Chapter 41
Forty-One
Elodie
Istep out of my chauffeured car Monday morning, and the first thing my eyes catch on across the Luminary green is a cascade of golden ringlets.
Cadance is standing with the Somerset twins, laughing with a coy tilt of her head. Just seeing her sends a jab of frustration through my gut.
No matter how high I am in lucent society with my father’s name behind me, it won’t stop the harpies like her from taking every chance they get to tear into me.
Other Elodie wouldn’t have accepted the betrayal lying down.
Ideas flit through my head of all the things my doppelganger might have known about her close friend, all the details I observed in my own reality that could take the wind out of Cadance’s sails…
My stomach starts to churn. I lift my hand to my upper chest, feeling the ornate patterns of Mom’s bridal necklace press against my skin beneath my shirt.
I put on her necklace—the one thing I have left of her—this morning to remind me of who I am. Where I came from. What she knew I could make of any life I found myself living.
I never wanted to be a monster… and Mom would never have seen me as one. My matches don’t either.
So I don’t have to be one.
My attention settles on Cadance again, with a steadier thump of resolve through my veins.
I don’t want to match my former friend’s catty energy. I want her to know the bridges she’s burned and make her look like a fool, but only through her own actions.
Bounce what she threw at me right back at her. I can handle that, can’t I?
I stride straight toward her at a confident, unhurried pace. Let her see me coming.
Her chin comes up, her mouth tightening but a triumphant glint coming into her eyes. She’s probably hoping she can spin this confrontation to embarrass me more.
“Elle,” she says in a falsely sweet voice. “I haven’t seen much of you lately. Too busy with your criminal fuckbuddy?”
I stop a few feet away from her and fold my arms over my chest. Mia and Madison have drawn back at Cadance’s sides as if they’re afraid they’ll be caught in crossfire.
I keep my voice tart and steady. “That’s the story you’re spreading all around school, even as far as the headmaster’s office, isn’t it? I’d love to know how you supposedly saw me doing whatever it is you’re claiming I did. I don’t remember getting it on with anyone right in front of you.”
Cadance scoffs. “You said you were grabbing something from your locker, but you snuck off to see him in the stairwell instead.”
I let my eyebrows rise. “And how do you know I didn’t go to my locker? Were you following me around for some reason?”
A trace of a blush crosses Cadance’s porcelain cheeks. “You were acting shifty. I wanted to know what was up.”
I nod slowly as if I’m finding her explanation hard to accept. “So you were stalking your friends around the school, and you happened to see me getting it on with someone right here at Luminary where anyone could have noticed?”
The blush darkens with a flash of anger in Cadance’s eyes. “I know what I saw. You were trying to deflect anyone who came by with concealing magic, but I sensed the ephemera and pierced through it.”
Just as I suspected. With her acidic tone ringing in my ears, I don’t feel the slightest guilt about making her look like an idiot, even though she’s right.
“Oh. So you didn’t see me at first, you sensed a bunch of magic.
And then you assumed that when you pushed aside some of that magic, the rest of what you saw was real.
” I summon all the derision I can into my tone.
“It didn’t occur to you that maybe what you saw next was magic too—an illusion someone conjured up to mess with my reputation? ”
Cadance sputters for a second before she manages to speak. “Why would anyone bother to do that?”
I stare her down through a few thuds of my heart, drawing out my answer. “I don’t know. Why would one of my best friends jump at the chance to use what she thought she saw against me? You’d probably understand their reasoning better than I do.”
“I saw you,” Cadance insists. “I did.” But the furor in her voice has faltered slightly.
And all around us across the green, our schoolmates have paused to listen in on the conversation. I’ve purposefully pitched my voice loud enough that many of them will have heard my alternate explanation.
Let this new gossip spread like hers did last week.
It seems worth ending the conversation with a dramatic flourish.
I push my lips into a sharp smile. “Say whatever you want. We’re not friends anymore. The last thing I need is some vamp hanging around trying to suck the life out of me.”
Without waiting for a response, I spin on my heel and walk away.
“Bitch,” Cadance shouts, but if that’s the best insult she can come up with, I think my ego will remain intact.
I keep my head high until I’ve walked through the doorway to Thesan Hall. Out of sight of all those eyes on the green, my breath sags out of me. I have to stop in the entry hall to gather myself.
It’s done. I’ve sown doubt and made Cadance look bad enough that the rumors about me and Salvatore should dwindle out quickly.
One set of firm footsteps veers toward me amid the current of students. Madison comes to a stop nearby, her petite frame tensed as if she’s preparing for a sparring match.
“She’s the one being a bitch,” she says without preamble. “I always thought the story sounded shaky anyway.”
I’m not sure Madison’s friendship is worth much more than Cadance’s… but if she’s taking my side, it must be at least a little.
I glance toward the main doors. “Mia didn’t agree?” Between the two of them, I always assumed the perkier, sweeter twin would be the one most likely to ditch the mean girl chatter.
