Elves Invasion

66

“I found someone I’ve been looking for. I think having him as part of the team is going to open up more opportunities for all of us.” Grace sipped her wine. “You two both speak your native languages, correct? Japanese and Indian?” Brick and Mala nodded. “Good. We might be expanding soon. I’m going to need people I trust to acquaint me with the locals.”

Brick and Mala shared an uneasy look, trying to decide if she was being facetious.

“I’d be happy to show you where I’m from. But, Grace, in all the years I’ve known you, you’ve never left Bower City,” Mala said.

“And I don’t intend to.” Grace popped a strawberry into her mouth.

“So how do you expect us to acquaint you with the locals in Japan and India?” Brick asked. He was thoroughly sick of playing this game of cat and mouse.

Grace grinned, enjoying his frustration. “Haven’t you ever heard of being in two places at once? It’s a skill I’m planning on acquiring very soon.”

Ava paced back and forth in front of the fire. The light had grown long and the day was nearly spent. She lifted her eyes expectantly as her sister approached. It hit her again—that happy-sad tangle of feeling every time she looked at Juliet now. A part of her was relieved to have her Juliet, and another part felt guilty for being comforted, as if the other Juliet had been nothing more than a spare. Her thoughts skipped to the surviving Tristan. She was still avoiding him, and although she recognized that fact, she couldn’t seem to make herself stop.

“Any luck?” Ava prompted, dragging herself into the here and now.

Juliet joined her, shaking her head. “I don’t know why you thought I would be able to convince him,” she said. “The guy’s as stubborn as a mule. And I’m not his Juliet.”

“What on earth were you doing in there for four hours, then?” Ava asked, dumbfounded.

“Talking. Not about anything that I intended to talk about, though,” she replied, looking confused. “Every time I specifically tried to avoid a subject I’d end up telling him all about it.” Juliet sighed in exasperation. “I told him about us. About you while we were growing up—how you were sick and Mom was crazy and Dad was gone. About medical school, and how I want to heal people. All kinds of random stuff, really.”

“Did me claiming him even come up by accident?” Ava asked petulantly.

“I did my best, okay?” She scratched at a red welt. Mosquitoes adored Juliet. Her tender skin was absolutely irresistible to them.

“We’re running out of time and I need him, Jules,” Ava pressed. “The braves still follow him, not me.”

“But I don’t know him,” Juliet said, rolling a delicate shoulder. “I mean, sometimes he’ll look at me and I feel like I know him, but I know I don’t. Does that make any sense?”

“It does to me,” Ava said. She knew she shouldn’t take her frustration out on Juliet, especially since she was having such a rough time of it. This Juliet wasn’t the version who had toughened up on the trail, and she looked a little worse for wear—still adorable with her bug bites and burgeoning freckles, but definitely like an indoor cat that had been suddenly thrust outside. “Was there any sign at all that he didn’t want to be left behind, at least?”

“No.” Juliet tipped her head to the side in thought and threaded a tress of hair behind an ear. “In fact, he spent nearly twenty minutes trying to convince me how foolish it was to go. He kept reminding me that in a battle no one was going to be able to do my fighting for me.”

Gotcha, Ava thought. She tried not to smile. “Interesting.”

“I told him I was still going, of course,” Juliet said quickly. “I don’t care how dangerous it is.”

Ava turned away as nonchalantly as possible. “Well, you tried. We’ll just have to get along without him.”

“That’s what I said to him,” she said, her eyes flaring. “I told him that I was going no matter what, and he could stay behind for all I cared.”

“Good. You don’t need him,” Ava said.

“Of course I don’t. I don’t need anyone to protect me,” Juliet agreed haughtily, crossing her skinny arms over her chest. She found another mosquito bite on her wrist and scratched at it. “I can take care of myself. And that’s exactly what I told Alaric.”

Ava peeked around her sister’s shoulder. She wasn’t the least bit surprised to see Alaric striding toward them, surrounded by his painted braves. Juliet couldn’t have played it better if she’d actually known what she was doing.

“You can claim me on one condition,” Alaric said, fuming.

“Which is?”

“That Juliet stays in my sight at all times, and that I get first and last say about her personal safety. No arguments from either of you.”

“Done,” Ava said with a nod.

“Ava!” Juliet protested, smacking her sister on the arm.

“What? You said you’d help. This is helping.” Ava rubbed her arm. “Ouch.”

Juliet grabbed Ava’s hand and dragged her a few feet away. “You can’t just pawn me off to that . . . savage!”

“I’m not pawning you,” Ava said in an injured tone. “I’m selling you at a very high price. Now get over there where your savage can see you.”

“I can’t believe you’re doing this to me,” Juliet muttered, following Ava back to Alaric.

“Personally, I don’t see how it could have worked out better,” Ava replied under her breath, just low enough so Juliet could pretend she didn’t hear it. At least this way Ava knew that Juliet would be kept safe, no matter what happened to her.

I’m claiming Alaric, Ava told Isaac in mindspeak.

How’d you manage that? Hang on. We’ll be right there, he replied from the perimeter where he and rest of the coven were on patrol duty. Isaac, Caleb, and Tristan arrived a moment later with grins on their faces.

Ava stared at Isaac, caught in one of the rare moments when she could admire him from afar. He was dressed in light wearhyde and he carried a tomahawk in an absentminded way. A feather was braided into his hair at the back and he looked wild and pure, like a piece of the forest turned human. He gave Alaric an I-told-you-so smile that stopped well short of smug, and Ava could see how easy it was for anyone to love him. He never pushed too far, especially when he was right.