I press my forehead against the wall.Focus, Amund. I can’t lose my cool or let my emotions get the better of me. If Nils won’t listen to me, then I have to make sure Edith does. I can’t hesitate this time. If I do, my brother could be next. I won’t let Nils become her victim.
I don’t care what I have to do.
Even if it means waiting for her outside Helga’s office like a dog. Quieting my thoughts, I strain to listen, hoping I can catch some of the conversation happening inside. Even with my heightened senses, I can’t hear—
The door opens, jolting me.
Edith walks out into the hall, rubbing her hands down her arms nervously. I narrow my eyes, trying to get a read on her. She’s clearly agitated. Her conversation with Helga must not have gone well. Hopefully she’s been expelled. She deserves to be locked up, but it’s a start.
Until she’s gone, I need to make sure she doesn’t go anywhere near Nils.
I block her path. “Stay away from my brother.”
Edith looks at me with such disdain, it’s impossible to believe she ever smiled at me. When we first met, she seemed friendly and kind, so unlike any hunter. I thought there could be something there.
Now her full lips turn into a scowl. “I don’t take orders.”
“It’s not an order,” I say, voice rough. “It’s a warning.”
“Whatever.”
Edith goes to push past me, dismissing me.
A mistake.
I back her against the wall. My arms shoot out on either side of her, caging her in. Edith peers up at me, searching my face in alarm.
Her gray eyes are the color of a stormy sky. This close, I can make out flecks of brown, too, the same shade as the harsh terrain beyond Skallagrim’s gates. Edith is like the Wilds. Beautiful but dangerous.
“What do you want?” she asks, breathless.
My gaze lowers to her mouth. All I can think of is how soft those lips of hers look. What they might feel like against mine, if everything were different. If she weren’t who she is. If I weren’t who I am. I lean in, catching a faint whiff of her floral perfume.
It doesn’t matter what I want.
All that matters is what I have to do.
“I know you killed Emilía.” I bring my face closer to hers. Centimeters separate us. “So listen carefully, Edith, because this is the only warning I’ll give you.” I whisper against her ear. “Hurt my brother, and Iwillhunt you down.”
I head straight for Father’s office next.
As I’m walking through the halls, I can’t get Edith off my mind. There has to be something in her file, something that can help us get her expelled. I pull out her stolen file and flip through the pages as I go.I’m far enough from Helga’s office now that anyone who sees me reading will assume it’s schoolwork.
A detailed history of her upbringing. Apparently Edith and her sister stayed with an uncle first, but that didn’t work out. I grip the folder tighter. He’d recently gone through a divorce, and then losing his sister… the other Helga made notes about alcohol usage and concern for the girls’ safety.
I dismiss a swell of sympathy and keep reading.
After their uncle’s, the sisters went into foster care.
So Edith not only lost her parents, but she was also nearly separated from her sister. I swallow past the lump in my throat. She’s the oldest child too. Shouldn’t Edith understand that I just want to protect my brother? Wouldn’t she do the same for Beatrice?
The more I read, the more I realize all we have in common.
We’re both killers.
Unlike her, you kill to protect people,I remind myself.
When I flip the next page, it’s all handwritten. Detailed notes and observations about Edith. These must have been recorded by the other Helga.
