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Beneath me, the table shudders. The legs rock against the floor. “Gabriel, if you’re trying to scare me by moving the table, I’m going to kick you in the nuts.”
“I’d stop moving if I were you, Fallen,” Noah muses. “I know you want to make annoying Fallen babies one day, and trust me when I say her groin kick is lethal.”
“You want kids?” I glare at Gabe, slightly surprised by that. Or maybe I’m surprised that my beautiful musician who can’t take a single thing seriously has had a conversation about having kids with Noah. But not with me.
“Sure.” