Chapter 19
Nineteen
Elodie
Another photograph slaps onto a tabletop. Uncle Nik looms over me, hands planted on either side of the picture, his gaze intense. “All we can do is keep going. The world needs us—it needs you.”
Afterimages of all the targets I’ve aimed my glim at swim before my eyes. I squeeze my eyelids shut, but that only brings the memories into sharper clarity. “Why? All these people—to kill them, so many of them—”
“Because there’s no other way to stop them. Because of how many more people they’ll hurt if we don’t. Because you’re blessed with an incredible talent thanks to the radiants who consorted with your family line, and you have a responsibility to use it for good.”
Nik leans against the table next to my chair. He rarely touches me during our meetings, but now he sets his hand on top of mine.
“You know the kinds of power a lucent can wield better than almost anyone, Elodie,” he says.
“Imagine sick, greedy minds using their magic to serve their own interests, taking down everyone who stands in their way. Imagine dozens of evils like that, intent on twisting our world to their ends, forcing everyone to get in line or be mowed down…”
He pauses, and his voice turns even darker. “Unless we eliminate them, they’ll keep going. And if they ever find out that you stood against them, they’ll destroy everyone you’ve ever cared about.”
He smacks his palm against the table for emphasis, and—
My eyes pop open. I gasp a breath and roll onto my side, my heart pounding so fast my stomach shudders with it.
The trip to my first assassination spot must have broken something inside me. The dreams of those meetings and missions with Uncle Nik are coming every night now, sometimes twice.
I heave off the no-longer-comforting covers and hunker down on the floor to throw myself into my usual workout.
Keeping my body as fit as possible helps me avoid any sprain or sickness that my glim will inflict on someone else while it heals me.
The adrenaline will wash away the worst of the nightmare’s chill.
Except the routine isn’t as effective as it used to be either. Uncle Nik’s words keep floating up in the back of my head, haunting me like a restless spirit.
“If they ever find out that you stood against them…”
He counted the woman I saw on Wednesday as one of the evils who needed to be eliminated. The woman who sent Kenneth after me twice, likely three times if I assume he was responsible for Other Elodie’s death.
Does that mean she already sees me as standing against her, even though as far as I know I’ve never done anything to her?
What if it isn’t my glim that’ll ruin my matches’ lives? The enemies I’ve somehow made could destroy them just as easily.
I cross my legs and close my eyes for my meditation, but my consciousness refuses to detach from my body. The images of the black-and-silver-haired woman and of Kenneth slashing at me with his knife cycle through my head in an endless whirlwind.
How can they be connected to my attacks and the immediate aftermath in both of the realities I’ve lived in… if those attacks aren’t also connected?
When I was stabbed in the back and nearly murdered at seventeen in my old reality, it looked like Kenneth met the same fate. But he was a highborn Hearst in that world too.
Why was he wandering around Asher’s dreary neighborhood? It wasn’t anywhere near his home or any usual upper-class lucent territory.
Was he really another victim… or was he the one who stabbed me there too?
Even as my mind shies away from the idea, it makes a nauseating sort of sense.
If Mystery Woman ordered Kenneth to attack me in my former world, and Uncle Nik had me murder her to protect me…
couldn’t he have arranged to get rid of Kenneth as well?
He had plenty of magic of his own. He found me so quickly after the attack…
How long had he been following me? How much did he see—what did he do before he came to me and promised it could all be okay?
Too many questions I can’t ask him. Not that I’m sure I’d have had the courage to even if I found myself face to face with my uncle again.
Some of those questions he might not have the answers to either. The biggest one that looms over me while I drench myself in a searing shower: why would some uber-powerful lucent psychopath have come after me in any reality, let alone both?
It’s possible that Other Elodie’s poking around near The Eclipse and the dance club and Beacon Prep clashed with Mystery Woman’s “evil” activities somehow.
But what could I have possibly done in my old reality to piss her off?
Almost everything about my life there was different from here.
I kept my head down, tried to stay out of people’s way.
Maybe I’m putting together pieces that don’t actually fit. Trying to assign meaning to make myself feel better about how messed up my whole situation is. What kind of vast conspiracy is going to span multiple parallel universes?
I swipe my hands over my face, give my head a shake to clear it as well as I can, and get dressed for another day at school.
