I wave him off. “It’s okay. I’ll be fine.”
If a private conference with my most hostile match is what it takes, then I might as well get it over with.
There’s another door in the shadows beyond the furnace. Cole ushers me inside and yanks a chain to light up a bulb on the low ceiling. He shuts the door behind us, and we’re left in a cramped, stuffy space between two shelving units packed with plastic bins.
Cole’s voice drops low, but it’s less biting than before. “What exactly did this other version of me supposedly tell you?”
I ignore the skepticism in the words. “I know how your and Asher’s parents really died—I know about the drugs and the deals they were making. And I know that at least in my old reality, you hid all that from him because you didn’t want to tarnish the bit of normal childhood he got before they died.”
Cole exhales in a ragged rush. “If you dug up their records, or—or?—”
I rub my face, the weariness settling even deeper into my bones. “Why would I do that? What records? It wasn’t in the city—I wouldn’t even know where to start digging. But I can tell you more. You were only fifteen when they died, so you used magic to deflect social services so you could keep looking after Asher. You take kavish leaf to help you focus and then sleeping pills when your sense of all the ephemera overwhelms you. You?—”
“All right. Enough.”
He peers at me, looking so suddenly lost that atwinge of sympathy passes through my chest despite what an asshole he’s been.
He didn’t ask for a match like this. It does sound crazy.
Would I find the story any easier to believe if our positions were reversed?
“Cole,” I say, as gently as I’m capable of, “I realize that I don’treallyknow you here, and you hardly know me at all. I realize you’re not the man I matched with first. I don’t expect you to pretend that you do or that you are. You asked. YouinsistedI explain. I did. What you do with the information… it’s up to you. I’d like to see what we can build together, but it’s your decision. People split from their matches all the time.”
The last words feel as if they’ve torn something coming up, but I had to say it. He has to know he still has a choice here, that I’m not trying to force anything on him.
Cole’s mouth tightens. He nudges me toward the door. “Go on. You should probably sort things out with the rest of them too.”
He stalks into the laundry room alongside me. Both Byron and Salvatore look me up and down as if confirming I’m in one piece—as if I haven’t just shown that if Cole actually hurt me that way, he’d only be wounding himself.
I spread my arms. “All right. Who else wants to check how many of your secrets I already know?”
Byron’s jaw ticks, but he starts toward me a beat before Salvatore moves. He follows me back to the storage room and shuts the door behind us firmly.
“You know about my—my counting,” he says without preamble, his gaze searching mine. “That day when we worked on the Bloom Practicum assignment together, you noticed what I was doing and understood.”
I rest my hand on his arm. “I know about the counting and adjusting your books and the way your mind spirals so you feel like you have to do those things. And I already knewabout your family property and the way you let out your magic there.”
He gives a rough laugh. “You already had it in mind when you asked me the question yesterday.”
“Yeah. I’m sorry. It sounds so manipulative, but that wasn’t why?—”
His voice softens. “I know. Maybe I don’t know you as well as whatever Byron you’re used to did, but I know you enough. And it makes a hell of a lot more sense than the Elodie I thought I knew having a sudden personality transplant.” He pauses. “What else?”
He’s less afraid of what I might tell him than Cole was. But then, no one would ever accuse Byron of cowardice.
I consider my answer. “You feel a lot of pressure from your family, and you worry about living up to their expectations. But that would be easy to guess for anyone in your position. You told me your little sister struggles more than you do and you worry about her even more. I think that was the hardest part for you about leaving the family.”
That thought sends a fresh spike of panic through my veins. “If you don’t want them moving her away without you around?—”
“Elodie.” Byron touches my arm. “I’ll sort it out. But I’m not leaving you. You… you’re an even better match for me than I could have guessed. The amount of shit you’ve been through, to still be standing…” His throat works. “You really are incredible. And I can’t wait to get to know how much else I’ve missed.”
He dips his head to claim a brief kiss that’s tender enough to leave my head spinning. How did I get this lucky?
I have the impression of my imagined other Byron watching with an air of satisfaction that his counterpart passed the test.
The second we step into view, Salvatore barges over witha glower at Byron. “How many dark secrets could you even have, Worth?”
He tugs me out of the other guy’s hold and leans in to press his mouth to mine in front of the whole group.
