(WARNING! Mildly graphic violence at the end of this chapter, as well as more references to what happened to Aria.)

Ezra

Aria's cell phone alarm woke me up, but when I opened my eyes, she was still sound asleep. I didn't want to wake her. She'd had a rough night. She was up every couple of hours with nightmares. I wanted to just tell her to skip school today and get some rest, which I was sure she hadn't gotten much of in the past few days. If I'd had to guess, before last night, she'd probably gotten a grand total of six hours of sleep in three days. But if we were going to take Elijah down, she had to get up and go about her normal routine. So I turned off the alarm and shook her gently. She groaned and opened her eyes.

"You have no idea how much I hate to wake you up, but you just slept through your alarm," I told her, kissing her forehead.

Aria just scooted a little closer and wrapped her arms around me. I knew she was terrified of leaving here and getting up would mean that she had to leave. I didn't want to let her do this. She'd done enough and she was too young to be caught up in the middle of this. I couldn't ask any more of her.

"Okay, that's it," I said. "We're coming up with a new plan. One that doesn't involve you."

"Yeah, what's that?" she scoffed. "You're going to come to the school and have a show-down in the middle of a classroom full of students? Face it, Ezra. There's no other way. There is absolutely no plan that will work that doesn't involve me. And I'll do it because I love you more than I'm scared of him, but just give me a minute, okay?"

Much as I hated to admit it, she was right. She was, unfortunately, a crucial part of our plan. She was the one who was going to guarantee that we didn't confront Elijah in a public place, where anyone around him was a potential victim. She was going to ensure that this turned into what it should have been all along: a potentially deadly dispute between brothers.

I squeezed her tight. "Okay. Just a minute, though. You're running late."

Aria laid there in my arms silently for a minute, then sighed and gave me a kiss before getting up and getting a change of clothes out of her bag.

"Wait, you were getting ready to leave last night, but you actually brought a change of clothes with you?" I asked.

"Well, I tried to let common sense take over, but then you and your brother ganged up on me," she teased. "Not that I'm complaining. Even though I'm sure it didn't seem like it to you, last night was the most sleep I've gotten in days. Being with you helped me sleep at least a little bit better."

I understood that completely. I'd slept easier last night than I had in weeks and I knew it was because she'd been here with me.

"I wish I could tell you to just skip school and get some rest, but you can't today," I sighed. "Not if we're going to put an end to this. Normally, as an educator, I wouldn't advocate a student skipping school, but…"

"But when that student is also your girlfriend, who you've barely seen in weeks, you'll look for any excuse to spend time with her?" she said as she walked to the bathroom with her clothes. That felt a little odd, but it wasn't altogether unexpected after everything she'd been through.

I chuckled. "Yeah, you got me. That, and I worry about her. She's just been through a lot and she's barely let herself process any of it."

"And she also loves being talked to in the third person," she teased.

"Sorry. But seriously. It feels like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop over here."

She walked out in her new clothes and sat down on the bed, putting her hand on my face.

"Look, I'm not deluding myself," she told me. "I know I need to let myself feel everything and process it. But I can't even start to process any of this when I still have to put on a show with Elijah. If I start to think too much about it, I won't be able to do what I have to do."

Well, that did make sense.

"And you're not the only one who feels like they're waiting for the other shoe to drop," she continued. "What about you? You're the one he held in an underground cellar with barely any food or water for weeks. And you had to watch and listen to him do what he did to me. I haven't seen so much as a frown."

"You do realize that the entire time I was down there, you were the only thing I thought about, right? I tried to fight my way out of there because of you. You were what kept me going. So, yes, I'm struggling, but that's outweighed by the fact that you're safe and here with me right now."

Aria smiled and kissed me, then grabbed her phone. And as she was looking at it, she froze.

"Oh, my God," she said, her voice shaking.

I scooted towards her and kissed her shoulder.

"What is it?"

"I know you're really you, but just humor me. Tell me what B26 is."

"It's our song," I told her. "'Happiness.'"

"Well, I hate to say this, but the best laid plans..." Aria said, handing me her phone. I took it and read a text that had come from my phone, which Elijah currently had.

If you see someone who looks exactly like me, steer clear of him. He's dangerous. I wish I could tell you this in person but it can't wait. I'm sorry.

