Page 57

Chapter 16

Toni sat looking at the board, stunned.

“How did you—”

“I told you, my dear. I’ve had plenty of practice, on the board and the battlefield.”

She looked at Kenton. “Then what’s his excuse?”

They sat in Lawrence’s parlor, the furnishings making Toni feel like she’d stepped back in time a few hundred years. The rich cranberry curtains and matching carpet screamed privilege. Above them, an enormous chandelier hung from a sky-blue ceiling. The contrast between the colors made Toni’s head hurt if she looked around too quickly.

Alessandra and Kenton sat on the loveseat across from where she and Lawrence were perched on the edge of two velvet chairs, both looking at the game board in defeat.

“He’s English,” Lawrence responded before Kenton could defend himself.

Though the two men glared at each other, their enmity seemed to thaw a bit more every time she was around them. Alessandra made a face at Lawrence while wrapping her arms around Kenton as if to console him.

If only someone would console Toni. She hadn’t made enough preemptive attacks. Losing Europe had been her downfall.

“In my defense,” she felt the need to add, “I’m still not feeling one hundred percent.”

The others smirked and shook their heads. No one was buying it.

“Seriously! My head is still foggy—”

“Or maybe you’ve just met your match?” Lawrence’s double meaning wasn’t lost on her. In fact, she was pretty sure she had. She couldn’t remember a more pleasant afternoon after checking in with Birdie and making sure she and her uncle were OK.

“We’ll see what happens once I’m fully recovered.”

She’d meant in the game, of course, but when her eyes caught Lawrence’s, she felt herself clench in anticipation. They weren’t a matter of if, but when. And Toni had never looked forward to something more in her life.

“So,” Alessandra interrupted their stare-off. “Not to be a Debbie Downer—”

“But you’re going to be one anyway,” she ventured.

“We have to get going. Garrett is coming in tonight—”

“He is?” Garrett had stayed in town for half the summer, developing his Cheld abilities right alongside Alessandra, but he’d left a few weeks ago. She hadn’t expected him to come back so soon. “What did they say?”

After discovering the truth about his family’s lineage, Garrett had petitioned to finish his final year of graduate school remotely.

“They’re going to let him do it.”

“Good! So he’s coming back to stay then?”

Alessandra and Kenton exchanged a glance.

“No?”

“Not exactly.” Alessandra didn’t look happy. “He’s heading to Rochester to do some digging.”

“Rochester?” Lawrence asked.

“That’s where Alessandra’s dad is from.” Alessandra’s dad, who was presumably a Cheld. He’d left the family without a word when her friend was just a kid. Six months later, his kayak had been discovered in the ocean near Long Branch, New Jersey. He’d been declared dead. At the time, no one had doubted it, but Garrett wanted to dig deeper. He’d found rose stems in his father’s things—the same ones used to block the Cheld. They might not have known what they were, but their father had. “How does he plan to afford that?”

Alessandra and Kenton spoke at once.

“By using his savings—”