“Henry Richard Tullis. Are you part of that secret club with its mystery membership? Is that why? It’s just all the best-looking guys congregating in the Great Hall to… do what? Are you the ones planting the cherry bombs?” She chuckles to herself.
Rumors always abound that a secret society exists, but it’s only speculation. We have a vested interest in keeping it quiet. Big life-or-death deal.
“Right. No thanks. I have enough weird things in my life. Hey… are you saying I’m good-looking? Aw, Biz. That’s special.” I mock her, placing my hands over my heart.
She tells me the main floor of the chapel and the basement are both locked up tight, but she thinks there’s a secret door going somewhere.
My pulse picks up. There is. To the cellar where the Sanctum is. “It’s probably mechanical.”
She’s not going to accept that explanation. I know my best friend. Biz isn’t going to give up until she sees the painting up close or gets through that door.
“Ahhh… fine, shit, fine. Let’s go.” I turn her by the elbow. “If you insist on doing this, I’ll aid and abet. Just this once.”
Who am I kidding? I’ll do anything to keep her safe. If she stumbles onto the secret of the House of Eights, it could mean her life.
Chapter Fifteen
Elizabeth Housman
I’m not buying it. They were together, whispering, before breaking away from one another. It reeks of a secret meet-up. But I’ll drop it. Right now, I just want to confirm what I already know.
ThatThe Divinitiesoriginal has been replaced.
“Oh, I just had an idea,” Henry says, stopping short of trekking into the basement. “Jesus, why didn’t I think of this before? Come on.”
I follow him all the way to the other side of the building, past a biology lab, to an equipment closet. It’s unlocked, so he peeks inside and shouts, “Bingo!”
He reaches up to unhook a pair of binoculars from the wall. “I forgot that Blauer is an avid birdwatcher. He spends his lunch hour in the square watching them. Or us… anyway. Here.”
We take them and head back out toward the balcony.
I’m skeptical it’ll work with the low light in the chapel, but I’m willing to give it a go.
Henry wipes sweat from his forehead. I keep walking, contemplating how to pull the information I want from him. “You’ve heard the stories, right? About some top-secret group of students?”
In my mind, I can’t imagine a reason why Eric and Aaron would be hanging out with Henry, much less at night on campus.
“No. I don’t remember hearing anything of the sort. But I’ve heard a few ghost stories about this building, so if we could hurry this up.”
Henry grabs the waist of my jeans to steady me as I lean over the wobbly balcony, binoculars to my eyes. Sure enough, even through a lens, it’s clear to me.
I sigh in frustration. “It’s a fake.”
I lean back, Henry releasing me, as I stare at the painting. When I turn, he’s examining the wall behind him, pressing against it and running his hands over the surface. “Tullis, what are you doing?”
He pauses. “Just… checking something.” He continues looking, kneeling to inspect the bottom of the wall.
Unbelievable. Why is he being evasive?
Maybe I shouldn’t be standing at Eric and Aaron’s apartment door this late at night, but I need to tell him about the painting.
“Biz.” Eric pulls the door open further. “Everything okay?”
I rush in, closing the door to keep his fuzzy little dog from escaping. “Are we alone?”
He shakes his head as his aggravating roomie pokes his head around the corner. “Oh, look, it’s Elizabeth. To what do we owe the pleasure?”
I pull Eric into his room and shut the door quickly. “The painting is gone!The Divinities.”
