“They won’t. We’re still not even telling anyone that we’re matches yet. I don’t think the possibility of me being a doppelganger is going to come up in their regular conversations.”
It doesn’t seem like that big a concern to me, but I guess I do know my matches much better than Daphne does. She resumes her pacing, her arms coming up to wrap around her torso in a rigid embrace.
My brow knits. “I promise, they won’t mention it. If they did, it’d sound crazy—and they all know that. They’re working with me on this. They don’t want anything to happen to me either.”
I can’t tell if my aunt even hears me. She murmurs to herself so quietly I only make out fragments. “—come for me too—if anyone would know?—”
Abruptly, she draws to a halt in front of me. “All right. It’s better if we don’t change anything too obvious and alert whoever’s targeted you that you’re being more cautious than before. They took their time even when Kenneth was still in play. As long as they don’t feel threatened, I don’t think they’ll act again for at least a few more weeks. Maybe they’ll wait until the summer holidays when you’re roaming more widely…”
“So I should keep going as normal?”
“Actually normal. No investigating. No prying. Just be regular Elodie, and leave the case alone for now—tell your matches the same thing if they want to look out for you. I… I need to sort some things out and see what I can uncover.”
She heads for the office door.
I get up, my pulse stuttering. “You’re going somewhere right now?”
“For a few days, maybe a week. It’ll make everything safer for both of us. Lay low until I get back.”
She bustles right down the stairs and out the front door. I follow her as far as the driveway.
A pale green sedan pulls out of the garage, Daphne’s pale face behind the windshield. She propels it onto the street without so much as a wave goodbye.
I stare after her, my thoughts reeling. Only one clear impression stands out in my head.
In that last glimpse I got of her… I’d swear she looked terrified.
Twenty-Five
Elodie
I’m about to part ways with my friends for a morning class we don’t share when my phone chimes. I stop in the hallway to check it.
A text has come in from the official Luminary messaging account, informing me that Professor Raith expects to see me at his office at the beginning of lunch hour.
My pulse stutters. Cole and I didn’t exactly leave things on bad terms at the end of Saturday’s meeting, but I wouldn’t say we’d made peace either. What if he’s come up with some new horrible theory about me in the past two days of potential stewing?
What if he’s decided that my being responsible for his brother’s death in any reality, no matter how regretfully, makes me an enemy?
Cadance cocks her head. “What’s up, Elle?”
I summon a bland smile and a careless shrug. “I’ll be alittle late meeting up with you all for lunch. Gotta check in on something for a class.”
I veer around the bend in the hall before they can ask any more questions.
After class, I approach the wing of teacher’s offices as reluctantly as Odysseus sailing off to wage war on Troy. The soles of my Mary Janes clack against the hardwood floor.
A group of 16thyears breezes by, with an uncomfortably familiar head of dark hair in their midst. My gaze latches on to Grady Tadros for a second before I jerk it away with a chill down my back.
All my bottled questions tug at my chest for me to follow and see what he might say to his friends. But Aunt Daphne’s warning echoes through my mind.
“No investigating. No prying.”
She seemed so shaken when I insisted that Other Elodie had caught this mystery group’s attention. I haven’t heard from her since she took off two days ago.
Even Dad seems bewildered by her sudden departure, whatever excuse she gave him. He’s asked me more than once if she said anything about where she was going and why.
She knows this world and upper-crust lucent society far better than I do. If she’sthatdisturbed… I should probably give her a chance to tackle the problem before diving back in.