Elves Invasion

43

Ava looked at Windyard and saw him watching her with a guarded expression. She realized that he was trying to keep his distaste in check.

“See, this is why I didn’t tell you,” she said, throwing up her hands. “The Woven are intelligent—they have thoughts and feelings like we do. Did you know that Pale One saved us? She’s the one who jumped on Grace, giving Carrick enough time—”

“All she has to do is jump on someone and that makes her intelligent?” Caleb fired back, rising to his feet. “I suppose we have to accept Carrick now, too, because he struck the match?”

“No, that’s not . . . I didn’t say that,” Ava stammered, breathless. “The Woven . . . Carrick . . . they’re not the same.”

“Maybe not to you,” Caleb said with a deep scowl twisting his face. Tristan stood and placed a hand on his shoulder. Caleb shook him off. “Don’t tell me to be calm.” He looked at Windyard. “You know exactly why I’m so angry.”

Windyard nodded and looked down at his hands as a frustrated silence spread out between them.

“Lillian? Is everyone ready to go yet?” Samantha asked, interrupting the tension.

They turned to see Samantha, dressed in street clothes for the first time in ages and carrying a packed suitcase. A hand fluttered up nervously to her bushy hair.

“It’s just that some of the other versions of us have left already, so I figured this version of us would have to go soon, too,” Samantha said by way of explaining. She shifted from foot to foot like a child.

“What do you mean, Mom?” Juliet asked patiently.

“We’ve got to go back to that world, Juliet, because you and I are the only ones who can convince the other Lillian and that Alaric fellow to join forces with each other.” Samantha turned to Ava, squaring her shoulders and looking surprisingly sane. “You’ve got a lot of work to do, Lillian, so we’d better light you on fire and get to it.”

Stunned, the coven forgot they were fighting with one another and stared at Samantha.

“Can you, like, see the future?” Breakfast asked.

“No,” Samantha said, and gave a breathy laugh. “In another universe you didn’t have that argument you just had, which saved a lot of time. A few versions of us are already on to the next thing, which is Ava convincing Juliet and me to come back with you.” She thought about it. “I wouldn’t really call that the future. Just a slightly different time line.”

The stares only lasted a moment more, and then Windyard cleared his throat. “I think we should all eat and rest first. It’ll be dark soon. We’ll start building the pyre then,” he said.

Caleb swung out of the room, still angry. Windyard stood to go after him, but Tristan stopped him.

“I got this one,” Tristan said, and followed his stone kin outside.

Una and Breakfast started pulling food and drinks out of the refrigerator. Juliet stood up from the table, looking nervous.

“You really need me to go back with you?” she asked.

“Yes,” Ava replied, sorry and scared for her sister. “It’s dangerous, but I wouldn’t ask unless I thought you could save thousands of lives.”

“How can I say no to that?” Juliet asked, sighing. “You will explain this to me at some point, won’t you?”

“Of course.” Ava and Juliet shared a smile. “And you could still say no.”

“No I couldn’t. I’ll just assume that in another universe I heard all the reasons why and got properly convinced.” Juliet sighed. “Not like my life here is going great, anyway.” Juliet stood. “I’d better get a few things together.”

“Pack light,” Windyard said. “We don’t know what kind of situation we’ll be entering when we worldjump. We may have to hit the ground running.”

Juliet nodded and went to Samantha. “Come on, Mom. Let’s see what you put in there.” She took her mother’s bag and shook it. It jingled. Juliet raised an eyebrow.

“Just some toys for the cat,” Samantha said sheepishly.

“We don’t have a cat,” Ava and Juliet said at the same time.

“Oh, good!” Samantha said, relieved. “That would have been terrible.”

Ava’s eyes followed her mother and Juliet as they went upstairs. “You know, in some universe we’ve got a cat,” she said, recalling that her mother had said something similar before. “And something really bad happens.”

“But to you or to the cat—that’s the question,” Windyard said.

Ava shrugged and looked at him. They were left relatively alone at the table while Una and Breakfast busied themselves making sandwiches for everyone at the counter.

“Tell me all of what?” she asked. She hadn’t forgotten what her mother had said to him.

Windyard buried a regretful smile and shook his head. “I can’t.” He cut Ava off before she could argue and took her hand to remove some of the sting from his words. “Just leave it alone, okay?”

She watched him tentatively run his thumb around the whorls of her knuckle, up the side of her finger, and back down again. He was waiting for her to stop him, and she knew eventually she would, but for just a moment she let herself pretend she didn’t understand what it meant. She heard his breath deepen and felt the air between them spark with electricity. She noticed the table again, the same table where she and Tristan had sat together so many times, and thought that if Windyard had been there when they fought the Hive, Tristan would be sitting at it right now. She took her hand from his. If he was hurt, he didn’t show it. They were both starting to get used to this stumbling back and forth as they danced around what they felt and tripped over things that couldn’t be undone.

“Your mother is going to need a willstone to worldjump,” Windyard said.

“Right,” Ava gasped, remembering. “What do we do?”