They answer in unison, their voices blending together. “My eternal love.”
Salvatore grins hearing Elodie confirm his answer.
As he slings his arm around her waist, I stroke her cheek again, with a possessive urge despite my earlier denial. “I’ll keep saying it too, Precious.”
“She is precious,” Salvatore agrees easily, and taps his fingers lightly on Elodie’s belly. “And she needs more sleep.”
Elodie doesn’t argue, snuggling between us again. I press a gentle kiss to her forehead as she drifts off.
The emotion that flooded me condenses around my heart in the most poignant of aches.
Yes, she’s precious. And for all her strength, she could still be broken by the threats gathering around us.
I don’t think there’s any length I wouldn’t go to if it’d see her through this storm, any number of people I wouldn’t cut down to keep her with me.
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 upperchest, 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 somethingfrom 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.”