Oh, shit. He'd been to the cabin. He knew I was gone. And now he was going to try to convince her that I was him. But he had to know she wouldn't buy it.

"The funny thing is that he basically just called himself dangerous," Aria said after a minute. Of course she would try to make a joke.

"Shit," I sighed. "The best laid plans, indeed."

"Well, looks like you got your wish. I'm definitely not going to school today," she said.

"Call Wes," I told her, giving her phone back to her. "Get him back in here. We need to regroup and figure out what the hell we're supposed to do now."

She dialed his number, and I had a feeling she woke him up, because it took him a little while to answer.

"Wes," she said when he answered. "Get back to our room. Now."

There was a pause as he spoke.

"Everything just fell apart. Elijah must have gone to the cabin last night and he figured out Ezra's gone. He just sent me a very disturbing text."

After another short pause, Aria hung up and just sat there staring off into space. God, what I would have given for her not to be involved. She'd been through enough in her seventeen years already. Why did he have to add this to it? It just wasn't fair.

"Aria, come here," I said.

Before she could get back into the bed, though, there was a knock at the door. I wasn't about to let her answer it. If it wasn't Wesley, it could be bad news. I went to stand up.

"Ezra, what the hell are you doing?" Aria asked.

"I'm not about to let you be the one to answer the door," I told her. "What if it's Elijah?"

"No matter who it is, you are not getting out of that bed right now. Lay back down before I break your other ankle so you really can't walk," she said, and walked towards the door. "Wes, is that you?"

Or she could do that. Why hadn't that crossed my mind? Well, I guessed hypervigilance was to be expected after what I'd been through.

"Yeah, it's me," came Wesley's voice. Aria opened the door and let him in. "Morning. So, I guess you're not going to school today."

Aria chuckled tensely. "Nope."

"Damn, this sucks," he said. "What the hell are we supposed to do now?"

"That's putting it mildly," I said. "And our options are kind of limited since my budding serial killer girlfriend has just threatened to break my other ankle if I try to get out of this bed right now."

Wesley laughed. "Good for her. At least one of you is thinking straight."

Aria chuckled and came back to the bed. I pulled her close and sighed.

"So, do you have any more brilliant ideas up your sleeve?" I asked.

"Why are you looking at me?" she complained. "I'm all out of ideas. Right now I just want to hide out here and hope he doesn't find us."

"He'll find us here eventually," I said. "We need to move. We've been here too long already."

"Wait," Wesley said. "Aria, when did he send that text?"

"Um..." She looked at her phone. "Last night around eleven."

"You guys might not like this idea, but we could still trap him."

"How? Where?" I asked.

"Aria, can you get him back to the cabin somehow?" he asked her. "The three of us could be there waiting."

"He's not going to trust me," she pointed out. "I somehow think he knows I helped get Ezra out."

"Not if you let him think you still think he's me. Tell him I tried to hurt you when you let me out," I suggested.

"Yeah, because he's really going to buy that," Wesley said. "He may not be able to actually feel love himself, but he knows how you feel about Aria. That's why he did what he did to her. There is no way he's going to believe for a second that you tried to hurt her. No, Aria, you need to play dumb. Act like you have no idea what the hell he's talking about."

"Well if I'm doing that, I need to call him now," she said. "Try to do some damage control. We still may be able to use our original plan of having this happen in the apartment. If I suggest going out to the cabin again he'll get suspicious."

"Go for it," I told her. "But I still don't want you leaving today."

"I'll tell him I slept through my alarm and I'm taking a mental health day," she said. "I actually think he'll buy it. Then we can all just go to your apartment while he's at school and wait for him. It'll give you more time to get yourself up the stairs anyway. But...I think I need to bring my friends into the loop. I hate to say this, but we need eyes on him at the school."

She was right. We would need to know if Elijah didn't show up or if he suddenly left early.

"I have no issues with that. I trust them," I told her.

"Are you sure they can pull off the act?" Wesley asked.

"Absolutely," I said. I had every faith in these girls.

"Well, guys, I'm gonna need complete silence while I try to call Elijah," Aria sighed as she sat back up. "Let's pray to whatever God is listening that this works."

Aria took a shaky breath as she dialed Elijah's (well, my) number. I put a hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her down. She took another breath and put the phone to her ear, grabbing hold of the hand I had on her shoulder with her free hand.

