Chapter 4
Four
Elodie
I’ve always envied Salvatore’s casual bravado.
He strolls along the streets lined with stately manors and expansive gardens with his head high and one arm hooked around mine, as if there’s no reason at all the heir to two criminal syndicates shouldn’t belong here. No reason he shouldn’t belong with me.
For all his confidence, he’s far from stupid. Just before we reach the house that’s now mine, he stops us in a patch of shadow and looks me over. “Can you get back to your room okay? You wore out your regular magic. If you need any help…”
I arch an eyebrow with a wryness I don’t totally feel. “You’ll conjure me a staircase to my window?”
“I could if you wanted.” He grins, a flash of teeth against his tan skin that still makes my heart skip a beat after all these years. Even though he isn’t the man who used to offer me that grin.
Lakshmi help me, I’ve really thrown myself into a muddle, haven’t I?
I pat his arm. “Not necessary. I’ve gotten enough time to recover that I can manage a quick boost myself.”
My joints still twinge and my scalp still prickles with the rustle of my hair in the cool breeze, but nothing outright aches anymore. It’s easier to recover from magical fatigue than from the type that’s weighing on my eyelids.
And I can’t let myself get in the habit of leaning on these men as if I can be a full mate to them in return.
I smother a yawn and smile up at Salvatore through a pang in my heart. It’s not his fault he isn’t the match I first sparked with in my own reality. He’s been a hell of a lot more devoted than that Salvatore ever was before our bond blazed into being.
Just recognizing that fact sends a jab of guilt through my gut. But this Salvatore deserves to know it matters to me, even if I can’t tell him how much.
Maybe that’ll calm his protective furor enough to stop him from doing anything rash in my supposed defense.
“Thank you,” I say. “For making sure I got home safe. And for jumping in when Kenneth attacked me. I don’t know if I’d have been able to stop him on my own.”
Salvatore’s grin twists into a grimace. “You had to be the one stopping him anyway. That stupid trick with the exploding pebbles—”
I shake my head. “He was better equipped than anyone in his position should have been. You still gave me more of a chance to fight back.”
Salvatore doesn’t look completely convinced. His ego is probably still smarting that I had to save him in the end, as pleased as he is about other parts of that development.
“Are you feeling okay now?” I add, willing myself not to glance at the curve of his shoulder meeting his neck, where I know the nerves damaged from his parents’ regular “testing” act up the most. I’m not supposed to know that here. “The river didn’t bash you around too much?”
Salvatore chuckles. “You should know I’m tougher than a bunch of water.”
My lips twitch with an unbidden smile. The mafia heir takes that as his cue to dip his face toward mine.
If I push him away too hard, he’ll start questioning why. Tamping down on a starker surge of guilt, I bob up on my toes to meet him.
It feels so right to kiss my match, like a flame kindling deep inside me and spreading a glowing warmth all the way to the tips of my fingers and toes. I can’t help tugging him a little closer.
An approving growl reverberates from Salvatore’s chest as he deepens the kiss, cupping my face with both of his huge hands. He traces his fingers along one shoulder and down my side to my waist before pulling back with a regretful expression.
“We’re going to have so much fun together, mia amata. Better than I ever teased before. But I don’t want you half asleep when we do.” He glances at the houses around us. “Also, I’m thinking this isn’t the best spot for it.”
A slightly hysterical giggle slips out of me. “Not unless we want the police called for indecent exposure. I guess I should get to bed. I mean, on my own. For now.”
I add the last bit in the hopes of sounding like a regular new match, not because I have any specific plans for later, but the flicker of heat that lights in Salvatore’s eyes sets off an answering pulse between my thighs.
He slides his hand around to the small of my back and dips his head close to mine. “I know I’m not the match you’d have expected. I’m betting your family isn’t going to be overjoyed when they find out. But we have lots of time to figure that out before we make the announcement, right?”
No, he’s not stupid at all.
I swallow hard. “We do. And it’s not like your families are going to be ecstatic about me.”
Salvatore shrugs my comment off. “I don’t give a fuck what they think. Anyway, what’s there to complain about? You’re one of the great Devines—definitely the greatest.”
He winks at me and steals another quick kiss before letting me go. “All right. I’ll wait out here until I’m sure you’re inside, and I’ll see you again in the morning.”
“You can’t stalk me to school,” I remind him. “I’ll be taking a car.”
