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Neither Eli or I h the kitchen doorway, I spread my hands on the counter "What else can I do, Eli?" I asked "Do you have any better ideas?"

"Stop trying to save Molly," he said iht into that one Stupid, stupid Scarlett "You’re the only person in this whole o--"

"Molly dies," I interrupted

"She did it, didn’t she?" he countered "She adirls She should be punished And you don’t owe her anything She’s barely spoken to you in years, over so that was never your fault" For the first ti her distance froht have been really sweet if he wasn’t being pigheaded and stupid

"So because Molly hurt o, the people who are actually responsible for killing eight girls and turning four against their will should justgo free?" I said hotly "No fucking way"

"Have you considered that pushing to save Molly could actually entled "Look, at the end of the day, Molly killed a bunch of girls She goes on trial, she’s sentenced to death, that’s clean The system works But if you wade into thisvampires in LA and Dashiell can’t stop them, that causes chaos At the exact time e can’t afford it And I don’t know about Kirsten, but Dashiell and Will know all this"

"They said I could--"

"What? Look for clues?" he said, his tone derisive "Dashiell has about asabilities as I have in Scooby-Doo’s He ht, but think about what he didn’t do He didn’t mobilize his security teahts, or even put the word out for vaainst this boundary witch Because he expects you to fail"

I sat there openh to stick the knife in He had to twist it "Scarlett," Eli said in a pitying tone, "he sent you on a wild goose chase to keep you calm and well-behaved before the Trials So you wouldn’t kick up a fuss"

I scooted back init to squeak on the linoleuh my teeth "While I do that, how about you call your alpha and see where he wants you tonight?"

Without waiting for a response, I stalked out the back door, which I did not slarownup

Chapter 23

Jesse was out of the cottage and nearly to his car when he heard Eli’s voice behind him "Hey, Wunderkind! Wait up!"

Jesse rolled his eyes and turned around to see the olf jogging--no, loping, he thought, that was definitely a man-shaped lope--toward hiht you and I had an understanding," Eli practically growled

Jesse was taken aback "Is this like a ‘stay away fro I’ht now--"