“Fab.”
 
 Making a run for itwouldget me captured again, and possibly thrown into a cell of rotting flowers to die a slow death I wouldn’t be coming back from.
 
 No kicking second chances in the bollocks for me.
 
 But I think he mourns you, too.
 
 Yeah, not goingthere.
 
 I joined her, facing the doorway. “What about your bare feet?”
 
 “Don’t worry about me, sugar.”
 
 “Sugar?”
 
 “I used to say it a lot before my mind was wiped by…whatever did it.” She cracked her knuckles. “After three. One, two?—”
 
 “Paris?”
 
 Elio stood behind the holly bushes, a gun in his hand.
 
 Oh, fuck.
 
 CHAPTER FORTY
 
 PARIS
 
 The elf’s hand trembled, his finger too shaky on the trigger.
 
 Medusa grabbed my arm. “We don’t have time for this.”
 
 “Who…who are you?” the elf demanded in a shaky voice. “And how are you… No, no, no. You’re supposed to be gone.”
 
 Ugh. I bet he’d performed a jig of extreme happiness when Silvanus broke my neck.
 
 But I think he mourns you, too.
 
 Medusa tugged me toward the doorway.
 
 “Don’t move!” Elio barked. “Don’t fucking move!”
 
 Medusa hissed at him. “I can’t wait for the day I finally get to swallow you whole.”
 
 The elf blanched, shaking harder. “What… Who….” His eyes widened. “M-Medusa?”
 
 She showed him her middle finger. “Get out of here before I drown you in the pond.”
 
 I kind of felt like that should’ve been my line.
 
 “You heard her,” I threw in.
 
 He glowered at me. “You’re supposed to be gone.”
 
 “Surprise.”
 
 Ooo, such a searing sneer. “You can’t be alive.”
 
 “Erm, surprise. Again.”