Eli had not slept more than three hours a night for eight days. There was nothing in the world that could hide her exhaustion. Not makeup, not caffeine. Knox had her running around, chasing one lead after another like she didn't have better things to do. They needed to know if someone within the Elites was behind it, he insisted. If Eli ever got her hands on whoever released it, she was going to throttle them for the extra work. The whole ordeal was a pain.
Morale was nonexistent at headquarters and back at home. Alex was doing his best to seem cheerful, even when working, but his shoulders sagged when he thought nobody was watching. He ate less and hardly spoke. It was unnerving. Eli would never say it to his face, but she did miss telling him to shut up.
Klaus had fallen back into his old habit of disappearing and reappearing at strange hours. Sometimes, he'd come back with bruises and bloodied fists. He wouldn't talk unless it was to tell Eli or Alex that he was fine. Neither of them was allowed a closer look at his wounds. Reports would roll in later about the trouble he'd caused - sometimes for Hunters, sometimes for the government, and other times for regular assholes. If he didn't cut it out soon, Knox was probably going to have him dragged in and locked up until he'd calmed down.
"You can't keep doing this," Eli said, struggling to keep her voice even. Alex and Aria were sitting at the table with her. Alex looked as worried as Eli felt, mouth pulling down into a frown.
Klaus stood in the doorway, left eye swollen and a nasty slash across his arm dripping blood onto the ground.
"I'll get the first-aid kit," Alex said.
"Don't bother," Klaus answered. "I'm fine."
"Don't be stupid," Eli snapped.
Aria's eyes darted between the three of them.
She was the only one that seemed okay those past few weeks. She acted the same as always - watching Eli with careful, untrusting eyes and cultivating her little garden. She managed to drag Klaus outside for a spar once in a while and coax a decent meal into Alex with doe eyes and honeyed words. Eli wondered if it was her abilities that did the work or if she just had the two wrapped around her fingers.
Maybe, Eli thought, she could get that idiot to see reason.
"I'm not being stupid," Klaus said hotly. "I'm fine."
"You're definitely f-"
""Let's just eat," Aria broke in.
Klaus didn't join them though. He just stared angrily at the table like it had insulted his mother.
"If you're not eating," she threatened, "neither am I."
It was a silly, childish threat, but it got him to sit with them at the table to eat. They ate in silence. Eli didn't care for it, but she wasn't going to be the one to break it. Klaus bounced his leg up and down under the table. Aria left the table first. They heard her go out through the front door, the door clicking shut behind her.
Alex sagged beside Eli, relief flickering across his face before he could hide it in his hands. He rubbed his temples, slowly breathing out. Even if he was unusually quiet, he was still as expressive as ever.
Klaus hesitated before speaking. "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing," he muttered, waving off Klaus' concern.
Klaus scowled.
"See how it feels?" Alex said, voice muffled, unable to help himself.
"Oh, fuck off."
When Alex looked up, laughing, his eyes strayed the way Aria had disappeared. Eli took it as a sign she should go after her, so she did.
Aria wasn't anywhere in sight when Eli went outside. The only thing that greeted her was a cold, violent gust of wind.
Where did you go? Eli wanted to ask.
Eli went out into the woods, telling herself there was no way Aria would be foolish enough to wander in there so late. She walked and walked, even if she was certain she was the only living thing there among the crickets.
The steel blade of a knife shot out from behind a tree.
Eli reacted without thinking, catching her attacker's wrist and slamming them into the nearest tree. They held on tight to their knife, narrowed black eyes meeting Eli's before they went wide with recognition.
Aria lowered her blade, swallowing. "You could have asked if you wanted to join me," she said. "I thought I was being stalked. By someone else, I mean."
Eli's gaze dropped unconsciously to the column of her throat before she caught herself, quickly looking back at her face. "You wouldn't have attacked if you knew it was me?"
"No, I would have hit harder."
Eli laughed in surprise. "Don't pick fights that you can't win."
Aria shrugged and walked off ahead. "Don't follow people in the woods in the middle of the night."
