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Whatever meeting he’s in, I’m willing to bet a lot of Auclair’s important personnel are too. But that would mean his Marionette should be with him, but he hadn’t asked me to come.
I’m merely suggesting we consider a reassignment.
Even in my head, Queen Carrington’s voice grates on my nerves.
But Reid wouldn’t…he wouldn’t…
“Do you go running to him for help foreverything?”
I gasp and whip around, my phone clattering to the gravel. Flapping wings fill the silence as birds in the nearby trees burst into flight.
But the path around me is empty. I turn a full circle, trying to find the origin of the voice, but there’s no one else out here.
I’m full-on hallucinating now. Great.
I retrieve my phone and turn to head back to the estate—the fresh air hasn’t been as helpful to clear my head as I’d been hoping anyway—but there’s a figure on the path now.
“No,” I whisper as she makes her way forward.
The fog drifts straight through her like she’s not there, and maybe she’s not. Maybe thisisa hallucination. I haven’t seen her since that moment after the shadow projecting spell, and I was hoping that would be the last time.
The shadow-me smirks as she stops a few paces away, like she can tell what I’m thinking. Her hair is slicked back in a high ponytail, accentuating the razor-sharp lines of her cheekbones and jaw. It makes her look perpetually callous, cold.
Is that really what I look like?
I’ve always thought my features were the softest and roundest of everyone in my family, always making me look a little out of place alongside them. I knew the past few months had done plenty of unkind things for my appearance, butthis?
“Don’t stop on my account.” She gestures to the phone. “Go on, go running to your boyfriend about your latest disaster. Give him more proof that you’re utterly incompetent.”
I inhale sharply. The jab itself barely stings, but was it a lucky guess that I’d been thinking about Reid, or can she somehow see inside my head?
“He’s my partner.”
“Hm. Does he know that? Seems pretty one-sided to me.”
I stand up straighter, my fist tightening around the phone, but I stop myself before responding again. I’m not going to stand here and have an argument with myself.
She’s not real.She’s not real.
She rolls her eyes with a sigh. “Don’t tell me you’ve gone stupid now too. I’m not a hallucination. You know I’m not.”
“Then what the hell are you?” I demand, then pinch my lips together and check our surroundings to make sure we’re alone. If I’m the only one who can see her, the last thing I need is news of me talking to no one getting around. The queen would justlovethat.
“Don’t they teach you anything at those academies?” she mutters. “Everyone has a shadow self on the other side. I’ll admit, meeting each other is rare, but what can I say? I saw the opportunity, and I took it. Thanks for that, by the way. Couldn’t have crossed the threshold without you. You can call me V.”
I shake my head and take a step away from her, then another. Maybe that spell took more out of me than I realized. I just need to rest.
And to get the hell out of here.
“Why don’t you ask me?” she says. “Maybe I can help.”
“Why the hell would I trust you?”
“God, you really are the stupid one, aren’t you? It’s okay, it’s okay. We can work with that. I’myou.Of course you can trust me.”
I let out an unintelligible noise in the back of my throat and turn away, heading for the estate.
“Whatever was in that book must have been pretty important, huh?” she calls after me. “It would sure be nice if you had someone with dark magic experience to help you. Or say…that princess who’s engaged to your boyfriend. Sure would be nice if someone around here knew something abouther.If someone could somehow see what all those books she’s been reading in the library are about…”
