“Or maybe the other Elodie was a bitch to him and I have no idea.” Elodie rubs her temple and meets my gaze again. “Do you think he could have been talking to the same people as Kenneth?”
I splay my hands in a regretful gesture. “I don’t know. You’re right that he could have other reasons for wanting to harm you. But it’ll be easier if all your enemies are connected than if we’re facing threats from multiple fronts.”
Elodie’s grimace deepens. “Just an even more massive conspiracy than I guessed, that’s come right into the academy. Wonderful. And I haven’t even figured out how the things Other Elodie noticed at Beacon Prep fit in…”
Her face takes on a pensive cast I don’t think I ever saw on the previous Elodie. And because it’s this new Elodie, with all the strength she’s somehow cultivated, it isn’t long before a sense of resolve comes into her stance.
She studies me with the same pensiveness, intently enough that my skin starts to itch. I’m just discovering who she really is… but she knows all about me. Things I’ve never told anyone else.
Did the other version of me reveal the worst parts of my history? The choices I’m most ashamed of?
Did he go to the same lengths to fulfill his goals in the first place, or was he a better man than I am?
“My aunt isn’t back yet,” Elodie says abruptly. “I don’t know what exactly she was so worried about… but I don’t think we can afford to keep being so cautious. Not when there’s someone looking to cut me down right at Luminary.”
“You could refuse to continue the combat seminars.” That’s the obvious solution I came up with. “I’m sure you can invent an excuse—complain to your father and have him refuse on your behalf, if you want to pretend it wasn’t your decision.”
Elodie shakes her head. “I’ll be even more on guard during the sessions, but avoiding them won’t solve the problem. We need to know why Professor Jovak is against me and who he’s working with. We need to know who the woman who directed Kenneth is and whoshe’sworking with.”
She’s still holding my gaze steadily. The knots in my stomach twist. “You sound like you already have a plan.”
She hesitates just for a second and then taps her forefinger on the tabletop. “Your innate magic won’t help us directly, but it did give your divination skill a boost as well. I think it’s time we activated your glim."
Twenty-Nine
Elodie
As I walk with Cole toward the Apollo Building, so much gloom drapes the campus that our concealing magic barely seems necessary. It’s the middle of the afternoon, but the thick clouds overhead blot out most of the sun. The humidity in the air drags at my skin.
It’s not an omen. The weather doesn’t actually predict the future, no matter how often humans have tried to read the skies for clues.
All the same, it’s hard to stop my skin from creeping. Especially given what we’re here to do.
To distract myself, I focus on the man next to me: the even grimmer counterpart of the already grim match I knew.
Even with three additional years of teaching under his belt, Cole doesn’t look totally comfortable at the academy. He’s on edge because of our covert task, but I’ve seen some of that tension in his stride even when he’s pacing around the Divination classroom.
“What are you going to do after Asher graduates?” I ask abruptly.
Cole’s head ticks toward me with a crease through his brow. “What do you mean?”
My tongue stumbles with the sense that I might be sticking my foot in my mouth, but I push onward. I want to know this man, this version of my match, too.
“Where I came from… that Cole stepped down from his professorship not long after we… lost Asher. He said he only got the job to get Asher into Luminary, so there wasn’t any point in keeping going otherwise. I don’t know if that’s the same for you?”
The professor stares at me for a few seconds. Maybe he’s never thought that far ahead.
“It might be necessary to stay on,” he says. “If he goes on to graduate studies—or to give him a leg up when looking for work. Having close family in a respectable position could help.”
He has no idea that no one will care about family status in the kind of job Asher’s going to pursue. I’m not going to be the one to spill those beans.
“And after that?” I prod instead.
“I suppose I’ll see what suits me. I can’t say I’m all that attached to my exalted company here.”
I feign shock. “Really? But you put onsucha show of adoring all your privileged students.”
Cole glowers at my sarcasm. “Very funny. What did the ‘other me’ do after he left?”
