I smother a horrified laugh with my hand. “Seeing my matches injured also doesn’t feel very good.”
Salvatore gives a disgruntled huff that brushes warm across my skin. “Can’t I at least maim him? We’ll let the health center patch him up after. Someone needs to put him in his place.”
“Please no maiming.” I tip my head against this match’sshoulder. The deepest kernel of my uneasiness rises to the surface. “He might not be totally wrong.”
Was I too hasty about awakening Cole’s glim, thinking more about how he might help me than the other consequences? Should I have told him everything about it ahead of time and let him decide the best setting… or whether we should attempt it at all?
Salvatore snorts as if the idea that I could have made a mistake is absurd. “He doesn’t seem to like much about how you do anything. That’s on him, not you.”
He eases back, one hand against my cheek, and gazes down at me with his bright blue eyes. “You are fucking amazing, Elodie Devine, and I’m going to spend the rest of my life eviscerating anyone who tries to tell you different.”
The corner of my mouth twitches upward, but his words don’t penetrate the gloom inside.
I wouldn’t expect Salvatore to see it any other way. That doesn’t mean I didn’t screw up.
My doubt must show on my face. Salvatore frowns, his thumb tracing my cheekbone in a tender caress.
“Show me something,” he says abruptly. “From your other reality, the other me. We haven’t tried out projecting memories yet. Show me sometime he made you happy.”
I blink at him. I’ve done the memory exchange with my original matches—always very cautiously because I was afraid of revealing too much. Byron mentioned the possibility when I first revealed my biggest secret. But I wasn’t expecting this request now.
“Why?” I ask.
Salvatore’s grin bares his teeth. “So I know how easy it’ll be to treat you even better.”
“Go ahead,”my imagined Salvatore says.“He should see I won’t be that easy to beat.”
I restrain a roll of my eyes at both versions of him. “I should be getting to class. It’s going to start soon.”
“Then you’d better give me that memory quick, huh?”
I don’t want to fight with another of my matches.
Pushing aside my trepidation, I close my eyes.
I reach for the first memory that pops into my head of a good time with the original Salvatore.
My hand rises to rest over his against my face. I push a pulse of ephemera through our bond.
Glinting cars roar by on the track below. Salvatore squeezes my hand and lets out an enthusiastic whoop.
“What do you think, a chroí?”he asks, sliding his arm right around my back. “Would you bet on red or green?”
I gaze down at the race cars, dizzied by the chattering crowd around us and the smells of popcorn and exhaust saturating the air. My gaze snags on a car whipping along toward the back of the pack, trailing but intent.
“What about blue? I’ve always liked cheering on the underdog.”
Salvatore laughs and hugs me close. “I love the way you think.”
The memory fades into this Salvatore’s shadowy face looming over me. His forehead has furrowed. “Are you into car racing?”
I giggle awkwardly. “I mean, not a ton. But you are… were… That you was, anyway. It was one of your favorite things to do. It made me happy that you included me in it. That’s just the first thing that came to mind.”
A rumble thrums up Salvatore’s throat. He cups my face with both hands, his gaze searing into me with such intensity that my heart starts to soar. “You deserve matches who care about the thingsyoulike. Who want you to share all of that with them instead of having you just tag along. Don’t you ever fucking forget that, Elodie. I’m going tomake sureyou never forget it.”
I choke up. “It wasn’t—they did care about me?—”
He shakes his head. “Not enough. I cantell. You’ve already done amazing things and gotten through so much. You’re stronger than any of us, even though you shouldn’t need to be. We all have to step up our game to stand beside you, including that ass Raith. If I have to lead the way, that’s my honor.”
