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Jesse got into the car and locked the door But he couldn’t help hiht?" he called

Eli paused His shoulders were tensed, his fingers curled like claws He turned around slowly, scowling

"Three years ago, she picked you," Jesse went on, not without sy she wasn’t"

Eli actually stuh Jesse had shoved hiearshift and drove away

Chapter 24

I had a practice area behind the house, with a big foaoods store and a s knives Shadoho had followedand trotted over to her usual spot, a stone bench that was part of the landscaping It was close enough for her to keep an eye on h away that even when I’d first started out, I didn’t accidentally send a knife her way She leapt gracefully onto the ly small ball with her eyes on me

I saw this out of the corner of et and yanked out the knives I’d left last ti clunk These weren’t tipped in silver--I only had one of those, though I trained with it regularly--or particularly pretty, but they were great for practice And for letting off steam I counted off twenty paces, the bucket clutched in h, I foundthe little house I had uest cottage was the first place I’d lived in this city that felt like ho it foisted on me when I had no time and few options, or maybe because I had personally painted the walls and helped move in the furniture I had made choices on this house, and I’d been happy here After nearly three years, it felt more like my own than any place I’d ever been

And yet I suddenly felt like I was seeing it for the first ti had beco it because Jesse was in ain, but that didn’t make the differences any less valid

Was Eli right? Had Dashiell and the others sent me on a useless hunt for clues just to keep an? Had they already decided to drop the whole thing and let the bad guys get aith fra that And Will would probably go along with it--he wasn’t passive, our alpha olf, but he was pragmatic when it cah But Molly had killed a Friend of the Witches Did Kirsten want justice badly enough to overlook the nuances?

I whirled around, fast as I could, and threw the first knife People think knives spin around in the air, but that’s a cute party trick, the kind of thing they do at circuses andknife, I’ fan of the quarter-turn et

The first knife hit the bullseye And the second And the third When the bullseye circle was too crowded forthe a proble toward some kind of point of no return He treatedoutside of our relationship, he acted like I was a porcelain doll Wait, I thought, my hand frozen on the handle of one of the eht It was more that he treated uilt-stricken girl who blaotten all twisted up bywith self-destructive misadventures My relationship with Eli had started out as one of thoseto think this was how he still saw me Someone to be protected To be saved He loved me in a way that was uncos He didn’t want me to be any more than I already was He loved me broken

But what if I wasn’t so broken anymore?