Chapter 30
Thirty
Elodie
“Sooo,” Madison says in a gossipy tone, smoothing her platinum bob as she waits for me to finish grabbing what I need from my locker, “you and Professor Raith really got into it this morning.”
Other conversations warble through the hall around us. None of our classmates seem to be listening in on ours, but my skin heats all the same.
I didn’t know it was possible to blush from between your legs, but I’d swear that’s where it starts. I think I manage to master the flush before it spreads all the way to my face.
Madison doesn’t mean the way Cole and I actually got into it. Everyone saw how angry he was in Divination. Word has spread across the 15th year—and probably beyond. When I turned up late for lunch, Stella asked me if I was okay, and my stumbled response only made her brow knit with concern.
Madison isn’t checking in on my well-being, though. She’s just hunting for any dirt she might have missed.
Behind her, Cadance rolls her eyes. I get the impression she’s more bothered that she isn’t getting similar attention than that I might be traumatized.
“You know how Raith is. His whole reputation is built on being the bestest ever. Radiants forbid anyone makes him look a little inept. What’s he going to do but sputter a bit? ”
Oh, he did a lot more than that. The tiny fragment of memory that slips past my defenses—the friction of his gloved finger circling my clit—sparks another flush. The sting in my palm digs so deep I bite my tongue.
I have to find something else to focus on. And I don’t think mean-girl snark and fashion talk is going to cut it.
“He’s off my back,” I say breezily, trying not to think of the literal meaning of those words, and shut the locker door. “But I’d rather not piss off any more professors for at least another week. I’ve got to find some references in the library.”
I’ve already gathered that Stella has a family get-together she can’t miss and my other friends are going out shopping. Mia makes a regretful expression, but no one volunteers to join my study session.
Cadance heads toward the doors with a flip of her ringlets. “See you tomorrow, then! Don’t drown in those books.”
Stella casts one more pensive glance my way, but she sets off after the others.
I do go to the library first, both in case one of my friends has a sudden change of heart and to give time for more of my schoolmates to depart the academy grounds.
Drifting over to the mythology section, I take a small comfort in noting the many volumes I immersed myself in as a kid seeking an escape…
and as a seventeen year old searching for answers to my unnerving power.
Not that I ever found any actual answers or anything other than the most temporary of sanctuaries. But hope is worth something.
It keeps you going when you might not otherwise.
I’m making my way back toward the library entrance when another figure from my Divination class steps into my path.
Kenneth Hearst’s meek demeanor sets my nerves at ease. His slim shoulders hunch slightly as his eyes tick before they meet mine.
“Elodie,” he says. “I, um, was hoping I could ask you about something?”
He’s delaying my mission, but his nervousness brings out a pang of sympathy. This guy really didn’t deserve the bloody fate he met in my reality, not any more than Asher did.
And just like Asher, he never got justice.
I hope he’s living a much happier life here.
I offer him a mild smile. “Sure. What’s up?”
He looks down at his loafered feet and then back at me.
“I heard you interned at the International Relations office last summer—since your dad works there? I’ve been thinking that’s a direction I might want to pursue after graduation…
I was hoping I could pick your brain sometime about what it was like, any tips you have.
I’m not sure if there’s any way I could help you out in exchange, but if you can think of something, I’m happy to. ”
The pang expands through my chest. Here he is, planning the future the other version of him never got.
While I’m just trying to wrap up the last loose ends of Other Elodie’s snuffed-out existence.
I did see a couple of mentions of the internship in my double’s things, but I know nothing about it. I couldn’t help him anyway.
He’s gazing at me so avidly now that the words stick in my throat with a lump of guilt before I push them out.
“I’ve kind of got a lot on my plate right now, but maybe later?
” Like, after I’ve tumbled back to my own universe.
“Or I could talk to my dad and see if he’d be up for a chat. He’d probably be happy to help.”
My spirits brighten with my suggestion—I can lend Kenneth a hand without sticking around. But my classmate’s expression deflates.
He wasn’t looking for more than just a professional connection, was he?
Before I can worry about that, he ducks his head even lower than before. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”
He hurries off before I can say another word. Did he think I was just brushing him off?
Oh, well. I can’t solve every problem in this world.
I’ll be lucky if I can solve even the one Daphne dragged me here to tackle.
I duck out a side entrance and skirt the back field where several of the juniors have set up a game of bloomblight. The ground shakes with a heave of ephemera, and shouts ring out as the ball flings through the air. No one glances my way.
A narrow path set with smooth stones leads past the grad building and down the slope to the road beyond. My senses leap to sharper alertness before I’ve even reached the sidewalk.
I wasn’t in any real danger last time, but that doesn’t mean I won’t face more hostility today.
Rather than wandering in circles, I decide to stand near the bus stop on the corner.
It gives me a view down the north and west sides of the Beacon Prep campus so I can watch plenty of the activity around the school.
I take out my phone and pull up a game Other Elodie has a pretty pathetic high score in to make it less obvious that I’m observing.
When students cluster around the bench to wait for the bus, I ease farther to the side so I’m still clearly visible to anyone leaving the school. I overhear snickers and hushed remarks about the “shiner,” but no one speaks to me.
Maybe today is going to be another dud.
I swallow the sense of despair rising from my chest. If I get nothing now, I’ll set myself up at the opposite corner tomorrow. There’s got to be something about this place.
Unless Other Elodie’s DVB has a totally different meaning and I’m wandering down the wrong track.
That thought has just passed through my head when a short, stocky girl with thick brown hair strides by. Her hand dips beneath the neckline of her sweatshirt in a furtive motion.
For just a second, a necklace tucked beneath flashes into view: a glint of gold and a cluster of emeralds like teardrops.
Recognition jolts through me, flavored with enough disbelief that my legs freeze for a few beats of my heart before I propel myself into motion.
The girl has dropped the necklace back beneath her shirt. I hustle after her, doing my best not to look like I’m hustling.
It’s only when we’ve gotten a few blocks from the school that I feel comfortable closing the distance between us. I aim for a friendly tone. “Hey! Can I talk to you for a second?”
The girl was already tensing at my approaching footsteps. My voice makes her flinch. She shoots a glance over her shoulder at me as if confirming I’m talking to her.
I paste on a smile. “Sorry to bother you.”
She slows to a halt but only turns halfway around. Looking at her close up, I think she’s only thirteen or fourteen, her face holding a lingering childish softness around the jaw.
She digs her hands into the pockets of her jeans. “What do you want?”
In my haste, I didn’t think through the fact that I need a good excuse to talk to her. At least, an excuse she’d think is good.
I grope for an answer. “I, uh, noticed your necklace. It’s really pretty. I was hoping to get a better look at it so I can figure out where to get one like it.”
I feel like that’s a decent effort, but the girl’s stance goes even more rigid. Her hand snaps to her upper chest, resting against the necklace through her sweatshirt. “I didn’t steal it. You can’t take it back.”
Interesting response. I summon as gentle a tone as possible. “I didn’t think you did, and I wasn’t going to try to. I promise I only want to see it.”
With a guilty twist of my gut, I pitch a tendril of soothing ephemera toward her as well. It’s a simple strategy Uncle Nik taught me to use if I got hassled on my missions. “Just a little grease to smooth your way through.”
The technique encourages people to see you as more trustworthy. Using it makes me feel the opposite of that, but the thought of letting this lead slip through my fingers horrifies me much more.
The effect works fastest on drabs, but an inexperienced lucent won’t have much defense against it either.
The girl blinks, and her stance loosens. “Oh... All right. I guess it’s okay.”
With an expression as if she’s not completely sure why she’s doing this, she fishes the necklace out. As the full band comes into view, my chest clenches.
