Chapter 199

Charlotte and I flipped through the fabrics on the table near the sewing machines.

“It has to be a bright color, right? Something that says, I’m having fun,” I said. I picked up a bolt of red fabric. “What about this one?”

Charlotte shook her head. “Red means danger. You’ll give someone an anxiety attack.”

That… was a good point. Red was the color of blood and stop signs and red flags. I lowered the bolt of fabric.

“Blue is more relaxing.” Charlotte held up a bolt with a pattern of deep blue flowers.

“But does it say fun? I look at that and feel like I need to take a nap.”

Charlotte lowered the fabric back to the table, then touched her finger to her chin. We looked both looked over the table once more.

Dark purple was out. Green might work, but… Green was the color of money. It would probably remind the people about their debts? Or was I overthinking this? My head was starting to hurt.

“What about a golden orange-yellow?” Charlotte asked. She picked up three distinct fabrics. A pastel yellow, a warm creamy orange, and a shimmering gold. “We could do layers. You’d look like literal sunshine.”

“That could work!” I clapped my hands together.

“Great,” Charlotte said, bright too.

Elva made a show of walking toward us, just to make a loud humph noise, and storm away into the closet. She slammed the door behind her.

I gave Charlotte an apologetic look.

Charlotte shrugged. “I’d be disappointed too, if I was the kid. Though I agree with your side of it, of course.”

“Thanks.”

I’d already told Elva that she couldn’t attend this event with me. She usually enjoyed the dances, and I wished she could have fun at this one too.

But with the plan to catch Jane brewing, likely to culminate at the event, I couldn’t risk Elva being there. Especially if Jane could use the close proximity to amplify Elva’s curse. Though, I couldn’t say any of that to Elva. I was trying to shield her from as much of the danger as I could.

But without revealing the real reason, every fake reason I came up with sounded like a lie. Even Elva could tell.

Though the one I had used to put my foot down, “They ran out of girls’ sized dresses,” was the lamest of the bunch. She knew we made all the dresses. I’d panicked.

I didn’t know what to do.

At the very least, I could apologize.

So I walked to the closet door and knocked. “Elva? Can I talk to you?”

Her little, sniffling voice came through the door. “Can I go to the party?”

“No, honey, I’m sorry.”

“Then, no!” she shouted.

“Please, Elva. I just want to apologize. I’m so sorry for hurting your feelings. I wish you could come to the ball with me, I do. But you just can’t…” I said.

The door opened a crack, and Elva looked through it with one eye. “Why not?”

I didn’t want to lie anymore. “You just can’t.”

“But… I can be g-good. I’ll do chores!”

“Oh, honey, you are good! It has nothing to do with how you’ve behaved.” I dropped to my knees, coming down to be level with her. “It’s not your fault at all.”

The eye of Elva’s that I could see welled with tears. “It’s not fair…”

“No,” I agreed. “It’s not. I’m so sorry, honey.”

Slowly, the door opened more, and she stepped out. She held out her arms, asking for a hug, and I returned it at once. I held her as she cried, and I cried a bit too.

When Jane was captured, and everything was safe again, I would take her to every event I could. Every ball. Every dinner. I’d make her a hundred different dresses if it would make her smile.

But first, I had to make her safe.

That evening, I joined Veronica, Nicholas, and Julian in Julian’s private rooms, where we continued to talk about how to trap Jane.

“I’ve been thinking,” Veronica said. “It is possible, if you want, to fight fire with fire.”

“I like fire,” Julian said.

I ignored him. “What do you mean, Veronica?”

“We could curse her, as she cursed Elva,” she said.

I blinked, startled. “You know how to do that?”

“I’ve never done it before, but I was trained,” Veronica said. There was no infliction in her voice, but she did lower her gaze as she spoke, looking down at the floor. “I’m confident I could curse her well enough for our purposes.”

Julian looked at me. Beside me, Nicholas crossed his arms. I leaned into him a little.

“It’s something to consider, anyway,” Julian said. “She started it. Why shouldn’t we use her tactics against her? She lost her right to decency the moment she targeted Elva.”

The words held truth, but something held me back yet. Jane was more monster than person now, but… did that mean it was okay to stoop to her level?

I looked at Veronica. She stood very still, but that wasn’t unusual.

She saw me watching. “Do not hold back on my account. I have no qualms against doing what is necessary. In fact, I might enjoy using their training against them.”

I believed that to an extent. But… to cast her curse against Elva, Jane had to sacrifice something dear to her. Would whatever Veronica sacrificed be worth it to curse Jane?

The rest of us would be sacrificing something too: our humanity. We’d become monsters, just like Jane.

“We can’t do it,” I said.

“Why not?” Julian asked.

Beside me, Nicholas continued to be silent, like he was letting this all unfold. Maybe he was leaving the choice to me. Maybe he’d go along with whatever I wanted. I felt his silent support in his closeness.

“We are not the same as her,” I said. “And we will not become like her just to catch her.”

“But if it helps Elva –” Julian argued.

“Would it help Elva? How would she feel, when she grows up and learns the truth? To learn what we did to her mother?” I asked.

“She’d understand,” Julian said.

I didn’t know if I believed that, but regardless it was a gamble I wasn’t willing to take.

“We catch her, and we do what we need to do then,” Nicholas said at last. “But we do not curse her. Piper’s right. We are not going to lower ourselves to commit torture.”

Julian snorted.

“Do you have something else to say, Julian?” Nicholas glared at his brother.

Julian stood up like he was ready to fight, but one look at me, and my pleading face, and he swallowed his words and sat back down. “Forget it.”

Veronica nodded. She didn’t seem bothered by the choice, nor did she seem pleased. She was impassive as ever. Then, Veronica and Julian shared a subtle glance.

I watched it happen, but I had no idea what it meant, or even if it meant anything.

It was over too soon for me to call it out. They could easily deny it.

So long as the two weren’t planning on cursing anyone, I supposed it wasn’t a big deal if they shared a moment of displeasure against me.

Nicholas held out his arm for me. “Come on, Piper. I’ll walk you back to your room.”

Julian stood up again. This time, he didn’t hold his tongue.

“No,” he snapped. “That’s not going to happen.”