Chapter 10
Ten
Elodie
No trace of blood or gore remains on the pavement. I can’t help scanning the entire corner of the sidewalk where Aunt Daphne told me she found her actual niece’s broken body, my gut twisted in anticipatory revulsion, but it’s all the same dull gray now.
Nothing about the scene around me strikes any terror either. It’s not the kind of neighborhood I’d have expected Other Elodie to be wandering around in alone, but I’d have walked this strip in my own reality without thinking twice about it.
Low-rise office buildings with dingy street-level shops line one side of the street.
Across the road from me loom a couple of warehouse-sized brick buildings, construction sounds carrying from within.
The chemical tang of car exhaust mingles with the stink of frying grease from the fast-food joint on the corner.
A few pedestrians are popping in and out of the shops. It’s hard to imagine someone getting away with a hit and run right now, but who would be hanging around here at night? From glancing at the store signs, it looks like they all close at five or six in the afternoon.
It’ll be a pretty lonely stretch after the sun goes down.
As I picture the street in front of me darkening and emptying of people, a shiver ripples over my skin. It’d be about as desolate as the vacant parking lot I meant to cross that evening three years ago… where I watched Asher bleed out on the asphalt.
Where Uncle Nik found me before the rest of my matches did.
“Let go of him. Come away and get a hold of yourself.”
“But I— But he— Look at him!”
A scream building in my lungs. A sob clogging my throat.
The unfamiliar voice is firm and brusque. “There’s nothing you can do for him now. You have to focus on yourself. Do you want your life to end here too?”
Near-black eyes bore into mine while the chill of the drizzle flecks my face and seeps through my torn clothes. The lone security lamp beyond the man haloes his blunt features.
“It wasn’t your fault,” he says, his tone still urgent but softening slightly. “Someone was going to die here tonight no matter what. Look at your palm. You have three other matches who still need you. Do you want to make this right? I can help you. But you have to do exactly what I say.”
His words form a tiny strand of hope that threads through the horror and hopelessness that’s drowning me. My heart lurches.
I snatch at the thread like a lifeline. “Okay. Yes. Please.”
A bus rattles by, jarring me out of the memory. I swallow hard.
I had no idea how many new horrors Uncle Nik would lead me into. They’re all waiting for me back in my own reality along with my matches.
How can I regret the choice I made, though? I wouldn’t have kept any of my matches if not for him guiding the story of that night, spinning me into a traumatized victim instead of the girl who murdered her mate.
I owe every happiness in my life to him.
No more breaking down. No more letting the way the men here treat me hurt so much. Remembering how I nearly burst into tears at school, how Byron nearly caught me at it, brings a scalding flush to my cheeks.
I’m stronger than that, aren’t I? I have to get this awful job done, and then I’ll be back with my real matches. Their love will melt away all the harsh words their alternate selves have thrown at me.
Even if they’re only offering that love because they don’t know what I really am.
I hurry back to where the storefronts get brighter and glossier and call Maurice to take me home.
When the chauffeur parks in the curved drive outside the house, Aunt Daphne is poking around the rose bushes, her tawny hair billowing even more than usual with the warm spring breeze.
She clicks her tongue to herself, her hands flitting from one blossom to another before seeming to find one satisfactory.
She snips it partway down the stem and turns to share her smile with me.
No one else may have realized that I’m not the right Elodie for this world, but my aunt’s the one who brought me here. The second our gazes meet, the corners of her mouth tighten. A shadow of sadness passes through her bright eyes.
She’s acting a part as much as I am. Has she figured out what to tell the rest of the family about Other Elodie’s death yet?
Maybe she’s waiting for me to provide better intel.
I’ve barely talked to Daphne since this past weekend when she helped fill in my knowledge of Other Elodie’s life and fixed my hair. Her frenetic presence and the fact that she so casually yanked me out of my world rattles my nerves.
She is the only person here I can talk to openly though, without putting on an act of my own. At least, not as much of one.
If she knew exactly what kind of person she invited into her home, she might have preferred I got hit by a car too.
