Chapter 17 #2
Cole hustles after me, but I pull my own cloak of concealing ephemera around me so I don’t have to worry about any distance between us. I stride into the hall beyond the doorway, pretend to scan it for clues, and head straight to the stairwell I already knew was there.
The place looks exactly the same as in my memories, all cream walls and moss-green linoleum. The clicking of keyboards and soft chatter carry from the rooms we pass.
The echoes of the past set my stomach churning, sending more bile up my throat. I swallow hard and inhale slowly, but my heart keeps thumping faster.
It’s fine. I’m not here to murder anyone today.
Just to watch.
It might not even be the same woman. It’s been almost three years since I saw her that one time in my reality. There must be thousands of middle-aged women with graying black hair in the city.
My silent reassurances don’t settle my nerves either.
I peek into the stairwell to confirm it’s empty before heading in and up. It too looks the same: a drearier off-white than the walls below, scuff marks down the middle of the steps, an artificial lemon scent lacing the still air.
This is different, I tell myself as I clamber up the stairs. Everything about this is different. There’s the thud of Cole’s feet on the steps behind me, the school uniform skirt grazing my thighs rather than the flexible yoga pants I changed into before.
And most importantly, no vial of poison forming a small weight in its pocket against my chest.
Still, with every step my ribs constrict around my lungs.
I reach the fourth-floor landing and spot the small, thick window that lets in a square of dull sunlight. My feet stall under me. My breath jars to a halt.
Uncle Nik’s voice buzzes through my earpiece. “The car is almost there, Elodie. You remember everything we’ve gone over.”
I stand by the window, the tip of my nose touching the cool glass, the scene below blurring before my eyes. My fingers tighten around the vial I’m clutching by my side. “Drink it as soon as the car stops. I know.”
Drink it and aim the fatal searing in my gut at a woman I’ve never seen in person, only the photographs Nik showed me. Drink it and die.
A pang of horror propels more words up my throat. “Uncle Nik—”
He speaks before I can go on, probably predicting my qualms. “You’re doing this for the whole world, Elodie.
Protecting everyone in it from this menace.
Protecting the matches you care so deeply about from having to know what you really did.
I know you’re strong enough. Here she comes! Don’t hesitate.”
The ivory sedan glides into view. Within one thump of my heart, it’s rolled to a stop at the edge of the plaza.
I toss back the contents of the vial. The liquid scorches my throat and claws its way into my stomach.
My organs seize.
My glim lashes out with brutal urgency.
I focus on the figure sitting in the driver’s seat of that car and drag all the energy my magic is desperately seeking from her.
The warm, heady rush sweeps over me, and holy Sekhmet, it isn’t like the tests we’ve done with animals and strangers and smaller injuries. It isn’t like anything except that night on the wet pavement while Asher convulsed next to me and screamed and—
“Elodie. Elodie!”
Cole’s raw voice breaks through the suffocating memory. I gasp as if I’ve literally been drowning, the past dragging at me like a stubborn kelpie.
Hands squeeze my shoulders. Cole’s face fills my view, his eyes wide with a panicked gleam. “Hey. Stay with me.”
I blink, a sob hitching from my throat. My body sways toward him instinctively, the way it would have if this was the Cole I knew, the one I could openly call Cole, not the professor who’s cut me down at every turn.
I catch myself before I’ve completely leaned against him, my stance stiffening. Then Cole is pulling me the rest of the way into his arms, wrapping them around me and tipping my head against his shoulder.
He’s so tall I’d have to bob up on my toes to brush the top of my head against his chin, but I’m still starkly aware of all the terrain suddenly pressed together through our clothes.
Of the thrum of my bond mark calling out to him, of the familiar sinewy strength of his frame and the sharp scent I know so well.
“Hey,” he says again, his tone outright gentle now if still rough. His gloved thumb strokes over my shoulder blade, careful but soothing. “What happened there? Are you all right?”
My stomach knots. I waver between soaking up every bit of this affection he’s suddenly offering and pulling away before he can regret the momentary tenderness.
Because it’s hard to believe he won’t regret it.
“I—I don’t know what set me off,” I say in a rasp. “Maybe thinking about why we’re here? I was just suddenly remembering the poison and almost dying and…”
I don’t know what else to say. At least that much is almost true.
Cole swallows audibly. “Has that been happening a lot? Flashbacks like that?”
Wrapped in his embrace, I don’t know how to answer any way except as honestly as I can. “Not really. Only in dreams.”
His arms tense around me, tugging me a little closer and stirring a more welcome memory.
I jolt awake on the bed, pulse racing, and find myself enclosed in a cocoon of warmth and a foresty tang. The weight of Cole’s embrace penetrates the lingering fragments of cold pavement and streaks of blood.
“You were dreaming about Asher again,” he murmurs, his head tucked close to mine.
My eyes well up. His brother’s death must be as much of a nightmare for him as it is for me. I hate reminding him of it.