Chapter 31 #2
That question stalls my mind in its tracks. I haven’t thought beyond stopping whoever’s out to murder me.
Even in my old reality, I was really just surviving, making the most of my union with my matches and getting through school, trying not to worry about when Uncle Nik’s next call would come.
As I struggle with my answer, the thread of magic I’ve been monitoring twitches farther away. My head snaps up.
“We need to get off. He’s driving in a different direction now.”
At the next bus stop, I usher us toward my sense of Jovak’s car. We’ve left behind the grand homes of Other Elodie’s lucent neighborhood, now well into a lower-middle-class residential strip that’ll contain a mix of drab and poorer lucent families.
Not so different from the street Asher lives on.
He gazes around us as if making the same observation. “Is this the kind of thing you and the other me got up to in your old reality? Tracking down clues and solving mysteries?”
His tone is still light, deflecting from the weightier question I never answered, but there’s a thread of genuine curiosity in it.
The homesick ache spreads to my gut. The warm May day, birds chirping in the trees and breeze rustling through the scruffy gardens, feels like the perfect setting for one of our former hang-outs.
“We didn’t have any mysteries to solve, but we roamed around the city a fair bit,” I say.
“Hanging out in the parks, grabbing snacks if we had a little extra money. I’d watch you train.
We’d work on our academy assignments in the library.
And we’d just… talk, shoot the breeze, whatever we were thinking about. ”
Except that one topic always hanging over us about whether our friendship might become something more. Whether we’d want it to, whether it could without messing with our future matches.
Asher’s expression turns distant as if he’s imagining those times too. “That sounds nice.”
“It was.” A lump creeps up my throat. I fix him with a firm gaze. “We can do all that here too, now. Well, not right at this moment, obviously, but we’ll have lots of time to make our own memories.”
He focuses on me again, with the brightest smile I’ve seen yet. “I’m looking forward to it.”
A giddy tingle races through me—and stirs my frustration that we have to deal with so much before we can actually settle into our union.
My thoughts tick back to the other comments he’s made. “You have those old friends from Beacon Prep—have you noticed or heard about anything strange going on over there?”
Asher knits his brow. “Not that I can remember. Why?”
“The other Elodie was making notes about something she noticed. I talked to a girl who said her brother got taken away for early special training. But I have no idea if that has anything to do with this mystery woman and the murder attempts and the rest.” I blow out my breath.
“There are too many little pieces. The other day someone left peanut butter cups in my locker. I don’t know if that was Kenneth making a first try at poisoning me or what. ”
A hint of pink blooms on Asher’s cheeks. “Oh. Er. The peanut butter cups was me.”
I blink at him. “What?”
He splays his hands, looking abashed. “It’s this thing I do now and then—I give myself missions to make someone’s day a little brighter.
I noticed you seemed like you were dealing with a lot, and I’d seen you…
I guess it must have been the other Elodie at the time…
eating them before, so I figured you might appreciate the treat.
But obviously it wouldn’t go over well when you were worried about potential murderers. ”
That’s such an Asher thing to do that my heart skips with a rush of elation.
“I would have appreciated it if I’d known.
You couldn’t have realized the implications.
” I reach out to grasp his arm. “Thank you. They are actually one of my favorite snacks. Not that I do much snacking now that my glim’s woken up. ”
Before he can answer, the thread of ephemera I’ve been tracing stills, no longer unspooling. My pulse stutters for a totally different reason.
Letting go of Asher, I pick up my pace. “I think Jovak’s car stopped.”
Let’s hope we can get to him before his “appointment” is over.
As we hurry past a few more modest semi-detached houses and then a scattering of small shops, recognition starts to tickle at my brain.
I don’t completely understand it until we emerge onto a commercial street at the edge of the neighborhood and I see a connected stretch of businesses in front of a long parking lot one block over.
My eyes widen. “The other Elodie was looking into something at that strip mall. I never figured out what for sure.”
As we approach, Asher squints at the parking lot. “I don’t see his car.”
You’d assume it’d be easy to spot with that unusual color. I frown, peering along the rows in case it’s hiding next to a larger SUV or van.
“It’s definitely there. I can feel the magic I tied to it.”
Asher’s eyebrows rise. “Maybe he’s concealed it to make sure no one realizes he’s here.”