Elsie blinks, frowning at my cryptic question, but I don’t elaborate. I wish I could, but Elliot’s curse is not my secret to tell. So I simply wait as she thinks for a moment, then shrugs.
“I’d love you anyway,” she says. “Doesn’t matter if you can feel it or not. As long as you know it’s there.”
She turns, prepared to disappear into her room, but stops short.
“But I’d still try,” she adds.
“Try what?”
“To make you feel it. Life without love sounds too lonely. I could never leave you like that.”
“Even though it’s impossible?” I ask.
Elsie nods, opal eyes glimmering in the afternoon sunlight, little flecks of magic fading in and out as she stares at me, smile firmly fixed in place.
“I’m Elsie Rosewater,” she says simply. “Impossible is my specialty. And besides, wouldn’t you do anything? For the people you love? Isn’t that how it works?”
Her tone tells me she isn’t just speaking of theory, and I nod.
“Yeah, I guess it is.”
She disappears through the doorway, and I sit listening to the muffled shuffling and bumping as she tears her room apart for another outfit. When she reappears, she’s wearing her usual sundress, this one in a bright red shade that warms her deep skin.
“I have to go,” she says.
“Okay. But if you don’t tell me what’s going on soon, I’m going to start following you. I hope you know that.”
She laughs, eyes pinching at the corners as she hides her mouth behind her hand.
“I love you.”
“I love you too,” I say, shooing her.
“See? That wasn’t so hard.”
She gathers her things before moving to the center of the living room, preparing to wink out of sight to god knows where. But she pauses one last time.
“You should check the admissions rolls,” she says. “They keep a directory of all registered students. Bloodline, power scaling, everything. They have a file on everyone. You’re probably looking for a half-blood or less. If there’s a demon enrolled at Highcrest, they’ll be listed on the rolls.”
I nod.
“Be safe,” she says.
“You too.”
With a single snap of her fingers, she’s gone, and I’m back to feeling like the earth should just swallow me whole. It’d be less painful, surely.
In hopes of washing away a bit of my self-pity, I shower. For much longer than I intend. But once the steam starts to invade my lungs and I hear my brother’s voice whispering for me to get my ass up, I shut off the water. It takes me a while longer to find the energy to get dressed, but as Isaac likes to say, it’s hard to be depressed when you know you look good. So I put on old faithful. A well-loved mini skirt that hits my mid-thigh just right, and a tight top, before picking up my phone.
“Hello!”
Kitty’s sweet voice crackles in my ear as she answers the phone with more excitement than the tiny speaker can handle.
“Hey,” I say, unable to match her enthusiasm but still trying my best not to sound absolutely defeated. “Does the Crescent council have access to the admissions rolls?”
She pauses, and the line is silent for a few seconds before she returns.
“Dame says no. Why, what’re you looking for?”