As I’m heading out to the car, my phone pings. The message that pops up is nothing but a heart emoji.
Before I left his family’s “safe house” condo the other day, Salvatore showed me how to disengage the magic in the lock in case I ever needed to escape there on my own—and set us up in one of the quick-deleting messaging apps for more discreet communication.
Apparently even with that, he’s being cautious about how much he says when he doesn’t know what company I’m in.
Or does he?
I scan the street before I drop into the back seat of the car. It’s impossible to tell whether he’s watching over me in his stalker-y way right now or just anticipating seeing me at school.
Either way, the knowledge that I’m on his mind steadies me a little. I shoot off an answering heart in return and lean against the buttery leather with a smile.
The smile lasts until I emerge under the beaming morning sun at the edge of the main Luminary green and immediately see Simone Palenti marching toward me.
I hesitate, one hand on my satchel, the other winding strands of ephemera around my body in case I need to conjure a hasty defense.
Simone hasn’t gotten in my face since she confronted me at my locker a couple of weeks ago, maybe because Salvatore’s toned down his public interest in me, but she was pretty obvious with her threats both then and in the texts she sent me earlier.
It seems wisest to pretend I still don’t know what she was going on about.
“Hi, Simone,” I say coolly. “What’s up?”
She struts around me with a flick of her long brown hair that sends a whiff of pomegranate perfume into my nose. “Just making sure you remember your place. Your kind shouldn’t mix with ours.”
Salvatore might not be openly cozying up to me anymore, but I can’t imagine he’s entertained the slightest advance from his second-or-something cousin either. And he’s obviously been more absent from family activities than usual considering how much time he’s spent on the whole match-stalking gig.
Is she fishing for any hint that his disappearances has to do with me?
I don’t give her one, but I also can’t quite hold my tongue. “Then maybe you shouldn’t be talking to me in the first place, huh?”
Simone’s eyes flash. She lifts a clenched hand, rings glinting by her knuckles, and a few other figures saunter over.
Madison might be half a foot shorter than the other girl, but her combat practice adds plenty of menace to her stance as she stares Simone down. “Lost your way, Palenti?”
Cadance lets out an airy giggle. “She must have amnesia if she thinks hassling Elodie is a good idea.”
Simone scowls at my friends but spins on her heel and stalks off without another word.
Cadance arches an eyebrow at me. “What was that about?”
I motion vaguely as if brushing the confrontation off and go with a mostly honest answer. “She seems to be offended that Salvatore was paying attention to me, because apparently being harassed by him is an honor.”
Mia snorts in amusement. Stella, who’s come over as well, simply watches Simone vanish into the school. Our friend group has fallen back into old patterns, but Stella is still rarely speaking to me directly.
Oh well. It’s not as if I was dying to paint our toenails together anyway.
As the five of us amble toward Thesan Hall, a tingling from my palm to my chest alerts me to the presence of another of my matches before I see him.
Byron strides by without so much as a glance my way. But when I fall back behind my friends going through the door, my palm pangs with a more emphatic pressure.
I glance down in time to see two conjured words glowing against my skin before they fade away. Library. Lunch.
Like I asked him to meet me before. I seek out his well-built form in the growing crowd of students, but the mass has swallowed him up.
What does Byron need to talk to me about so urgently? We’re expecting Professor Raith to call us together for another group meeting soon.
Cadance falls back and links her arm through mine, still overly chummy. “Come on, Elle. Let’s go put the rest of those dimwits in Influential Magic in their place.”
I laugh along and let her tug me in the right direction, but my mind keeps spinning around Byron’s message until the final chime before lunch. I toss out a brief excuse I forget as soon as I’ve said it and hurry across the green to the Apollo Building where the library is housed.
It feels right to head to the same nook with the lucent community records where Byron and I met in last time. When I reach it, it’s empty, but I did rush over as fast as humanly possible. I’ll forgive my match for not possessing Hermes-level speed.
Byron’s dark head pokes around the shelves a couple of minutes later. He steps fully into view and casts a glance over his shoulder before approaching me.
My pulse thrums with the nearness of him, but a twinge of concern passes through my chest at the same time. There’s a tension in his shoulders beyond what he’s usually carrying—what he’s usually concealing.
