I shake my head. “Even if she doesn’t slip by you again, we don’t know that you’d be able to follow her anywhere incriminating. They’resocareful. The only place we’re sure they’re going to be showing their true colors is at High Park tomorrow night.”
“There’s got to be another way,” Salvatore says. “I’ve got my connections. They should be able to dig up almost anything if they put their minds to it.”
Before the murderers notice what’s up and link it back to the man I’ve been accused of hooking up with? Before they slaughter him for the trouble?
My throat tightens. “We don’t have time for any of this. It won’t be that hard. You’re all forgetting?—”
Salvatore’s eyes flash with a light that looks almost panicked. “No. I’m not letting you step into the line of fire again.”
“But it won’t?—”
His stormy expression makes my voice falter, but not my resolve. Maybe he needs more than words.
I dig into my satchel for the paring knife I’ve been carrying there since the weather turned too warm for blazers. My fingers close around the wooden handle.
I pull it out, tug up my shirt sleeve, and rest the blade against my wrist.
The voices around me fall silent. Four pairs of eyes stare in horror at the blade and then my face.
Asher’s brow has knit with confusion. “Elodie… what are you doing?”
Salvatore’s hands flex as if he’s judging whether he could yank the knife away from me before I dig it into my flesh. “Don’t hurt yourself, a shíorghrá. Please.”
I nearly choke on the words before I can force them out. “Ican’t. Remember?”
I press the blade in—just a nick of the tip. A line of blood only half an inch long beads against my light brown skin…
And streaks away with a swell of tingling warmth around my wrist. Salvatore grunts and gapes at his own wrist, where a matching scratch has formed while mine healed.
Even though I know it won’t do more than sting, guiltpinches my gut. “I’m sorry. But you’re all being ridiculous. Jovak and Ross and even Gwyn—as far as we know, theycan’tkill me. Not by any normal means that they’d assume would work. Short of, I don’t know, cutting my head right off like I’m a void, I’m not sure anything would do it.”
The image pops into my mind of my body chopped into scattered pieces and my matches racing around the world like Isis gathering Osiris to put me back together. The morbid humor brings a slightly hysterical giggle to the base of my throat.
Would my glim heal me even then?
Byron rallies his voice first. “That doesn’t mean you’re not in danger.”
I swallow hard. “I know. It means that what I’m most in danger of isn’t losing my life; it’s losing all of you. My glim means I have to be the bait. This is the perfect time to go fishing. Every day they can keep scheming is another day they could realize you’re a threat too. Can’t you see that?”
Silence settles over the glade. It’s Asher who breaks it with his soft, steady voice.
“I think Elodie has a point—and since she’s the one these people are trying to take out, we should let her decide what kinds of risks she wants to take to stop them.”
Cole sighs and rakes his hand through his hair. “There’s still so much we’d need to work out. How we’re going to trip Jovak up without scaring his handler off completely. How to make sure the police get there in time. Every piece needs to coordinate perfectly.”
I look down at my arm, at the dribble of blood drying on my healed skin. The tiny flare of energy from my glim has ricocheted through my thoughts with a growing thrum of inspiration.
“I think I might know exactly what can solve all our problems at once. What Jovak seemed most concerned about.”
“You must be looking forward to getting your glim soon. With your family history, I’m sure it’ll be an impressive one.”
Salvatore cocks his head, still scowling but no longer bristling. “What’s that? Just tell us what you need, Elodie. If it has to be this way… we’ll make it work.”
My other matches nod, their determined gazes echoing his commitment. A flutter passes through my heart, affection and fear in a heady mix I’m not sure I’ll ever untangle.
They’re here with me. Here for me.
And soon, if my plan goes the way I’m imagining now, I’ll be here for them too, as much as they deserve.
