Chapter 20
Twenty
Elodie
Amessage from Salvatore pops up on my phone just as the ride Byron arranged for us turns onto a gravel road.
Where’d you sneak off to, a chroí?
A smile tugs at my lips, buoyed farther by the familiar patter of tiny stones hitting the car’s undercarriage. Byron glances over from the other side of the back seat, his brow knitting.
“It’s fine,” I tell him. “Just Salvatore worrying about me.”
I tap a quick message back. Going on a little outing with someone who’s also Worth my time.
I believe in being discreet too. Salvatore must get the idea, because he replies with bravado rather than confusion.
If he doesn’t show you a good enough time, you know where to find me after.
As I drop the phone into my satchel, the car grinds to a halt on the shoulder. The driver glances back at us with a vaguely puzzled expression. “This is where you wanted to be?”
Byron nods. “This is perfect.”
He’s out and around the back of the car to open my door before I’ve gotten my seatbelt off. I take his gloved hand. “Very chivalrous.”
Byron’s eyes gleam. “We Worths know how to treat a lady.”
His easy confidence fades with the dwindling roar of the car’s engine as it drives away. We gaze at the forest looming along the side of the road, and he shifts his weight from one foot to the other uncertainly.
I don’t think it’s the exact same spot where my original Byron would have parked—but who can say how similar this plot of land is to the one in my old reality, after all the ripples of changes that could have been caused by the fall of a branch or the flight of a sparrow?
Or the flap of a butterfly’s wings, as Aunt Daphne would say.
The other Byron didn’t bring me to visit the Worth family acreage often enough for me to be sure.
Technically he was trespassing after his parents disowned him, but he said they came out here seldom enough that he wasn’t worried about getting in trouble for stopping by occasionally.
I haven’t seen any version of it since last fall.
The woods before me glow with the sunlight streaking between the leaves. Those leaves rustle in the warm May breeze that teases out to wash over my body. It carries a subtle mixture of scents: rich earth and birch bark and cypress needles.
Byron is watching me, wary of my reaction. I don’t know what Other Elodie would have made of this wilderness, but we’ve come far enough that I don’t see the need to be anyone but me just this once.
Tipping back my head, I drag the fresh air deep into my lungs and grin. “This is exactly what I needed.”
When I look at Byron again, he’s grinning back, the tension gone from his stance. “Me too. Here, I’ll show you the best spot.”
I let him lead me between the trees along lightly trampled paths. Tufts of long grass and fronds of ferns tickle across my bare calves; twigs crunch under my Mary Janes.
I’m glad I haven’t tried to take up my doppelganger’s interest in high heels.
After a few minutes, Byron reaches over and takes my hand, as if he’s done it a million times before. As I twine my silk-clad fingers with his, the flutter of affection in my chest comes with a pang of guilt.
The voice I’ve conjured from my memories of the other Byron lifts in the back of my head. “He wants this too. He wants to be able to share everything with you… and I want to see that too. As long as you’re with some version of me, I’ll know you’re taken care of, Precious.”
I set my jaw and give Byron’s hand an extra squeeze.
The trees thin up ahead, as I’ve been anticipating. Byron draws us to a halt at the edge of a hill overlooking a sprawling field.
Vibrant flowers bloom all across the mottled terrain, sprouting up amid the grass and peeking from leafy shrubs. Their sweet scents mingle with the forest smells in a heady perfume. A nearby sapling waves its slim branches as if in greeting.
I can tell Byron has already been out here this spring. I’d recognize the verdant touch of his magic anywhere.
I squeeze his hand again. “It’s beautiful. How did you find it?”
It feels sketchy pretending I don’t already know, but this Byron’s story might be a little different. I want to know everything I can about this version of him—to really know him.
He shrugs, keeping his hand in mine, still with the assured air that’s only expanded with my approval. “My family owns this property. It’s meant to be an investment. My dad brought me out here years ago to show it off, so I’d know about all our holdings, but…”
He looks at me instead of the field, with a softer smile. “I liked it for more than just what it might be worth. Sometimes I want to escape the city for a little while, like you said. It’s a place where I can really breathe—and tap into my magic without having to keep in mind who might be judging.”
“Whatever your magic touched here, I’m sure it made this place even more amazing.” And it’s the best setting I could imagine for my true purpose.
Does Byron have any suspicion why I really suggested this outing?
