“Yes,” I say before she can finish the question, as emphatically as I can. “Announcing our union will put so many more eyes on me and invite so many more questions when I need everyone off my back while I figure out who’s after me.”
Everyone including the woman in front of me.
I brace myself for more argument, but something shifts in my aunt’s expression. “All right. If you all think it’s safest to keep quiet for now, I won’t say anything. Not unless it seems necessary.”
I’m not sure which part convinced her, but I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
“Thank you.” I start to suppress a yawn and then let it out.
“Oh.” Daphne squeezes my shoulder. “You’d better get yourself to bed, Butterfly. It sounds as if you’ve been through a lot tonight, and radiants only know what tomorrow will bring.”
I restrain a flinch at the nickname that reminds me of how much turmoil I’ve already caused and droop my head in acknowledgment. Daphne hesitates for a moment as if she thinks I might reveal some other major news and then glides out the doorway.
After the door clicks shut behind her, I peel off my stiff clothes and fumble for a set of pajamas. On my way out of the walk-in closet, a clumsy step jars my hip against the corner of the island.
Pain shoots through my leg—and vanishes with a brief wash of giddy warmth.
My throat closes up.
Whatever bruise was about to form, my glim sent off to the nearest human body. Probably Daphne just winced and wondered why she had a sudden pain inherhip.
Clenching my hands, I move the rest of the way to the bed much more cautiously.
I can’t let my power deal out any more harm. Especially not to the matches I never meant to spark with in the first place.
Five
Elodie
Uncle Nik paces the small, nearly empty office. “Don’t you see? You have a gift. A gift that can remove the worst threats to this world—eliminate the people who’re setting us on a horrible course.”
My hands ball where they’re resting on my lap. I adjust my weight on the hard chair, but I can’t shake off my queasiness. “But… you’re talking aboutkillingthem. On purpose. Can’t someone just arrest them or?—”
Nik spins toward me, his dark eyes searing with intensity. “No. They cover their tracks too well. They’d lash out at those of us standing for what’s right and do so much more damage.”
My fingers squeeze tighter, the nails biting into my palms. An image of Asher’s limp, bloody body flashes through my head. “I’m just a student, not an assassin or anything like that.”
And I don’t want to be, though it feels very hard to saythat while the man who saved me from disgrace is looking at me with such determination.
“Maybe not,” he says, “but you can do something no one else I know can do. You can end a person’s life without leaving a shred of evidence behind. Most of the time, it won’t even look like an attack but a sudden heart failure or similar. You’ll be perfectly safe, and you’ll make this world so much safer for everyone else in it…”
The ping of my phone jolts me out of the dream.
I stare at the gauzy canopy stretching between the bed posts, my pulse thundering in my ears. The enchanted duvet absorbs the sheen of sweat that broke out on my arms and wraps me in comforting coziness, but I can’t fully relax.
Nothing in this room is really mine. All this luxury belonged to a girl who’s dead, a girl who never destroyed anyone else’s life to protect her own.
It makes sense that I’d start dreaming about Uncle Nik again now that I’ve activated my glim, doesn’t it? My power and him were inexorably tangled together.
But as far as I know, he doesn’t exist in this reality. Or at least, he has no idea that I do. I don’t have to worry about him.
After a few steadying breaths, I roll onto my side and peer blearily at my phone where I left it on the bedside table. As the adrenaline fades, a fog of fatigue rolls through my head again.
I feel like I could use about ten more hours of sleep, but the sun is beaming gently beyond my window. A tap of the phone’s screen reveals that my alarm would have gone off in a few minutes anyway.
Restraining a groan, I sit up and scroll through the recent texts.
The group thread with Other Elodie’s four best buds is blowing up, several more messages chiming while I read over the ones I missed last night. The Somerset twins—Mia andMadison—are gushing about a new coat designer they just discovered. Cadance Hathaway makes dismissive remarks about how we won’t be able to wear most of the designs until next fall anyway. Stella Kingsley pops in a few times with her usual classy reserve, complimenting the find but not too avidly.