“Are you all right?” I ask in a cautious hush. Even if there’s no one nearby right now, I don’t want to risk drawing eavesdroppers.
Byron opens his mouth and hesitates, looking unusually awkward.
“I saw Grady again. He’s definitely got something going on—some kind of group that he thinks is going to take him places—but I still don’t know for sure if it’s connected to Kenneth…
And that isn’t the main reason I wanted to talk to you. ”
His deep brown eyes hold mine so intently that I find myself stepping closer, as if I can absorb the worry right out of him. “What’s wrong?”
“I— It’s just—” He shakes his head and gathers himself with more typical Byron-like assurance. His voice evens out, though a rough edge lingers. “My parents are talking about moving the family to the UK this summer. And staying there, for a while. They want me to come too.”
The thought of my match flying thousands of miles distant wrenches at me so hard and suddenly that tears spring to my eyes before I can will them back.
My breath hitches. I paw at the pricks of moisture with my gloved fingers.
Byron’s face goes taut with concern. “Elodie, no, I—I don’t want to go. I wouldn’t really want to even if we hadn’t— But with you here now, and everything… As long as you want me here, I’m staying.”
His hand rises to graze my arm. I stiffen against the contact even as my body tries to lean into it. Both of us are far too aware of the consequences if someone stumbles on us in an unguarded moment.
Should I accept his comfort at all? Should I accept his promise?
My answer swells in my throat, but a memory overwhelms it.
Byron stands in my apartment doorway, his fist raised where he was about to knock again. He looks at me so bleakly my heart stops, but then a trace of warmth blooms through his expression, softening the set of his mouth.
“Who is it, Elodie?” Mom calls from the kitchen.
“It’s—It’s Byron.” She’s met my matches—well, the two of them who are willing to acknowledge the bond—but I wasn’t expecting him to drop in on us. I peer at him, taking in the bulging backpack slung over his shoulders and the small duffel at his side. “What happened?”
His Adam’s apple bobs. “My parents said it was the family or you. I can’t have both. So I picked you. I don’t know— I don’t think I’m going to be welcome there for a long time. I’m going to get a hotel room until we can figure everything out, but I wanted to see you first.”
I can’t tell if my heart has started beating again. He wanted to see me, the girl he just gave up everything for.
Disbelief colors my voice. “They kicked you out?”
“According to them, if I’m joining this union, I’m not a Worth anymore.” A little more of a smile shows, but it’s pained. “It’s all right. It was my choice. I know I made the right one.”
“You didn’t have to—”
“I did,” he says, so firmly the words jumpstart my pulse, and then he’s dropping the duffel and pulling me to him, and I can’t help melting into his embrace. Into the knowledge that this is where I’ve always been meant to be…
I blink, and this world’s Byron is still gazing at me. Waiting for me to reply.
My lips part.
Is this really fair to him? Was it ever?
An impression of the other Byron’s voice winds through my head. “It isn’t about fairness. It’s about fate. And you’re mine.”
I swallow thickly.
I’ve never been the one who asked him to choose. I’m only being honest.
The words come out in barely a whisper, but they come. “I’ll always want you.”
There’s no mistaking the joy that brightens Byron’s expression—or the punch of guilt that rams through my gut.
What am I doing? Just hours ago, I was thinking that I might be dragging my matches into the path of a sadistic monster. He’d be safer on the other side of the ocean.
I don’t know if it’s the bond resonating between us or if I’m actually being logical, but a resolve surges up inside me with so much certainty I can’t deny it.
I need to give him a real choice. If we activate his glim, he won’t really need anything else from me. He can decide where he goes with all his magic rather than the uncertainty hanging over him.
And if Mystery Woman or any other menaces try to make him pay for whatever they think I’ve done, he’ll be more than ready to defend himself.
I even know the right place, if this Byron has that much in common with the one who was once mine.
I brush my fingertips over his wrist, returning the caress he offered earlier.
“I think it’d be good for us to have a real conversation once we’re done with classes for the day.
Just the two of us. I’d love to leave the whole city behind, to not have to worry at all about any other people nearby.
Do you know anywhere not too far where we could be alone? ”
Byron’s smile reaches his eyes. “Actually, I do.”