“How are you so sure he’s coming here?” I eyed the gun, wondering if she even knew how to use it.

“Because Porethius said he’ll come looking for you, and this was the last place we lived before the intersect closed.” She shoved an earplug into her right ear.

I looked at the gun again, sure that old, tarnished thing wouldn’t be able to fire if it came down to it. I flicked it, but my hand froze in midair when the low, slow creaking of the turning doorknob trickled through the kitchen behind me.

Kaley’s eyes widened. “He’s here,” she whispered, bracing the gun against her shoulder and aiming it at the door. “Hide!”

He’s here.

Sweet mother of pearl…

I looked both ways and chose the path of least resistance. I’d barely ducked into the living room when the front door scraped open over the dirty floor. Cold wind flushed through the kitchen, along with the promise of an approaching presence that didn’t belong, and my breathing hitched.

In walked Eliot Gray.

The fragrance of Winter flowers brushed in with him, along with an explosion of memories. He wasn’t wearing raven-black, or curled-toe boots, or a jacket with a pointed hood. Eliot’s jacket was fitted, silver velvet, with two vertical rows of pearly buttons up to his throat.

I inhaled through my nose, fighting the urge to show myself when his treacherous bright-blue eyes peered around the door and spotted Kaley there, fashioning her high wool socks and aiming a rusty Trite weapon at him.

Eliot opened his mouth to speak, but Kaley fired.

My sister flew back and caught herself against the wall as chunks of the doorframe burst above Eliot’s head; wood chips sprinkling his curls. I gaped and winced at the ringing in my ears.

Eliot’s hands flashed up in surrender, blue eyes wild. “Season’s greetings, Trite,” he said, not moving an inch now. A second of tense stillness buzzed through the kitchen until he tried to break the silence again. “I’m sure you don’t remember me, but—”

“I remember you.” Kaley’s reply was as cold as the November frost, and a river of pride swarmed my chest.

“I see.” Eliot scuffed his hair to shake out the debris as he no doubt thought about how to outsmart my sister. “I suppose you wouldn’t mind telling me how to find—”

“She’s gone. She’s with Zane.”

I closed my eyes in disbelief. If she was trying to get a rise out of Eliot, it worked. For a split second, his bright eyes flickered green—the colour of his envious heart. He lowered his hands to his sides. The boy who had sold me out to Asteroth Ryuu, and was willing to let me wander the Midnight Forest for a thousand years, seemed to realize he’d wasted his time coming here.

The subtle, sweet scent of lilacs filled the air when Eliot took a bold step toward my sister. But Kaley re-aimed the gun at Eliot’s chest, and he halted. I wondered if the bullet would even hurt him, being Rime. He seemed to think so.