All That Lives Must Die

friends with a “goddess.” They just wanted to be friends with her fame.

Complicating this fame-and she was still mad at Jezebel for outing her without asking-was that now Fiona hardly saw the people she considered her real friends, like Mitch and Amanda.

And then there was Eliot.

He’d done his best to hide on campus. And lately, she didn’t even see him at home. He’d come home late from Robert’s, go straight to his room to read or practice with Lady Dawn (now with his door shut and locked). He spoke only in monosyllables. . if at all.

Eliot hadn’t even responded when she called him a Fuligo septica.[34]

This morning she’d wanted to talk to Eliot, waited for him to drag himself to the breakfast table, only to find that he’d already left the house.

Eliot getting up early had to be a sign of impending disaster. The way the universe was supposed to work was that he was always late for everything.

Fiona wondered if Eliot’s evasiveness had something to do with Jezebel.

In the last few weeks, the Infernal had been to school only two or three times-and then, only to turn in her homework before she vanished again. When Jeremy asked, she had told him to mind his own business, and that it was an “internal Infernal affair.”

Fiona almost stumbled into a man. She’d been so absorbed in her thoughts, she hadn’t seen him.

Blushing, she looked up to apologize-and stopped.

“You!” she said.

Louis wore a soft camel-hair coat, which on this foggy morning made his outline a blur. He stood tall and confident. His long dark hair was streaked with sliver. He had a smile that would have disarmed her. . had she not known him.

“Me.” Her father held up his hands in a gesture of peace.

Fiona’s blush of embarrassment turned into a flush of anger. “I’ve got nothing to say to you-not after you stole Eliot’s phone! And certainly not now.” She maneuvered around him and kept walking. “I have midterms today.”

Louis strode alongside her. “Have I told you lately how much you remind me of your wonderful mother? But yes, midterms, precisely what I came to discuss.”

He waved at the fog ahead and it curled and spiraled like the ocean surf. . hypnotic.

Fiona blinked.

“Stop it,” she hissed.

She touched her wrist and the rubber band there. Louis’s silver bracelet was still safely tucked into her bag. It seemed to have a mind of its own, and she no longer trusted it.

“Just leave me alone,” she said.

“I wanted to talk about your potential,” Louis said, ignoring her request, “within the League. . and outside of it.”

She scoffed. “You mean with your side of the family. No thanks.”

She thought about Jezebel, so effortlessly stunning and confident, and she also remembered how she really looked as an Infernal: those inhuman eyes and claws-a monster.

“We’ve been over this,” Fiona said. “The League’s declared me an Immortal-not Infernal. Everyone knows that.”

But something in her words rang hollow in her ears.

“Yes, I’ve heard. And how do you like your new fame at school?”

There was a sarcastic edge to his tone that made the back of Fiona’s neck prickle with irritation.

“How did you know. .?”

“I hear things. Like how you dealt with that trifling duel, so wonderfully ruthless and humiliating to the Van Wyck boy. A very Infernal thing. But as much fun as it might have been, you should have cut off his head. Now you have an enemy for life.”

Fiona slowed. Donald Van Wyck had vowed never to come after Team Scarab. Well, of course, except in gym-where she suddenly remembered there weren’t rules about first blood. . where he and the rest of Team Wolf could kill them.

The ire drained from her as she realized her miscalculation.

But what alternative was there? She wasn’t about to just kill someone.

Louis held out an arm in her path.

She halted, only now noticing she had almost walked off the curb into a busy intersection.

“Red light, my dear.” He waggled a finger. “Mustn’t jaywalk. What would your mother say?”

Fiona pursed her lips at this taunt. She shouldn’t let Louis get to her so easily. But he did. Just as Audrey always got under her skin. It must be a skill they teach parents.

Well, she couldn’t do anything if Louis wanted to walk on this sidewalk. It was a public place. She just wished he would shut up.

“Enough niceties, eh?” Louis’s smile faded a bit. “I came to warn you about midterms. Some Paxington students will do whatever they must to pass. . even cheat.”

Fiona dismissed this notion. She imagined Plato Hall, the entire class bent over their tests-all under the unnerving gaze of Miss Westin. There was no way anyone was cheating. The Headmistress had made a special announcement about her zero-tolerance cheating policy last week-all the time looking at Jeremy and Sarah Covington.

“Let them try,” Fiona said. “They’ll get caught.”

“But there are other ways to influence Paxington’s precious grading curve,” Louis murmured. “For my sake, please keep your eyes and ears open for danger. What harm could that do?”

“I suppose. . ”

Fiona got the feeling that Louis knew more than he was telling, and just as important, that his concern for her was genuine.

She sighed. “I want to believe you. I want to trust you. You’re just so. . untrustworthy! Why did you steal Eliot’s phone? He got into massive trouble.”

Louis’s smile entirely vanished and his gaze dropped to the ground. “Oh, yes. . that. It was the only way I could reach your mother. She is good at covering her tracks, and I needed to know where you lived.”

He took a deep breath and continued. “So when I saw Eliot’s phone. . I borrowed it.” Louis looked up, and there was none of the usual mocking in his eyes. “I had planned on returning it the very next time I saw him. . but that never quite happened. His phone, though, it had your address programmed into its tiny brain. That’s how I sent the Faberge egg. I had hoped Audrey might remember how it was between her and me once. . and perhaps. .”

Louis shook his head, and his hand curled over his heart. “But I supposed she has already dashed the lovely thing into a million pieces, hasn’t she?”

Fiona didn’t have the heart to answer. She stared at him, which was enough to communicate all that had happened.

He stood mute.

She knew a little of how this must feel-not being able to be with the one you felt the most for. But she couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to have that person utterly reject you.

“Maybe I could talk to her,” Fiona said.

Louis chuckled. “Oh no, my dear. Audrey would never hear of it. And I’m sure she would find some suitable punishment for speaking on the behalf of such a disreputable character.”

“But if you still love her-?”

“Some things are beyond the reach of even love,” he whispered. He hesitated, opened his mouth, stopped, but then finally said, “Just one more thing before I leave you this morning. About Eliot. The boy should not be alone. Things will be tricky for him. Stay close.”

Fiona believed that Louis truly cared for Eliot.

Quite possibly her, too.

And most especially Audrey.

They were so close to being a real family. . and yet it felt like they were light-years