"Ezra," she said when he answered. "I got your text. What in the hell is going on? Why would I see someone else who looks exactly like you?"

There was a pause and the look on Aria's face told me she was trying to keep back tears as he talked to her.

"Oh my God. That's insane. I'm kind of glad I slept through my alarm today. Maybe I should stay away from school just in case."

There was another pause. God, I wished she could risk putting it on speakerphone so we could hear.

"Yeah, I'll just tell my dad I have a headache," she said. "He'll let me stay home. Look, can I come to your place tonight? After school gets out? It sounds like we need to talk."

Another pause.

"Okay, I'll see you then. Listen, be safe today. I love you."

A very short pause.

"Okay, bye."

Aria hung up and put the phone down and was dead silent for a minute. I squeezed her shoulder.

"Well?" I asked.

"He bought it," she said, sounding a little bit like she was in shock.

I couldn't stand seeing her like this. She was obviously completely terrified.

"Hey, come back over here," I said.

"No, wait," she said. "I have to call my friends."

"And all the cell phone service disappears in the middle of this bed?"

Aria grabbed her phone before letting me pull her back against me. She leaned against my chest and looked up at me.

"I feel like I'm going crazy," she sighed. "Maybe you should just check me into Radley."

I chuckled and leaned down to kiss her. "Maybe. At least you'd be safe there."

"Okay, I really do need to call my friends before school starts," she said, pulling up Spencer's number on her phone. "God, I don't even know how to tell them about this."

"Just keep it simple for now," I told her. "Only tell them what you absolutely need to. You can give them details after we deal with him."

She hit dial and put it on speaker.

"Aria, where are you?" Spencer asked. "The bell's in ten minutes."

"Yeah, I'm not going to make it in today," she said. "Listen, Spence, where are Hanna and Emily? I need to talk to all three of you. It's important."

"We're all together," she said. "Should I put you on speaker?"

"No, not on speaker. I'm going to call Emily and conference you in. Then you call Hanna. And you three need to spread out. It can't be too obvious."

"Okay…" she said. "What's going on?"

"Just trust me," Aria said. "I'll explain everything when we're all on our cell phones. Okay?"

A minute later, all three girls were on the line. And Aria told them the three-minute version of the story.

"Oh, my God," Hanna said. "So that guy teaching our English class who just walked past me a minute ago isn't Ezra?"

"Nope," Aria said. "It's Elijah. Ezra's right here with me."

"Hi, ladies," I said. "You're on speaker."

"Yeah, hi, three girls I've never met before," Wesley chimed in.

Aria and I chuckled.

"And that was Wes, if you didn't figure that out," Aria told them.

"I just…wow," Spencer said. "Ezra, are you okay?"

"I will be," I told her. "I'm not going to lie; I need to get to a hospital as soon as we deal with Elijah, but I'll be okay."

"How can we help?" Emily asked.

"We need eyes on Elijah while he's there," Aria said. "We need to know if he leaves campus. Wes and I are going to get Ezra back to his apartment and we'll be there waiting for Elijah when school lets out. But if he leaves early, we need to know about it."

"And if he talks to any students I was never close with, tell us that, too," I added.

"Actually, he has seemed to be getting kind of chummy with Mona lately," Hanna said. "I thought it was weird that you were making nice with her after what she did to Aria and the rest of us. But I guess that wasn't really you."

"Damn it," I sighed. "Of course he would develop an interest in Mona. Nope, that definitely wasn't me."

"How in the hell did I not notice that?" Aria asked.

"Because he didn't want you to," I told her, kissing her hair. "And because you weren't looking for anything out of the ordinary. You were trying to see what was familiar, not what was different. That was what Elijah was banking on. That's why none of you caught on."

"Jesus. We all played right into his hands," Spencer said.

"Listen, you girls need to act like you don't know anything," I said. "Act like you're not afraid of him. Avoid him if you can, but don't make it obvious. Can you handle that?"

"Yeah," Emily said, taking a deep breath.

"It'll be tough, but yeah, I can do it," Spencer said.

"Hanna?" Aria asked.

"Yeah, I'm in," Hanna sighed. "Aria, there's more you're not telling us, isn't there?"

Well, Spencer was the one with the book smarts, but Hanna definitely was the best at reading people. Even over the phone.