I turn toward him, grasping his other hand and gazing into his eyes. “Would you like to have all your magic?”
Byron blinks at me, the stutter of his expression suggesting he hadn’t anticipated my offer. “You mean—my glim—do you think that’s a good idea? We’ve been trying to keep our bond secret.”
One corner of my mouth quirks upward. “I know you of all people wouldn’t throw around your powers unnecessarily. And out here, there’s no one to see.”
The shock hasn’t left his face. “Professor Raith wanted us to follow all the proper procedures. If something goes wrong—there’s no one around to help you.”
Of course it’s my safety he’s worried about rather than his own. A deeper twinge of affection wraps around my heart.
I grip his hands firmly. “I think it’ll be okay. I feel like this is the right spot to do it, like nothing all that bad could happen while we’ve got this forest around us.” I raise one eyebrow. “Don’t you want to steal some bragging rights from Salvatore?”
Byron makes a faint grimace at me. “I don’t see it that way. I don’t mind waiting if that’s what’s better for you—for all of us.”
Honorable to the end. But he doesn’t have to be, not this time.
“I don’t think it is better, not anymore.
I think it’ll be best if you have all the talent you can wield against whatever’s ahead of us.
And…” I adjust my grasp as I push past the lump in my throat.
“You’re about to make a big decision that’ll affect how your family sees you for the rest of your life.
I don’t want there to be anything hanging over your head that could skew your answer. ”
“Elodie.” Byron’s head dips toward me, his gaze as intent as that moment in the library. “I already told you my choice. Having my glim or not won’t change it.”
Every particle in my body peals with the urge to hug him. I hold myself back through sheer force of will. “This way we’ll both know that absolutely for sure. And you should have it. It’s part of who you are.”
He wets his lips, drawing my attention to his mouth. A tingle races through me to my core.
Then he squares his shoulders. “All right. How should we do this?”
“Let’s…” I draw him back farther into the shelter of the trees. “I think it’s best to have some cover around us.”
Letting go of his hands, I grasp the fingers of my glove. “Hand to hand?”
A slow smile returns to Byron’s face. “Mark to mark. Maybe you’ll get a better sense of your glim too.”
He tugs off his righthand glove as I do. Tucking the glove into his pocket, he extends his hand to me as if we’re about to shake on it.
I inhale slowly, steadying my nerves—and my glim.
It won’t blare into being like it did when I touched Salvatore that first time, but the final confirmation of my bond with Byron will give it a little boost.
Braced and heart thudding, I reach out, clasp his hand, and press our marked palms together.
Even though I’m fully anticipating it, the rush of ephemera sparking between us wobbles my balance and takes my breath away.
I’m abruptly aware of a slight abrasion on my calf stinging and wisping away in a flicker of warmth and grit my teeth against any smaller bodily imperfections my glim might transfer to Byron to heal me.
A thunderclap booms overhead, and a hissing bolt of electricity slams into one of the treetops.
We spring apart, Byron with a startled sound, me with a breathless laugh. I knew to expect this too, but the moment is still thrilling.
Splintered light crackles between the branches, blackening most of the leaves and a great deal of bark too. Another burst of lightning warbles into a neighboring tree.
“Snuff it,” Byron mumbles, staring. “That’s me. That’s—”
The control he’s spent his whole life cultivating kicks in.
The muscles all through his muscular frame flex. His spine pulls straighter. His expression sets with intensity.
One more flare of lightning smacks into a tree behind us, but with much less force than the first two. Byron exhales in a careful stream, and the last sizzles fade away.
He looks down at his hands, yanks off his other glove, and holds his palms several inches apart. With a slight tensing of his jaw, tiny streams of light streak between his fingers.
An awed laugh tumbles out of him. “I can feel it, all through my body. Electricity. I can pull it out of… everything. So much of it. Radiants, the things I could do…”
I beam at him. “That’s a bloom talent right there.” Raw rather than refined, but our community’s preference between those two factors is a lot milder than between bloom and blight.
Let’s hope he never has to find out he’s matched to one of the most vicious raw blight talents that ever existed.
As if catching that thought, Byron turns back to me. His face remains lit up, but his attention settles on me like a straitjacket. “Did you get a sense of your glim?”
I soften my smile before it can stiffen and make a noncommittal gesture. “Apparently it’s shy. Or maybe it’s a very subtle one.”
To my relief, he accepts my answer, maybe because he’s so overjoyed to have his own innate power awakened.