Chapter 17
Seventeen
Elodie
At one o’clock on Wednesday, I hand the excusal Professor Raith wrote to one of Luminary’s admin assistants and stroll out. Seven blocks down the street and after a turn to the left, I spot an almost familiar car.
He bought the same model as my original Cole did, just in a different color: a gunmetal gray Corolla rather than black. Because the owner he bought it from used had different tastes in this reality, or because this Cole ended up buying from a different owner?
I come to a stop beside the car, grappling with the uneasy mix of jangling nerves and bittersweet nostalgia.
Through the driver’s side window, wrapped peppermints glint in one of the cupholders, where my original Cole also kept them.
A pale blotch shows on the dash where ten-year-old Asher stuck a sticker and Cole couldn’t completely scrape it off.
I remember the way his voice thickened when he told me that story, regretting every chiding word.
But this Cole won’t regret that moment, because his Asher is still alive. This Cole isn’t taking me for a drive as a doting partner but as my skeptical professor.
I’ve tapped into my ephemeral impressions of my original matches often enough in the past few days that the other Cole’s voice rises up in the back of my mind without my consciously summoning it.
“He wants to handle this union right, just like I always did. No matter what he says, I can’t imagine he wants to hurt you. Give him time, and he’ll adjust.”
I want to believe that’s true. To have faith in the man who balked but then stepped up more than anyone could have asked of him in the world I left behind.
It’s just difficult when that man lived a much different existence in the past three years than this one did. Unlike Salvatore and Byron, his life wasn’t just shifted by an unexpected bond but by the loss of the only person in the world he cared about.
How much did the grief change him in ways I’ll never see in this Cole?
The man in question approaches with muted footsteps, but I sense his arrival with a tingle from my marked palm to my heart a few seconds before his tall, lean form comes around the corner. He frowns at me as if he was hoping I wouldn’t have shown up after all.
In an attempt to keep the peace, I restrain the urge to roll my eyes at him. Even though that would be a very Other Elodie thing to do, I’m sure.
Would Other Elodie have found herself on a mission like this? She poked her nose into strange goings-on throughout the lucent community, but today I’m drawing on my inside knowledge rather than hers.
Which is what makes having an unknowing companion along for the ride that much more precarious.
The car doors unlock with a soft beep. Cole jerks his head toward the passenger side without a word, as if there’s any doubt about who’s driving.
As I sink into the seat, familiar smells wind around me. I can pick out the prickly evergreen tang that’s all Cole mingling with the warm amber note lingering from Asher’s regular presence.
It’s like I’m soaking in their essence. I haven’t breathed in Asher’s scent this deeply since the last time he hugged me—the other him, weeks before I killed him.
A burn forms in the back of my eyes. I blink quickly to dispel the threatening tears and inhale much more shallowly, taking in as little of the atmosphere as possible.
I didn’t have that Asher as my match for more than a few fleeting moments, but I can’t imagine he’d rather I was back in a reality where he was dead. Of course he’d want me to find whatever happiness I can with an alternate version of him, given the opportunity.
I just don’t know if I can do that without wrecking this Asher’s life all over again.
Cole doesn’t speak until a tickle of ephemera has brushed past me, I assume to hide my presence from anyone who looks through the window.
He starts the ignition. “Where exactly are we going?”
“Sunlite Plaza.”
The professor’s gaze ticks toward me. The buildings surrounding the downtown plaza contain a variety of institutions, from a library to a boutique movie theater.
Most relevant to our community and this excursion, three departments of the lucent government run out of the top floors of the central tower.
Cole pulls the car onto the road. “That’s not where your father works.” He sounds reasonably certain but requesting confirmation.
I shake my head. “This has nothing to do with him.”
Dad’s office is in one of the other two clusters of lucent authority around the center of the city.
He sometimes complains about the hassle of arranging face-to-face meetings with other departments when downtown traffic gets in the way, but they teach us at the academy that the long-ago lucent leaders split up our governing bodies out of caution.
With too many comings and goings in the same place, there’s more chance they’ll draw scrutiny from the drab people nearby.
We cruise around a corner and merge with the traffic on a busier street that’ll lead us most of the way to our destination. Cole keeps his gaze on the traffic now. “What does it have to do with, then?”