Madison shrugs with the air of Border Terrier sturdiness I appreciate more now than I did when I first pictured all Other Elodie’s friends as canines.
“She doesn’t like picking sides. And she’s seen what it’s like when Cadance has it out for someone.
She’s probably hoping this will all blow over and we’ll be back to normal tomorrow. ”
I grimace. “That’s not going to happen. I meant what I said to Cadance.”
A different voice pipes up from right behind me. “Good.”
At the twitch of my head, Stella moves into view. She eyes me with the new wariness that’s become familiar, but her stance looks more relaxed than it has in weeks.
“You could have stooped to her level,” she says. “Radiants know there are enough things we’ve seen and heard about Cadance she wouldn’t like having spread around. But you didn’t go there.”
I offer a shrug of my own. “I figured I wouldn’t have much right to complain about her tactics if I was going to use the same ones.”
The first genuine-looking smile I’ve gotten from Stella since I insulted her crosses her face.
“That makes sense. I’m glad you see it that way.
” She hesitates. “And maybe, with the way we’ve all gotten caught up in that kind of talk before…
Maybe it wasn’t obvious to you that I see it like that too.
Not that I appreciate the assumptions you made—”
I hold up my hands in surrender. “I apologized, and I’ll apologize again. I was shooting my mouth off, and it wasn’t fair. It won’t happen again.”
“Fair,” she says, and I find myself wondering if we really could be friends, even if she knew all there is to know about me.
Before I can follow that train of thought, all of our phones chime simultaneously with incoming messages. We pull them out and read the text together.
Members of the supplementary combat program should report to the senior gymnasium immediately for a short briefing.
Madison exhales in a short huff. “I guess we’d better get moving. Classes’ll be starting soon.”
We hustle out one of the side doors and over to Anpao Hall, the other senior building. I catch a glimpse of Byron slipping inside ahead of us and sense Salvatore and Asher coming up behind.
The gymnasium is just down the hall from the front doors. We join the growing crowd of special trainees. Captain Ross and Professor Jovak are already standing in the middle of the room, waiting for us to finish assembling.
Ross waves to the stragglers. “Come in, come in. We’re going to make this quick. I wanted to go over a few things in person, because our next training session is going to be particularly intense.”
Apprehension prickles over my skin. I ease closer to the front of the group so I can hear every word.
The gymnasium door thumps shut behind the last arrival, and Captain Ross rubs his hands. “We’ll be getting together for another late session—but not here. Tomorrow night, I expect you to meet Professor Jovak and me at ten pm at the northeast corner of High Park.”
Murmurs pass between the students around me. My uneasiness deepens.
High Park is one of the biggest park areas in the city. It sprawls hundreds of acres, many of those wilder than the terrain along the river where Kenneth attacked me.
And it’s completely isolated from the rest of the city if you venture deep enough.
“This will be the culmination of your training so far,” Ross goes on. “Everyone should bring a flashlight that doesn’t rely on your phone, sturdy shoes, and honed reflexes.”
“But there won’t be any significant danger,” Jovak puts in. “We’ll have the area completely under control and nurses standing by for any minor injuries.”
Ross nods. “We’ll be sending the details to your parents today so they’re already informed, and so they can give their permission for those of you under eighteen. You’ll want to be well-rested and alert. Any questions?”
As a few of our schoolmates speak up with concerns and confusion, I exchange a glance with Stella. Her mouth slants in a partial grimace, but she doesn’t look worried, only displeased.
It’ll be an inconvenience to her, and maybe unpleasant. Are our instructors planning more than that for me?
They’re hardly going to admit to murderous intentions if I ask.
When Ross shoos us off to class, I leave the room with unnerving possibilities spinning through my head. If Professor Jovak was going to make a move to hurt me, this would be the perfect setting…
My foot skids on a puddle on the floor, and a figure I hadn’t noticed gives a yelp of warning.
A splatter of cleaning fluid sloshes across my Mary Janes from the bottle the woman is holding.
“Sorry, sorry,” she mutters in a hoarse voice. “Here.”
As she shoves a rag into my hand and bends her broad shoulders to dab at one of my shoes with a cloth of her own, I recognize her as the frizzy-haired maintenance worker who distracted Ross when he confronted me last week. I freeze for a second before sinking down to swipe at my other shoe.
The moment I’m crouched across from her, our heads well below the level of my passing classmates, she speaks under her breath. “Don’t go tomorrow night. It won’t be good for you.”
My hand stalls over my shoe. “What? What do you know?”
“Not much. Just heard the way they were talking. Please trust me.”
Then she’s pulling away, yanking her rolling cart along. When I start to push after her, she shakes her head vehemently without looking my way.
I pause, my pulse stuttering.
Is she afraid just giving me that brief warning will have endangered her too? It didn’t sound as if she had any details anyway.
She’s simply confirmed the threat I could already feel looming over me.