Page 94 of Twisting Beauty

I went still. How the fuck did this kid know that?

He must have seen the shift in my expression, because a grim little smile tugged at his mouth. “I just followed the PI’s trail to Magdalene.”

“But if Michael found her⁠—”

For one long beat, the world narrowed to the blood pounding in my ears.

Her father had found her at Magdalene. And he’d left her there to rot.

Murder settled into me with the same cold certainty as breath.

“I’m going to kill him,” I muttered.

Bas’s grin sharpened. “Sorry. Already had the pleasure.”

That stopped me. I looked at him properly then. He wouldn’t be much older than the kids at this party. But there was a darkness in his eyes. This boy wasn’t a boy after all. He’d seen some things. Been through some things. And it had spat him out the other end, alive but forever different.

“What do you want?” I asked him.

“To help.”

I laughed once, low and humourless. “Help me?”

He rubbed his nails on his black leather jacket. “I’ll have you know I’m pretty useful.”

“How?”

“Oh, you know.” His grin widened. “Digging out secrets, creating fake identities, and your general chaos and mayhem.”

He said it lightly, but there was a steely competence underneath the joke.

I shook my head. “I work alone.”

Something unreadable passed across his face. Amusement, perhaps. Or pity. Maybe both.

I started to turn away.

“You’ll need my help,” he called after me.

I glanced back.

He was still leaning against the tree, half his face in shadow, watching me with the same unnerving calm he’d worn since the moment I’d grabbed him.

Only then did I realize where I recognized him from.

Skellig Mor prison.

“Until then...” Bas said, “I’ll be watching.”

29

LIATH

Isat with Nuala at lunch on Monday with my spine too straight and my coffee going cold in my hand, scanning the Ravenwood courtyard again and again, never settling anywhere for long, as if the danger might show itself any minute.

A whole day had passed since Lorcan’s bedroom. I had no idea how much runway I had left. No idea when he’d decide to collect, or how, or whether I’d see it coming at all.

Every laugh from the table beside us sounded too sharp. Every time someone called out across the courtyard, my shoulders went up.