“Then I’ll just stalk you as soon as you turn up.”
Shaking my head at him, I peel myself away. My heart pangs as I leave him behind.
Navigating this bond is going to be even harder than I imagined. What have I gotten myself into?
Well, I’ve gotten myself into not sending us both on a trip to the afterlife. I have to admit this is the better alternative.
I slink through the darkest patches of the yard until I’m below my bedroom window, which I removed the screen from to leave. All I need to do is make it back to that black rectangle and slip inside. The security system is keyed to the house’s inhabitants—my return shouldn’t set it off.
Unfortunately, rising up is a little trickier than dropping down.
I drag in a breath and reach out to the ephemera quivering in the plants and buildings around me. Every living thing that’s passed through this yard has left traces of their life energy behind.
As I gather a thick mass beneath me, my feet lift off the ground. I train all my concentration on the ephemera I’ve collected and heft myself upward slowly but steadily.
A renewed throbbing wakes up in the back of my skull. My elbows pinch when I adjust my stance. But I fly straight up without more than a brief wobble.
When I reach the window, I clutch the frame and ease inside onto solid ground.
The house around me remains still and silent. I fit the screen back into the window and shut the pane against the night’s chill.
With several slow, meditative breaths, my heartbeat settles back to a typical pace.
Despite Cole’s snarky remark, the sun won’t rise any time soon. I can crawl into bed and lose myself in sleep for at least a few hours…
As I turn away from the window, a figure I hadn’t noticed in the darkness stands up from my desk chair.
My skin nearly jumps off my body. I slap my hand over my mouth to contain a yelp of alarm.
In the next instant, I recognize Aunt Daphne’s skinny frame and the unruly billow of her hair. She reaches to turn on the lamp on my bedside table. Its amber glow spills across the room.
“Where have you been?” she asks, hushed but forceful, her bright brown eyes focused on me with a piercing glint. “You left hours ago.”
I remain frozen near the window, my pulse pounding again. “How did you know— I didn’t want to bother you.”
The excuse sounds weak to my own ears. I may not be the niece Daphne adored and mourns, but she summoned me across realities to take Other Elodie’s place. I doubt she’s keen on the idea of losing me too. Of course she’d want to be “bothered” by my perilous plans.
Daphne walks closer, her hands flitting over her dressing gown like restless birds. I don’t think she knows how to stay completely still.
“When I was turning in for the night, I checked that I could sense your presence in your room—and I couldn’t.
I’ve been waiting here since then.” Her gaze sweeps over my stealthy black clothes, my damp and no doubt bedraggled ponytail.
“If this was something to do with finding the killer, you should have told me what you were planning.”
I fold my arms tightly over my chest and allow a more honest answer. “I didn’t think you’d let me go if you knew.”
“Well, it’s too late for that now, and at least you’re back in one piece. What happened?”
I open my mouth and close it again.
How much should I even tell her?
Daphne has proven to be extremely resistant to the idea that her precious “Ellie” was purposefully involved in anything questionable or dangerous. How can she protect me from threats she refuses to believe in? I can’t trust her to approach the evidence logically.
She’s brilliant in some ways and cuckoo in others… and I don’t want to gamble my and my matches’ security on a woman who thought replacing her dead niece with a doppelganger kidnapped from a parallel reality was a reasonable decision.
“I was just doing more investigating,” I hedge. “It’s easier when most people are asleep. Still just following various threads…”
One piece of evidence Daphne might be able to help with occurs to me. “Do you know anything about a company called Castor Arms?”
My aunt blinks, but before I have to explain further, she’s nodding. “Weapons and defensive manufacturer, mainly supplying lucent military forces. Started by the Tadros family back in the ‘50s. Why? Do you think they have something to do with Ellie’s death?”
Her question rings with disbelief, but I’m still processing how quickly she recognized the company name. What has Aunt Daphne been doing with her life other than experimenting with cross-dimensional travel and tending to her roses in the garden?
And the Tadros family… Other Elodie had some interest in Grady Tadros, who’s in his final year at Luminary Academy. I was half expecting him to be the one leaping at me from the shadows in the park tonight.
Maybe he’s tangled up in this conspiracy in some other way I haven’t figured out yet.
“I’m not sure,” I say cautiously. “It was just a name that came up somewhere. There are a lot of pieces to put together.”