Unfortunately, rising up is a little trickier than dropping down.
I drag in a breath and reach out to the ephemera quivering in the plants and buildings around me. Every living thing that’s passed through this yard has left traces of their life energy behind.
As I gather a thick mass beneath me, my feet lift off the ground. I train all my concentration on the ephemera I’ve collected and heft myself upward slowly but steadily.
A renewed throbbing wakes up in the back of my skull. My elbows pinch when I adjust my stance. But I fly straight up without more than a brief wobble.
When I reach the window, I clutch the frame and ease inside onto solid ground.
The house around me remains still and silent. I fit the screen back into the window and shut the pane against the night’s chill.
With several slow, meditative breaths, my heartbeat settles back to a typical pace.
Despite Cole’s snarky remark, the sun won’t rise any time soon. I can crawl into bed and lose myself in sleep for at least a few hours…
As I turn away from the window, a figure I hadn’t noticed in the darkness stands up from my desk chair.
My skin nearly jumps off my body. I slap my hand over my mouth to contain a yelp of alarm.
In the next instant, I recognize Aunt Daphne’s skinny frame and the unruly billow of her hair. She reaches to turn on the lamp on my bedside table. Its amber glow spills across the room.
“Where have you been?” she asks, hushed but forceful, her bright brown eyes focused on me with a piercing glint. “You lefthoursago.”
I remain frozen near the window, my pulse pounding again. “How did you know— I didn’t want to bother you.”
The excuse sounds weak to my own ears. I may not be the niece Daphne adored and mourns, but she summoned me across realities to take Other Elodie’s place. I doubt she’s keen on the idea of losing me too. Of course she’d want to be “bothered” by my perilous plans.
Daphne walks closer, her hands flitting over her dressing gown like restless birds. I don’t think she knows how to stay completely still.
“When I was turning in for the night, I checked that I could sense your presence in your room—and I couldn’t. I’ve been waiting here since then.” Her gaze sweeps over my stealthy black clothes, my damp and no doubt bedraggledponytail. “If this was something to do with finding the killer, you should have told me what you were planning.”
I fold my arms tightly over my chest and allow a more honest answer. “I didn’t think you’d let me go if you knew.”
“Well, it’s too late for that now, and at least you’re back in one piece. What happened?”
I open my mouth and close it again.
How much should I even tell her?
Daphne has proven to be extremely resistant to the idea that her precious “Ellie” was purposefully involved in anything questionable or dangerous. How can she protect me from threats she refuses to believe in? I can’t trust her to approach the evidence logically.
She’s brilliant in some ways and cuckoo in others… and I don’t want to gamble my and my matches’ security on a woman who thought replacing her dead niece with a doppelganger kidnapped from a parallel reality was a reasonable decision.
“I was just doing more investigating,” I hedge. “It’s easier when most people are asleep. Still just following various threads…”
One piece of evidence Daphne might be able to help with occurs to me. “Do you know anything about a company called Castor Arms?”
My aunt blinks, but before I have to explain further, she’s nodding. “Weapons and defensive manufacturer, mainly supplying lucent military forces. Started by the Tadros family back in the ‘50s. Why? Do you thinktheyhave something to do with Ellie’s death?”
Her question rings with disbelief, but I’m still processing how quickly she recognized the company name. What has Aunt Daphne been doing with her life other than experimenting with cross-dimensional travel and tending to her roses in the garden?
And the Tadros family… Other Elodie had some interest inGrady Tadros, who’s in his final year at Luminary Academy. I was half expecting him to be the one leaping at me from the shadows in the park tonight.
Maybe he’s tangled up in this conspiracy in some other way I haven’t figured out yet.
“I’m not sure,” I say cautiously. “It was just a name that came up somewhere. There are a lot of pieces to put together.”
Daphne purses her lips. “I’d rather you didn’t pursue them without giving me a heads up. If you disappear and don’t make it back?—”
