‘missions.’”
“Correct.”
“And this all started because you wanted something from Loki. Something so important you were willing to give up your humanity to get it.”
Something flashed through Elias’s eyes, but he smothered it before she could determine what it was. “Don’t be so judgmental, Charlotte,” he said, grinning. “Living without morals is a blast. You should try it some time.”
“No, thanks.”
“Your loss. Now, to the real reason I’m here: Rattatosk.”
“More specifically,” said Charlie, “using Rattatosk to murder innocent teenagers.”
Elias placed a hand on his chest, gasping in feigned offense. “Come now. Do I really strike you as the type of person who kills innocent people for no reason?”
“Yes.”
He nodded. “Fair point. But no. Alas—this time, I cannot take credit for the havoc being wreaked on this town. In fact, I was sent here by Loki to find out who is wreaking it—and to stop them, if you can believe that.”
“I most certainly cannot.”
“Like I said before, I don’t care if you believe the things I’m saying.
I just care about doing my job. So.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest. “You can either accept my help in finding the person who’s controlling Rattatosk, or you can flail about on your own and, when your sister returns in a few days’ time, have absolutely nothing to show her. The choice is yours.”
Charlie studied his face for several long seconds. Then she continued her walk back to the car. “Even if I did want your help,” she said, ducking under a low tree branch, “I would never take it. I don’t like you. I don’t trust you. I don’t even know why I’m speaking to you right now.”
“You trusted me once,” he said, leaves crunching as he jogged along behind her.
“Right. And look where that got me.”
At last, they rounded the bent birch trees, and the Bronco came into sight.
Charlie picked up her pace, praying that Elias wouldn’t try to stop her from getting into the car.
Though, if he did, she still had that Valkyrie knife in her pocket.
If she was fast enough, she could always chop off a shadowy limb or two.
The thought cheered her more than it should have.
“Just consider my offer,” he said. “It’s so much more fun to work together than to work alone.”
“If the choice is between being alone and being with you,” she said, “I think I’ll take my chances.”
“Really? Even when I have a promising lead?”
Charlie froze. There it was. The piece of information he’d been dying to drop. The worm dangling from a hook that he knew she wouldn’t be able to resist.
She turned around slowly. When her eyes landed on Elias’s, she asked, “What lead?”
He smiled victoriously. “A clue. A piece of information that might point us in the right direction. You didn’t think Loki would send me up here empty-handed, did you?”
“I don’t know Loki well enough to guess at what he would or would not do.”
“Well, he wouldn’t. And you can either work with me, swapping info as we uncover what’s going on, or you can work against me. Though, with no clues of your own to speak of, I don’t like your odds.”
Charlie dug her fingernails into her palms. For the last three weeks, she’d kept herself afloat by holding on to four simple promises:
You will make yourself strong.
You will find Elias.
You will kill Elias.
You will never trust a boy with your heart again.
Her plan was falling apart. Now that Sophie had tasked her with finding the person controlling Rattatosk, her priorities would have to shuffle. She’d have to put aside destroying Elias in favor of saving this town.
It wasn’t just that, either. It was also this moment.
It was standing there, under the trees of the forest where they met, staring into the green eyes she’d come to know so well.
She’d seen them light up with laughter. She’d seen them sink into despair.
She’d seen them harden with rage and sharpen with lust and sparkle with amusement.
And while she knew that those emotions were fake, a set of clay statues modeled after true feelings …
it had all looked so real. His eyes had looked like the eyes of a human.
And Charlie knew, as she stared into those same eyes, that she could never be the reason they stopped seeing.
She couldn’t kill Elias. Not even after he tried to kill her first. Because while Elias might be a mare who didn’t feel the consequences of murder—the guilt, the shame, the self-loathing—Charlie wasn’t. She was only human. She would feel everything.
And it would destroy her.
The realization was like a pickaxe plunged into a hot-air balloon. Charlie felt herself deflate. The air of motivation rushed out of her all at once, leaving her as little more than a pathetic heap of nylon.
Those four promises had been the only things keeping her from falling victim to the panic that swelled whenever she considered how much danger she was in. Now, she would have to let them go …
Or would she?
The idea came to her in a strike of clarity. All the pieces of the puzzle connecting in her mind, showing her the right path forward.
What if death wouldn’t be the best revenge on Elias? What if there was something else she could do, something that would leave him far more miserable while keeping her hands blood-free? And what if working with him to find Rattatosk’s master was the best way to carry out that revenge?
Oh, this was going to be good.
“Fine,” she said at last.
Elias’s black eyebrows jumped up his forehead. “Fine?”
“Fine. We can work together—but only because I need the information you have.”
“Excellent.” He grinned. “Investigation starts tomorrow morning. I’ll pick you up at six.”
“For the record, you’re still an ass.”
“For the record, you look absolutely stunning when you insult me.”
Heat crept up her neck. She turned away, making a show out of studying the trees around them. She knew Elias didn’t mean any of the flirtatious things he said. He couldn’t. He had no emotions. It was just another one of his tricks, another way to get under her skin.
Unfortunately, it worked.
She kept her eyes on the trees, praying he wouldn’t notice the color on her face. “So,” she said, “how do I know this isn’t some elaborate ploy to get me alone so you can sic Rattatosk on me?”
“Everything I do is a ploy to get you alone, Charlotte,” he said. “But not to kill you. Not this time around, anyway.”
Her face started to flush again, but thankfully, when she darted a glance at him, Elias was looking elsewhere. Squinting his eyes at the trees behind them.
“Hey,” he said. “Isn’t that your brother?”
Charlie whipped her head around, panic kicking up in her chest. No. Mason couldn’t find her here. Not like this. Elias was standing far too close to her. Mason would make assumptions. He’d hate her even more. He’d never trust her again—
Except Mason wasn’t standing behind her. No one was.
She blinked at the empty space. Was Elias hallucinating?
“What are you—” she started, turning.
But he was already gone.
She groaned, rolling her eyes. Classic Elias. Disappearing before conversations were over was one of his favorite mare tricks.
But not for long.
She smiled to herself, thinking of the new plan she’d formulated while they’d talked. She didn’t yet know how to pull it off. She didn’t even know if it was possible. But it was her new guiding light, the promise to herself that would propel her forward even as she fulfilled her vow to Sophie.
She would take away Elias’s greatest advantage, and his greatest threat.
She would make him human again.