"I could write a book with what I'm not telling you," Aria admitted. "I promise I'll tell you guys everything when this is all over. But right now, we don't have time. You three need to get to class, and Wes and I need to figure out how to make Ezra semi-mobile on his bum ankle so we can get him up the two flights of stairs to his apartment."

"Okay, you guys be safe," Spencer said. "You realize you're scaring the hell out of us doing this alone, right, Aria?"

"I'm not alone," she said. "I'm with Ezra and Wes. I'll be fine."

I smiled; she had such faith in me. Even while I was basically an invalid.

"Call us when you can," Emily said. "Please."

"I will," she promised. "As soon as we end this and get Ezra to a hospital."

"Okay, we'll talk to you later," Hanna said. "Bye."

"Bye," Aria said, and hung up.

"Do you honestly think they can pull this off?" Wesley asked.

"Wes, if you knew what these girls have had to deal with in the past year and a half, you wouldn't be asking that question," I told him. "Aria's holding it together even after everything she's been through in the past four days, so you'd better believe those girls can too."

"Have I told you lately that I love you?" Aria asked, smiling at me.

I kissed her and tightened my embrace. "I love you, too."

"Okay, so how are we going to get you mobile?" she asked.

"We need to make him a splint or something," Wesley said. "He's got an ACE wrap on now, but that's not even close to being enough. He needs way more support on his ankle than that."

"What do we have that we can use?"

"Honestly? Nothing. I need to make a run to the store. And it's too dangerous for either of you to be seen out and about, which means you guys get an hour or so to yourselves."

"Can you bring back some coffee?" Aria asked. "I'm going to need caffeine if I'm going to be even remotely useful today."

He chuckled as he headed towards the door. "You got it. If you play your cards right, I might even bring some breakfast too. I'll be back soon."

As soon as Wesley closed the door behind him, Aria looked up at me again.

"Are you going to be offended if I try to get a little more sleep?" she asked.

"I was actually going to suggest that," I told her, moving down in the bed so we were lying down. "How much sleep did you actually get this weekend?"

"About four hours total between Friday night and Sunday night. I couldn't sleep while I was with him and then Sunday night I was too wound up worrying about you to sleep. Even after you called. And I was too afraid of what I would see when I closed my eyes."

"I wish I could kill him," I sighed.

"Ezra," she started.

"I'm serious. I can deal with what he did to me, but knowing what he did to you? The fact that he's going to get to spend the rest of his life behind bars just isn't good enough."

"It has to be," she told me. "You're a good person, and you have morals. You draw the line somewhere. That's what makes you different from Elijah. You have to hold on to that."

I had to smile. Aria really was wise and mature beyond her years. It was one of the many reasons I'd fallen in love with her.

"You're right," I sighed, kissing her hair. "Now, try to get some sleep. I love you."

"I love you, too," she said, closing her eyes.

A minute later, I heard the slow, even breathing that meant she was asleep. And I closed my eyes too, trying to follow suit.

Aria

Ezra gently shook me out of a blissfully dreamless sleep, kissing my hair.

"I hate to wake you up again, but Wes is back," he told me.

"Okay, you two are the most boring couple on the planet," I heard Wesley say. "I come back from the store expecting to need to wait outside while you make yourselves decent, and instead you're sleeping."

"Well," I said, sitting up and trying to knock the cobwebs out of my brain, "when you've gotten a grand total of about ten hours of sleep in four days, I'd like to see what you'd do if you were stuck in a hotel room."

"Touché," he chuckled. "Well, I brought something to help you stay awake. I figured you'd need more than one cup so I went for a box of coffee. Ezra, sorry, but you don't get any. I'm not about to let the acid eat a hole in your fragile stomach."

"Not fair," Ezra mock whined. "But smart, I guess."

"You're just lucky I'm not making you drink Ensure, which is probably what I should be doing," Wesley shot back.

After we ate breakfast, Wesley and I got to work trying to make a splint for Ezra. I felt bad because I could tell putting pressure on his ankle with the wraps and rods Wes got was killing him, but he was a good sport and let us work.

"Okay, moment of truth," Wesley said. "Try to stand up."

I went around to the other side of the bed so I could help support Ezra if he needed it. And he slowly (and, I could tell, painfully) stood up. I could see him grimace and it looked like he was starting to sweat, but he stood there for about thirty seconds before saying anything.

"Damn, that hurts," he finally said.

