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My heartbeat still picks up at the sight of him. I meet his gaze in the mirror and smile, anxious if he’ll like what I’ve done, but the look on his face is serious and I don’t know if he’d notice if I’d dyed my hair pink. He’s so lost in thought, it takes him a full minute to rearrange his features, mask what I just glimpsed, and force a tight smile.
“Voila,” Jacque says, swiping away the protective robe around my shoulders with a flourish. Is he oblivious to the tension Zeke carried in with him?
Zeke blinks and his eyes focus on me.
I push my hair behind my ear. The blue is gone, my hair dyed close to its natural black with deep maroon lowlights. It’s shorter, coming to my chin in layered waves. The biggest change is the thick fringe of bangs that hit just above my eyelashes which Jacque shellacked with heaps of mascara.
Jacque ruffles my hair yet again. “Sets off her eyes, don’t you think?” he asks, his gaze on my reflection in the mirror.
Zeke is momentarily speechless.
I turn the chair and stand to face him. “Don’t you like it?” I ask, unsure now, thinking maybe I shouldn’t have let Jacque cut off so much because it falls too short to bring forward and cover the scar.
Zeke takes my hand, and I am aware I was doing just that. He pushes the hair back from my face.
“It does set off her eyes,” he says to Jacque but looks at me. “I like it. I like it very much.”
I smile, feeling relieved. “Thanks,” I say to them both.
“Ready?” Zeke asks me.
I nod. “Should we pack up the clothes?”
“Someone will pick them up later today,” he says and looks me over. I’ve changed into a pair of jeans and casual V-neck T-shirt. They’re definitely more me. “You know where to send the bill?”
Jacque nods and Zeke wraps his hand around the back of my neck to lead me out.
“Where did you go?” I ask as we climb into the SUV.
“Just a quick errand,” he says, and I know he’s holding something back.
“What errand?”
He shakes his head. “My brother and I have been invited to Councilor Augustus’s home for a chat.”
“What?”
“I’m taking you to the house. You’ll stay there with Isabelle until we’re back.”
“You can’t go!”
“How do you expect me to not go?”
I worry my lip, push my hand into my hair as I think. “Does he know it was you who killed Hoxton?”
“Not sure. We’ll find out, I guess.”’
“But—”
He takes my hand, squeezes it. “He has something to lose, Blue. If he didn’t, he’d have hauled me in front of The Tribunal.”
“I don’t want you to go,” I tell him, afraid for him, for myself, for Wren. Even for Jericho.
“It’s fine. You’ll be safe and I’ll be fine. Augustus doesn’t scare me.”
“What about Girard? Doesn’t he scare you?”
Zeke shakes his head casually as he pulls to a stop at a traffic light and turns to look at me fully. “I have faced and toppled monsters Blue. These two are no different. And remember, I, too, can be monstrous.”
