I shove those thoughts aside as I’ve had to a thousand times already and draw my posture straight. When my gaze catches on the mirror, Mom’s murmured remark from so many years ago drifts up.
“Look at you. Hair like the mahogany they fill their houses with, skin like the gold they deck themselves out in. How could you not belong with those fancy folks, Elodie Ishani Devine?”
At home where no one could hear her, she called me by the name she and Dad gave me, the name that was on my birth certificate before my grandparents destroyed it. She never let me forget that I was born a Devine.
It didn’t make a difference to the harpies at school, of course. But this time, I have real gold backing me up. I don’t have to take anyone’s bullshit, if they’d even dare to try it with this Elodie.
Fuck them all.
The house chef has left out breakfast for me on the gleaming marble island that’s as big as our entire kitchen back in my apartment. A tingle of collected ephemera tells me the dishes are enchanted so the plate stays warm, the bowl and glass of juice cool.
Such luxury.
I perch on the suede-padded stool and gulp down equal parts of scrambled eggs, blueberry parfait, and guilt. Eating a meal that’s meant for spoiled rich-girl Elodie shouldn’t taste this good.
I even have to give the chef points for nutritional value. Maintaining my carefully balanced diet has only gotten easier since Daphne dragged me here.
The kitchen is well-stocked enough that I don’t think anyone will notice one small paring knife has vanished. I slip it into the pocket of my blazer.
I’m not going out to meet a horde of potential murderers without a little steel on me.
My aunt meets me in the front hall. She’s a lot less wobbly than she was Friday evening, but the sense of frenetic energy hasn’t left her. Her hands never lie still, always flicking and fluttering.
She tucks back a strand of my hair with a jerky movement as if she’s afraid I’ll bite her. “Whether you head straight home or want to spend some time after classes talking to people, you can come and go when you want. The security is keyed to your—Elodie’s—presence.”
Of course it is. I fit into my doppelganger’s physical space in this world as automatically as I unlocked her phone.
Too bad she’s my opposite in every way other than our genetics.
“Just take it easy and keep your eyes open,” Daphne goes on. “If you notice anything that seems at all unusual, text me right away.”
I nod. “And don’t get re-murdered. I know the plan.”
She winces at the comment but then manages to smile. “You’ll do great, Elodie. We’ll make sure this villain doesn’t walk free.”
I hurry out before she decides I should put on a superhero costume instead.
I’d imagine at least one of the cars in the house-sized garage belongs to Other Elodie, but arrival by chauffeur is a much better show of status. Daphne didn’t even ask my preference. A man in a suit is standing by the open passenger door to a sleek Lexus.
At least that makes my trek to school a little less stressful.
It isn’t a long trip. Luminary Academy was founded nearly a hundred and fifty years ago at the southern edge of the city’s most prestigious but still central neighborhood, because the magical elites wanted convenience as well as cachet.
Since then, most of that neighborhood has gradually been taken over by the top lucent families without the drab—ordinary human—citizens having a clue. There’s plenty of ephemera in the old homes and older landscapes to fuel all the illusions needed to hide our community’s unusual activities.
The academy itself—named I think because every headmaster and mistress has loved being able to call the students “our Luminous lucents”—sprawls across multiple imposing stone buildings and what should be four city blocks. My chauffeur drops me off at the edge of the main green.
Scrambling out, I grip the strap of my ridiculously expensive satchel. From what I’ve seen, the students who make up Luminary Academy’s typical elite crowd meander around the sprawling lawn for a while gathering with their friends before deigning to enter the buildings for class. I should probably do the same. It’ll be easier to let Other Elodie’s obnoxious partners-in-snobbery find her than for me to find them.
Thankfully, I was able to dig up her locker number and her class schedule. She’s mostly taking the same subjects I was, so I shouldn’t make a fool of myself navigating the actual educational part of my academy appearances.
I stroll across the grass with feigned nonchalance, tossing my hair in the clover-scented breeze. Despite the faint chill thanks to the clouded sky overhead, a bead of sweat trickles down my back.
Various familiar faces pass me, with nods and cautious smiles from people who’d never have bothered to acknowledge the real me.
It’s going to be fine. I have power here. I’m the heir to one of the most established and respected lucent families in the country. I?—
My gaze halts on one especially familiar face, and the chatter around me fades into static.
