One was the woman on the Luminary maintenance staffwho warned me not to come here tonight. Even though her hair was loose, there was no mistaking the frizzy strands tumbling across her broad shoulders.
And the other’s bluntly chiseled features and deep-set eyes are carved into my memories from beyond this reality. His black hair was longer, veering past his ears into a short ponytail my version of him never wore, but otherwise he looked exactly the same.
What the fuck is Uncle Nik doing here, now?
“Elodie?”
Asher’s concerned voice cuts through my stupor. I jerk my gaze away, tamping down on the shiver that starts to wrack my body. Every inch of my skin has chilled as if I’ve seen a zombie rising from a grave.
My nerves keep jangling with the impression of my two realities colliding. I shake my head, not wanting to verify my panic, not wanting any of this. “I—I’m okay. Just shaken up.”
For more reasons than I’m willing to admit.
As Salvatore ushers me along with a protective arm, my head keeps spinning.
Why was Nik talking to that woman from the school? Is she an associate of his somehow?
Has he been keeping tabs on me—on Other Elodie before—all this time, and simply never made himself known?
How much does this version of him know about me? About my glim?
Is he going to come to me again, trying to rope me into his missions and his greater cause…?
I barely notice I’ve been eased into the back seat of a car until Salvatore is pulling into the underground parking garage at the condo building. I’m tucked between Byron and Asher, the former with his arm looped around mine and the latter holding himself a little stiffly.
Their joint warmth barely penetrates the panic that’s iced me over from the inside out.
As Salvatore parks, Cole twists in the passenger seat to study me, his eyes dark as thunderclouds. “Are you sure you’re not injured? Maybe we should have had a medical team check you out.”
A laugh that sounds hysterical to my own ears tumbles out of me. “I’m not. I can’t be. Remember?”
He doesn’t ask for another demonstration of my glim, but the furrows don’t smooth from his brow. He turns to Salvatore instead. “Is this really a good idea? We had to run out of here the last time?—”
The mafia heir waves off our professor’s concern. “I made out like I was just using the condo as a private hangout spot, and my parents bought it. Now I don’t have to hide that I’m with Elodie. By tomorrow, everyone’ll know we’re her matches. My families can’t complain about me taking care of my mate.”
Given what I know of those families from my old reality, I suspect they could, and I suspect he knows that. But I’m too scattered to do anything other than wobble out of the car clutching Byron’s arm.
The men hustle me into the elevator. My stomach drops with its soaring ascent.
I swallow hard and close my eyes as if I can erase what I saw by the park that easily.
How long will it take before Nik approaches me, if he’s getting this close now? Can I just tell himno?
My uncle here has no leverage over me, no knowledge of what I might have done in some parallel universe. He can’tmakeme do anything.
Unless he knows more than I realize. There are other types of leverage he could have gained if he’s been watching me closely over the past several weeks…
Just past the condo’s threshold, Byron turns to me andrests both hands on my elbows. “You seem really out of sorts, Elodie. Did Gwyn say something to you when she grabbed you?”
I push my head to shake in denial. “No. I must just be tired.”
Salvatore grunts and reaches for the bottom of my hoodie. “Look at her, all roughed up. There’s blood all over. Let’s get our match cleaned up and comfortable.”
I raise my arms so he can pull the hoodie right off. He sucks in a breath just shy of a growl at the sight of the tee underneath. “It soaked right through. I hope most of it was theirs and not yours, a chroí.”
He grips the bottom of the shirt next, and I let him. Because my thoughts are a jumble and my mind woozy… and because I trust this man with my life.
I don’t register that he’s caught the base of my undershirt alongside the tee until both layers are peeling up, air wafting against the bare, blood-dappled skin around my bra.