Eli quickened her pace to catch up, utterly shameless about being caught. "It's risky to go off the path when you don't know your way around here. There's a lot of woods. If you get lost, there's no guarantee one of us will find you."
Aria tipped her head back, fragments of moonlight caressing her skin. "I didn't realize," she said. "I just wanted some fresh air."
Eli didn't believe her, but she didn't say so. It didn't matter that she didn't voice her thoughts though because Aria turned around to look at her, like she knew what Eli was thinking. Aria didn't say anything either, she just stared at her unrepentantly with a blank face, waiting.
"How's the sparring practice going?"
Aria stepped forward with the beginnings of a smile playing at her lips. "Won't you fight me to find out?"
"Didn't I just beat you?"
Her smile twisted into something dangerously close to a pout. "I want a rematch! My balance was off!"
"Right now? In the middle of the woods, Siren?"
"Well, why not?"
"There are about a hundred different ways you could get hurt here for one."
"In front of the cabin, then?" Aria asked, a note of pleading in her voice. She leaned closer, hands clasped together.
Eli looked away from her and huffed out an agreement. Aria brightened up and grabbed onto Eli's arm without a warning, pulling the both of them in the direction of the cabin. It seemed Aria was more familiar with the woods than Eli thought. She led them back on her own even though they were off the path, buzzing with sudden energy.
The first time Eli sparred her instead of merely watching was a pleasant surprise. Aria's blows had been stronger than they looked from the side-lines and she moved impossibly fast. Too fast sometimes to keep a steady center of balance, but she was more of a challenge than Eli had expected. The fight had been short, but it had been fun. She'd caught herself smiling in the midst of it.
This time was no different.
Aria moved like water - one movement flowing into the next. She was quick to dodge Eli's first blow, dropping down like a swooping wave, trying to sweep Eli's legs out from beneath her. Eli stepped to the side to avoid it, leg striking in Aria's direction. Aria sprung up and out of the way, light on her feet in a way few were. She held her own longer than the last time. Aria didn't run out of steam after losing the first round. She pulled herself up off the ground, voice calm when she said, "Again."
Eli obliged.
"Again."
"Again."
"Again."
"Again."
The cool-headedness from earlier was slipping away to reveal a desperate look that Eli couldn't understand. Losing didn't seem to jar Aria, nor did she seem to mind it. Eli could see her make adjustments based on each loss, but she was starting to tire out.
"I think that's enough for tonight," Eli said when Aria hit the ground for the seventh time that night. "There is such a thing as too much practice, you know."
There was sweat on her brow and she was breathing hard from where she laid on the grass. There was dirt streaked across her cheek and her hair was in wild disarray. Eli was helpless to look away.
"I can keep going."
"I'm tired," Eli said. It wasn't a lie. It had been a long day and Aria's speed was still tricky to keep up with. She sat down before her with a barely suppressed groan. Her muscles were definitely going to be sore tomorrow.
"I need more practice. I'm of no use like this."
"If you want to stay up, there are other things for you to practice. Figure out how to use your voice so you can protect yourself better."
"So I can be a better weapon, you mean?"
Ah, maybe Eli was more transparent than she liked to think. Surely not, she told herself, or she wouldn't have made it this far. Aria just had the freakish ability to see through her. "Your power is useful."
"So I've been told," she agreed with an uncharacteristically bitter laugh. "I suppose getting better control of it would make me more useful."
"It would give us the upper hand."
Aria sighed, swinging her arm over her eyes. "I know."
â
Eli woke up sore, but she'd slept well for five straight hours courtesy of Aria's exhausting persistence. Being at headquarters wasn't completely unbearable, even with everything she had to do. She still had no leads on who their leak was, but something would crop up at some point. There was no way the responsible party had left no trace at all.
"Why'd Delacroix stop showing up?" one of the newer recruits asked, poking his head into her office.
Eli frowned. Klaus hadn't set foot in headquarters since before Aria showed up. This guy would never have seen him here. "When did you meet him?"
The recruit shrugged. "A while back. He was here nearly every day for a while."
Eli put down her coffee and dearly hoped she was wrong. Either way, she had a new lead.