"Sit back down," I told him, and then turned to his brother. "Wes, I don't know what we're going to do. If he can't even stand up, how are we going to get him up two flights of stairs?"

"He'll manage," Ezra said. "And he loves being talked about like he's not here."

I chuckled. "Sorry. But you have to face the facts, babe. This isn't working. I'm not going to let you make this worse because you're too stubborn to admit defeat."

"If I make it worse, I make it worse," he insisted. "I'll spend a year in a cast if I have to. After I get Elijah out of our lives."

"And even I can't argue with that logic," Wesley sighed. "So when are we heading over there?"

I checked my phone and it was his lunch break. I decided to text Spencer and see if Elijah was still at the school. As long as he was still on campus now, he couldn't just leave without raising suspicions until the end of the school day. He had back to back classes until school let out after his lunch break. She replied almost immediately and told me he was still there. I told her that we were heading to his apartment now and we needed to know when he left.

"Let's go now," I told them. "We've got about two and a half hours before he heads home. And with the way you're moving, Ezra, we'll need all the time we can get."

"How many cars should we take?" Wesley asked.

"Um…" I said.

That was actually a fantastic question. Did he know what Wesley's car looked like? Would it be better if we all piled in my car? Or should we take Wesley's so he wouldn't know I was there? Should we take separate cars?

"We should take Wes's car," Ezra said after a few seconds. "He won't recognize it. Better for him not to realize anyone at all is there until it's too late. Even though he's expecting Aria, it's not until later. He might get suspicious if he sees her car when he gets there."

"Good call," I agreed.

"Okay, I need to go clear off the backseat for you two," he said. "I'll be back in a minute and then Aria and I can help you get into the car, Ezra."

As soon as Wesley was out of the room, Ezra turned to look at me.

"As soon as you get us into the apartment, I want you to leave," he told me. "Get the hell out of there and go to one of your friends' houses and lock yourselves in. I can't put you in this kind of danger."

If Ezra actually thought I was going to be anywhere but right there with him, he was insane. I'd just gotten him back. I wasn't about to take the chance of letting him go again.

"No," I insisted.

"Aria, I won't be able to do this if I'm worried about you," he said. "I need to know you're safe. I can't watch my own back if I'm worried about protecting you in case things turn violent, which they probably will."

I melted a little. I knew where he was coming from and I knew that he just wanted me safe. But the thing was, I wouldn't survive the not knowing. The uncertainty. I needed him safe too, and I knew that he couldn't defend himself in his condition. He was too weak and he could barely stand up. And this was personal for me too. This was the man who had raped me. I needed to be there too. I needed to have a part in making sure he never saw the light of day again.

"Ezra, I just got you back," I told him. "If I leave you knowing that you're about to be in the same danger you just got out of with the same person, I will go crazy. You'll have to come visit me in Radley, and that's not a joke. I need you safe too. My sanity depends on it. And let's face it, you can't exactly defend yourself right now."

"Aria—" he started, but I stopped him with a kiss.

"I'm not finished," I said. "This is personal for me too. Have you forgotten what he did to me? I need to be there and I need to have a part in making sure that Elijah never sees the light of day again."

Ezra sighed and pulled me into his arms, resting his head on mine.

"Okay, you can stay," he said. "Against my better judgement, you can stay."

I couldn't help myself. I laughed. And not just a little chuckle either. That last sentence basically summed up the basis of our entire relationship.

"What?" he chuckled, pulling back to look at me.

"You do realize you just summed up our entire relationship with that last sentence?" I giggled.

Then he started laughing too.

"You're right; I did," he said when he'd caught his breath.

I kissed him. "Well, I'm glad you didn't listen to your better judgement."

"So am I," he said, kissing me again. "I love you."

And at that moment, the door opened and Wesley walked back in.

"Do I even want to know what was so funny?" he asked. "I could hear you guys laughing down the hall."

"Oh, just my apparent inability to use sound judgement with Aria," Ezra said.

I blushed; that sounded way worse than he'd meant it. He should have just kept his mouth shut.

Wesley chuckled. "Yeah. I don't want to know."

"Get your mind out of the gutter, Wes," I chuckled.

"If it wasn't for the gutter, his mind would be homeless," Ezra teased.

"Give me some credit," Wesley shot back. "I don't live in the gutter. But I do vacation there often. Okay, are you ready to go out to the car?"