It looks exactly like the necklace Aunt Daphne pointed out to me—the one she suggested I wear with my dress for the Blossom-Bounty social, that Other Elodie had on in the family photo.
What are the chances of a Beacon Prep student having a jewelry that expensive at all, let alone the exact same piece?
“Where did you get it?” I ask, fighting to keep my voice subdued.
“I... It’s a weird story.” The girl’s gaze darts away from me, scanning the street, before returning to my face. She shoves the necklace back into hiding, her eyes narrowing. “You probably wouldn’t believe me.”
Well, I do believe that she didn’t steal it. I can’t imagine a girl who hasn’t even graduated yet managed to get past whatever magical security is on the Devine home.
No, the obvious answer is that Other Elodie gave it to her. As payment for something? But the girl doesn’t seem to recognize me.
I venture a foray into uncertain territory. “I’m guessing... someone offered it to you. A friend of mine used to have a necklace like that. That’s why it caught my eye. But she was very generous with her things. Maybe she passed it on to you?”
Was my doppelganger disguised when she did, like I’ve been when going into The Eclipse? That could explain why no one’s recognized me in my natural state around Beacon Prep.
I should have thought of that before. Why would Other Elodie risk anyone recognizing her while she’s up to her questionable activities?
“What’s it to you?” the girl says, cutting through my revelation.
I don’t think it’d go over well to tell her my “friend” is dead.
I grope for a reasonable alternative. “She’s gone missing. I thought, if she was friends with you too, you might have some idea where she went.”
The girl stares at me, her lips parting. “She’s gone too?”
Wait, what?
My forehead furrows of its own accord. “Is someone you know missing?”
“It’s not really...” She pulls the cuffs of her sweatshirt down over her hands in an awkward motion, but something hungry has come into her expression that overrides her fear.
“My older brother. He got taken out of school for some extra training or something... I don’t see why he couldn’t do the extra training here, but that’s all the principal told us. ”
“Then you know where he is.”
She shakes her head. “That was weeks ago, and we haven’t heard from him since.
The teachers get mad when I ask.” She touches her chest again.
“A couple of days after he left, I found this in an envelope on our back step. There was a note that said to hock it so we’d have a little more money to get by on.
But I wasn’t sure if it had something to do with Evan, and.
.. I’ve never had anything anywhere near this nice.
.. I thought it couldn’t hurt to wear it for a little while. ”
It’s my turn to stare at her. As the pieces shift in my head, a thread of shame winds around my throat and squeezes tight.
Is that what Other Elodie was keeping track of at Beacon Prep? Not covert lovers or illicit deals, but odd disappearances of the students?
And then leaving valuables as compensation for their families?
How did she even find out the students were being taken away? Why would a girl like her even care?
Unless all along I haven’t been giving her enough credit.
What if this is the secret that was big enough to get her killed?
I recover my smile for the girl’s benefit. “Do you know anyone else from Beacon who’s gone off for ‘extra training’?”
“Maybe.” The girl assesses me. “Evan mentioned a girl who stopped coming to his classes last year. He wondered what happened to her. I don’t know if it was the same thing.”
With the students who’re living in the dorms without family nearby, the principal wouldn’t even need to give an explanation to anyone. They could simply vanish.
In my silence, the girl backs up a step. “I—I really should get home.”
I’ve overstayed my welcome. As much new information as I have to chew over, I can’t resist asking one more thing. “Would you tell me your name?”
I push another ribbon of cooperative energy toward her, ever so carefully. You have to use a light touch with influencing magic. If you push too hard, the brain goes instinctively on the defense. You can end up pissing the other person right off rather than calming them down.
Her jaw goes briefly slack. “Josie Moore.”
“Thank you.”
“Um, yeah. Just—don’t bug me again, okay?”
She frowns at me, her apprehension surging back at full force, and rushes on down the street.
I turn her revelations over in my head, stewing in a growing swell of nausea. I might have gotten Other Elodie completely wrong.
Which means I could have missed whatever it is I need to know to find her killer.