“Hey,” I say, trying on a smile of my own. “Can I talk with you about something?”
Daphne’s expression relaxes again. She motions me to the house with a swing of her skinny arm. “Of course. Let’s go inside.”
In the living room, she sets the rose in a crystal vase she’d already set out and tugs off her gardening gloves. I catch a glimpse of her bond mark, stark pink on her pale palm, with three spires jutting from the darker center.
She was the core of her union, her fated partners all gravitating toward her but not necessarily each other, although sometimes affections are more spread around. I haven’t seen any sign of her matches, but it’d be rude to ask where they are.
I’m not sure I want to hear the story that explains their absence anyway. There can’t be many happy reasons she’d be living without them.
It’s also generally considered impolite to ask about someone’s glim if they haven’t volunteered the information.
I’m guessing hers must have an aspect that helped her wrench me here from my own reality, because I can’t imagine how anyone could accomplish something that incredible with ephemera power alone.
As long as it can send me back again, I don’t need to know the details.
As I follow my aunt up the stairs to her third-floor domain, I tuck my own gloves into my pockets. I still haven’t gotten used to the constant sensation of fabric around my fingers after three years not needing them. It’s like my hands are being delicately suffocated.
Daphne leads me into her office, thankfully a separate if smaller space from her workroom. I assume she’s gotten rid of Other Elodie’s body by now, and I definitely don’t want to know the details about that. Just thinking about being in the same space where I saw my own corpse makes my skin crawl.
When she’s shut the door behind us, she turns to me with an eager gleam in her eyes. “You’ve found something out?”
Guilt prods my gut. “I haven’t made a lot of progress so far.
I have heard a few things—it sounds like your Elodie was off doing something pretty regularly in the past month or so that didn’t involve her usual friends.
” Or violin lessons. “I know you said you weren’t sure what she was up to the night she died, but do you have any idea where she was going or who she might have been hanging out with before then? ”
Daphne frowns. “I thought she was spending time with her friends like usual. Stella and Cadance and them. These days, she didn’t often give us a lot of detail about what they were doing. Her—your—dad and I figured she was old enough to deserve some space.”
Which worked out fine until her life was ended by a speeding car.
I resist the urge to clench my jaw in frustration. “She didn’t say or do anything that struck you as at all out of the ordinary?”
“She maybe seemed a little busier than usual, but it never occurred to me that anything might be wrong. I wish I’d talked to her more.
” Daphne rakes a hand through her errant waves.
“You have no idea how many times I’ve thought back over the past few weeks trying to identify a clue.
If I could point you in the right direction, I would. ”
She looks so anguished I don’t doubt that she means it. I hold in a sigh. “It seems reasonable to guess that whatever she was keeping a secret probably led to her murder. Did she ever get caught up in something she didn’t think you’d approve of before?”
I phrase the question as mildly as possible, but Daphne’s expression abruptly tightens.
So does her voice. “Whatever you’re implying, Ellie wouldn’t have— She wasn’t the kind of girl— She had her head on straight.
She’d never get involved with anything dangerous. Just being a Devine made her a target.”
Okay, I poked a sore spot there.
I hold up my hands. “Of course. I was only checking just in case. I’ll keep doing my own digging.”
The sudden furor leaves my aunt as quickly as it came over her. “You never knew her. It’s not your fault either.” She reaches out to give my arm a squeeze and jerks her hand back when I stiffen instinctively. “I know this can’t be easy for you. Thank you for helping us.”
No mention of when she might send me back where I belong even if I can’t unravel the mystery. No hint of regret that she’s the reason I’m in this difficult situation to begin with.
As I trudge down to my bedroom, my jaw clenches after all.
The fastest way out of this mess is if I can find the answers Daphne wants.
I know Other Elodie wasn’t taking violin lessons because of the state of her violin case. What evidence might she have left around about what she was doing instead?
Time to tear apart this room and see what turns up.
Over the weekend, I already opened every drawer, peered into every cabinet, and checked the typical hiding places like under the mattress. I go through the whole process again for the sake of thoroughness.