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Adrienne.I already knew we were sending her into the lion’s den, butthis? My distrust with Calla aside, I’d thought Adrienne would at least have one ally on the inside.
“How many other people has he put over here?”
“Not many. At least, I don’t think so. It’s risky. Two versions of a person can’t exist simultaneously in the same realm, so putting someone here would mean—”
“He’d have to deal with their shadow self.”
She nods. “And as you’ve seen, they can be…unpredictable.”
“Wait. You said he sent you here after you reached out to us. Adrienne said she’s been talking back and forth with you this entire time.”
Calla’s face falls, and she wraps her arms around herself. “I know. I was gone by the time Adrienne replied to that first note, and I guess my shadow self saw an opportunity. There was nothing I could do to stop it.”
“She’s been teaching her spells,” I say, my voice coming out hollow. “Things she has no business knowing at her age. Why even bother? What’s in it for her?”
“I don’t know.”
“You have to know something,” I insist. “You knew about it before I told you, so there must be a way to see what’s happening from here.”
“I can watch, but she’s smart!” Calla throws her hands up and lets them slap against her thighs. “SheknowsI’m watching. So whatever her plan is, she’s not letting me in on it. Don’t look at me like that. What could I possibly have to gain from keeping things from you now? I’m sorry about Reid, Valerie, I am—”
I snatch my arm away as she reaches for me, Reid’s name sounding all wrong in her voice, like she’s lost the right to say it.
“I messed up, okay? I’m trying to make it right now, but you have to let me.”
“If it were up to you, he’d bedeadright now.” I press my hands against my temples as a headache sets in. I’m wasting time talking to her. I have to find a way back. Who knows how much damage V has already caused.
Calla’s mouth is open like she wants to speak, but her eyes are locked on my hand. On the ring. She looks from it to my face and back again, her expression crumpling.
“Oh, Valerie,” she whispers. “I didn’t—I didn’t know how you felt about him. I didn’t realize—”
I hold up my hands to stop her because there is nothing she can say that will erase it—the moment I realized she’d chosen Westcott over me, the moment I realized she didn’t have my back since I showed up at the compound, the moment she led me to Reid’s body on a metal table, knowing she’d contributed to putting him there.
“Honestly, Calla, I don’t want to hear it. You want me to forgive you? Thenhelp me. I have to get back. I have to get back to them. So you want to make this right? You want me to believe my sister is still in there somewhere? Then prove it. Show me how I can see what’s going on over there.”
She looks at me desperately, helplessly, because of course she doesn’t know how to get me back. Otherwise she would’ve gotten herself out a long time ago.
But a hard kind of determination sets into her features as she stands up straighter and gives a single nod. “Okay.”
CHAPTERTHIRTY-SIX
I followCalla to where she’s been staying—the home of her shadow self.
“She goes by Popi, apparently,” Calla informs me, her tone dripping with disgust as she shoulders the front door of a small townhouse open.
Popi, apparently, is a hoarder. I can barely make it through the threshold of the house, the floors covered in stacks of books, papers, clothes, crystals, and glass jars. I guess if she’s supposed to be the opposite of my scarily organized type A sister, it makes sense.
“Jesus Christ,” I mutter, stumbling over a pile of shoes as Calla fights to close the door behind us.
Popialso, according to Calla, hasn’t been in contact with shadow-me or shadow-Adrienne since she was eighteen when she moved out. Calla hasn’t seen any sign of V—seeing as she’s been too busy weaseling her way in with me all this time—or shadow-Adrienne since she got here.
There’s a clear path between the chaos, mountains ofstuffpiled on each side. Judging by the small metal bowls by the back sliding door, there’s an animal around here somewhere.
“Are you hungry?” Calla asks, leading me through the narrow hall beside the stairs and to the kitchen. “I should warn you, everything here tastes like sawdust.”
I make a face at the grayish apples sitting on the counter and shake my head.
A dog the size of a bear lets out a bark that’s more of a roar behind me, and I nearly jump out of my skin.