I’ve had plenty of time to craft my story, but my throat still clenches up before I push the words out.
“I remembered I heard Kenneth mention going over there. Saying he was missing class because he had an appointment at two—and it was a Wednesday. I thought it’d be good to see what’s going on around there on Wednesday afternoons. ”
It’s not the strongest explanation in the world, but it seemed like the best I could offer without revealing how I actually heard about the place.
Professor Raith makes an incredulous sound. “It could have been a one-off meeting, if it had anything to do with his intentions toward you at all.”
“I know,” I reply evenly. “But while we’re grasping at straws, we might as well grasp at all of them, don’t you think?”
“I could have looked into this on my own without you skipping class.”
I can’t hold back a retort. “Are you so concerned about my grades now? I thought you were looking for ways to fail me.”
Cole’s jaw works. “That’s dodging the point,” he says, his voice rougher, though I can’t tell whether it’s with annoyance or chagrin.
I shrug. “I’m sure I saw more of Kenneth in our classes and when our families got together than you did. I’ve known him a lot longer. I’m more likely to be able to tell if something’s relevant.”
My reluctant companion can’t argue with me there. I’m not sure he’d even recognize Kenneth’s dad if Mr. Hearst jumped in front of our car right now.
Granted, I wouldn’t know him from the King of El Dorado either, but Other Elodie would have.
“Fine,” Cole bites out. “But I’m staying with you the entire time.”
“Thank you so much for watching over me.”
He doesn’t quite restrain a grimace at my sarcasm. But at least he keeps quiet for the rest of the drive.
We park in a paid lot a few streets over from the plaza. I’m about to offer to cover the cost with Other Elodie’s credit card, but the set of Cole’s expression shatters the urge. I think he might kill me himself if I wounded his dignity that much.
Instead, I get back to planning. “We should stay concealed. But I don’t think we want to hang around right in the plaza even with magic disguising us. Whoever sent Kenneth after me obviously has some high-level skills. She might detect us and take off or even send security after us.”
I don’t know how big a risk that is, but considering how concerned Uncle Nik was about this woman, caution seems like the logical approach. I’d rather not be almost murdered again if at all possible.
Another tickle of ephemera passes over me. Professor Raith has cloaked us both even though I was perfectly willing to handle my own subterfuge.
Is that kindness or a reminder that he doesn’t trust my abilities?
“How were you planning to observe, then?” he asks.
This is where my scheme gets particularly dicey.
I peer around us as we walk toward the plaza. The triangular courtyard makes a pretty picture. Limestone planters bursting with spring flowers line the edges, and an abstract fountain burbles merrily in the middle.
The tower at the far end and the two buildings on either side gleam with mirrored windows and burnished steel. The one in the middle looms tallest, but its neighbors are no slouches, both at least twenty stories tall.
Across the street stands a more subdued brick office building and a concrete condo complex. I study them as if I’ve never seen them before, but the sour flavor of stomach acid creeps up the back of my throat.
“Security’s a little lax in the office building,” Nik told me.
“The cleaning staff leave the side door unlocked during the day so they can come and go easily on their breaks. They’re the only ones who use the lefthand stairwell, and they start cleaning at the top.
Get to the fourth-floor landing, and no one will disturb you. ”
Let’s hope the staff haven’t changed up their routines across the years and universes.
“Maybe if we were inside…” I say, as if I’m only just considering it. I meander down the lane between the offices and the condo building.
Cole stalks after me. “What are you doing, Miss Devine? I’d rather not be dragged into a crime.”
He sounds incredulous even as he says it. Who would imagine Elodie Devine breaking and entering?
I reach for the handle on the side door. It jars against my initial nudge, and a jolt of panic skitters through my pulse.
It’s locked.
Thankfully all my missions for Uncle Nik left me with quicker wits than I’d have had that first time if I’d faced this setback then. Before my problem becomes obvious, I direct a subtle spurt of ephemera into the locking mechanism and keep twisting.
The handle turns as if it was never locked. The door swings open with a gust of cloying cleaning fluid smell.
I glance over my shoulder at Professor Raith. “We’re not going to disturb anyone. Are you coming or not?”
“Miss Devine—”
Not would definitely make my life easier. Ignoring his protest, I slip inside.