Twice Born

Chapter 15

Eve isn’t responding. I’m so shocked by the blood that I don’t consider what her presence means. By then, it’s too late. She has burrowed into every corner of my mind, unearthing all of the secrets I kept from her. Her rage gathers like storm clouds.

You knew that woman? You planned to use her against me?

“What did you do to her, Eve?”

I don’t wait for a reply. Seizing control, I whirl around and head around the house. My legs still feel sluggish and unsure, and I nearly trip over a mound of dirt. Fear pulses through me in rhythm with my pounding heart. I pray that I’m wrong and Celine is fine. Eve wouldn’t possibly do this. She wouldn’t kill an innocent, no matter how angry she is at me.

I see a flash of Celine’s floral skirt behind the pile of firewood. Pressing a hand to my mouth, I walk up to her prone body. She lies on her back in the grass, her eyes closed. Blood trickles down her forehead and over her left ear. The source of the redness on the wood still in my hand. I fling it to the ground and stumble over to a hedge. Bending over, I retch.

My empty stomach yields nothing, but I can’t seem to stop my impulse to vomit.

Are you finished? Eve asks.

If she were in front of me, I would punch her. I don’t care that she knows it. You killed her. Eve, you killed an innocent. She wasn’t a Tracker!

She also wasn’t dead last I checked.

I scramble over to Celine’s body and peer down closely. Her chest moves up and down—barely. But she’s not dead yet. Relief overtakes me, but I’m still angry. You wouldn’t have cared if she died, would you?

Self-preservation.

What does that even mean? You didn’t know anything about her until just now.

“I woke in the dirt to find a woman kneeling over my body,” she says. “What would you have me do in such a situation? If you’d told me you were planning on being out here with this woman I’ve never met or heard of, I might’ve been a little less hostile.”

I don’t answer her. Not that she gives me the chance to respond; she knows exactly why I kept Celine hidden from her. It’s pointless to put up a pretense now.

“All this time, I assumed you were becoming more accommodating, but instead you were out here plotting against me. You even stole my dagger!”

Eve’s anger batters my mind. The past hour of shifting hasn’t helped. I’m so weak that when she pushes to the front again, her strength surging through me and eclipsing the hunger-induced fatigue, I’m helpless to stop her.

“I’ve had enough of this.” She races away from the house, down the slope and in the direction I came from.

Where are you going?

Reclaiming what’s mine.

The dagger. Alarmed, I say, You know what that blade will do to Celine’s husband. You’ll hurt him as much as any Tracker you plan to torture.

She exhales a laugh, her arms swinging hard as she passes the barn. The sun has disappeared now, and the world is caught in twilight. It’s less strange that she’s here now.

Sweet little Bree. Always looking out for others. I don’t care what happens to him or to you or to anyone else. I’m done compromising with you.

When has she ever compromised with me?

You’re pretty self-centered, you know that? Eve asks.