"No," Ezra sighed. "But I don't have a choice. Let's do this."

"All right, I'm going to take your bad side. Put your weight on me. Aria, take his good side and help him stay steady on his good leg."

Wesley sat down on the bed on Ezra's left side, putting an arm around his back and wrapping Ezra's arm around his shoulders as he helped him stand up. As soon as he was on his feet, I wrapped an arm around Ezra's lower back and he put his other arm around my shoulders, using me as support so he didn't fall over. And somehow, amidst a lot of cursing and pained cries that broke my heart into a million pieces, Wesley and I managed to get Ezra to the car and into the backseat. I got in next to him, and Wesley went to grab a few things out of the room before we headed to Ezra's apartment. I leaned against Ezra's shoulder and he pulled me close and kissed my hair.

"Are you okay?" I asked him.

"Besides being in more pain than the human body should be able to process? Yeah, I'm fine," he said through gritted teeth.

"I'm sorry. That was a dumb question. I wish there was something I could do. Not being able to help you at all kills me."

"You're here; that's enough," he said, kissing my head again.

Half an hour later, we were pulling up to Ezra's apartment building. Just to be safe, I texted Emily to make sure Elijah was still at school. And we were good to go. He was still teaching. It literally took me and Wesley an hour to get Ezra up the stairs. Luckily, the key was still under the mat. Elijah probably didn't even know it was there. We got Ezra inside and onto the couch. And then began the waiting game. My heart was in my throat waiting for a text from one of my friends to tell me that Elijah was on his way back here.

Ezra must have seen my fear written all over my face, because he put a hand on my face and made me look at him.

"You can still leave," he said. "You don't have to be here for this."

"Yes, I do," I told him. "I have as much of a stake in the outcome of this as you do."

"Aria, this is almost certainly going to get ugly fast," Wesley said, but I could tell he knew I wasn't about to walk out that door.

"Wes, have you forgotten what he did to me?" I asked. "This is personal for me too."

"Yeah, you're right," he sighed. "Face it, Ezra. Your girl isn't going anywhere."

"I know," Ezra said. "I had to try one last time, though. Everything in me is telling me to have Wes drag you out of here kicking and screaming. But I know you'll never forgive me if I do that."

"No, I won't," I agreed. "Now is not the time for you to start treating me like a seventeen-year-old. Elijah stole whatever shred of childhood I had left from me, and I need to be here to see him lose."

Ezra pulled me into his arms and kissed my head, and Wesley came to sit on my other side and put a hand on my shoulder. And that did it; I started crying. I tried to keep the tears back, but they kept coming. Neither one of them said anything. They just let me cry. Occasionally, I would feel a squeeze on my shoulder from Wesley or a kiss on my temple or forehead from Ezra, but they didn't try to console me with words. They knew there were no words for this.

I couldn't tell how much later it was when my phone buzzed. It was a text from Spencer. School was out, and Elijah was on his way back to the apartment. Theoretically. This was it. The moment of truth.

"School's out," I said, taking a deep breath. "He's headed back."

"I'm not telling you what to do, but this is your last chance," Ezra said.

"I'm staying," I told him.

"Okay, I just realized, none of us have anything to defend ourselves with," Wesley said, heading to the kitchen and grabbing a few knives, handing one to each of us and keeping one for himself.

"I really, really hope I don't have to use this," I sighed.

"If you do, go for his gut. It's going to be your best bet with the height difference," Ezra told me.

I nodded, trying to process what Ezra had just told me. This was too surreal, having him tell me how to inflict maximum harm to someone with a knife. Now I really felt like I was going crazy.

"You know, Radley is starting to sound better and better," I said.

"It's too late for that now," Wesley sighed. "This is happening. Your only escape is to lock yourself in the bathroom, if you want to do that."

I chuckled tensely. "Nope. I'm not going anywhere."

A couple minutes later, we heard the key turn in the lock. Elijah was back. Ezra grabbed my hand and squeezed it as the door opened. Elijah's expression when he walked in to find us all there was one of pure shock. We'd definitely caught him off-guard.

"Elijah, how in the hell did you get out of that cellar?" Elijah asked, trying to put on his best Ezra impression.

Man, he was good. But the thing was, I was better. I knew his game now. And I could get him to drop this charade in about ten seconds.

"You actually think that's going to work, Elijah? Really?" Ezra said, letting go of my hand so he could pull me close against him.

"Aria, come on. You know me," Elijah said.

I looked Elijah right in the eyes. "Okay, if you're really Ezra and this man is the imposter, tell me what B26 is."

Ezra squeezed my upper arm; clearly he approved of my tactic.

"It's the security code for the cabin," Elijah said.

"Wrong answer," I told him. "Ezra set the security code as B26 because it means something to us. It's the jukebox number for our song. Jig's up, Elijah."

In an instant, the expression on Elijah's face changed completely. All of a sudden, he was cold and calculating. It chilled me to the bone. This was exactly what Ezra would have looked like if he was a serial killer. Elijah looked like he wanted to kill all three of us right then and there, slowly and painfully.

"When did you figure it out, Aria?" he asked me.

I turned to look at Ezra, and he gave me an encouraging nod. Well, as encouraging as it could be with how scared he looked.

"I knew something was wrong almost immediately," I said, turning back to face Elijah. "There were too many little things that were different. The way you treated me. The way you talked to me. The way you kissed me. The…" I froze, not wanting to say the next part out loud, and Ezra gave my arm another squeeze. He clearly knew what I was about to say. "The way you acted in bed. And I heard something coming from under the floor in the cabin. This past week, it got to be too much, and I knew that whatever was under the floor in the cabin was the key to figuring out what was going on. So on Friday night, after you were asleep, I went down there and I found Ezra. He asked me to keep playing dumb with you, because he wanted me to keep myself safe, so I did it. I did it for him. But while I was out at the store on Saturday, I called Wes to come get him as soon as you and I were gone.

"I do have to hand it to you, Elijah. You definitely did your research on me and my friends. How you managed to learn that I'm a vegetarian, I'll never understand. But the thing is, when it comes down to it, real love, something like what Ezra and I have, just can't be faked. Though I suppose I should thank you, because if it weren't for you, I might still be with Jake right now instead of with Ezra where I belong."

"Well, you're certainly brave, little girl," Elijah said. "Stupid, but brave. I didn't actually have any reason to really hurt you until now. I was going to let you get out of this unharmed until today. But now you've interfered in my plans. And I can't let that slide."

Ezra pulled me even closer against him, and Wesley sat up straighter on the couch, taking a defensive stance and trying to shield me as much as he could.

"Unharmed?" I challenged.

"Have I actually hurt you, Aria?" Elijah shot back.

"You raped me, Elijah," I said. "Maybe I didn't say no, but it was because I kept telling myself that my gut feeling was wrong. That you were actually Ezra. So, yes, you did hurt me. Whatever shred of childhood I might have had left after my experiences with A, you stole it from me."

"Ezra, you might want to tell your girl there that if she values her life, she'll keep her mouth shut from here on out," Elijah said in a voice that scared the hell out of me. He was so calm, but so threatening at the same time.

Ezra snorted quietly. "You clearly don't know anything about Aria if you think she's going to just sit back and take this quietly."

"And you clearly don't know anything about either of your brothers if you think that we're going to let you touch her again," Wesley added.

"Let me?" Elijah laughed coldly. "Let me? I'd like to see you stop me, little brother."

Elijah walked over and dragged me to my feet by one of my arms before Wesley or Ezra could stop him. Unfortunately for him, he hadn't grabbed the arm that was attached to the hand with the knife in it. Almost as a reflex reaction, I brought the knife out and stabbed him in the stomach. It stopped him for a bit, and he did let me go, but about five seconds later, he tried to grab me from behind as I was heading to the bathroom to lock myself in. Tried, because I used the martial arts I'd learned from Jake to get out of his grip and immediately went for a throat jab and a knee to the groin. That stopped him just long enough for Wesley to stand up and position himself between me and his brother. Elijah came towards us again, clutching his stomach in pain, but still clearly just as deadly. And at that moment, Ezra seemed to find enough strength to stand up, and right before Elijah got to me and Wesley, Ezra walked up behind him and slit his throat. Elijah fell to the floor, choking on his own blood.

I didn't even have time to really process what had just happened, because not ten seconds later, Ezra dropped the knife he'd been holding and collapsed on the floor, too. I ran out from behind Wesley to check on him. And my worst fears were realized. Ezra was unconscious and unresponsive.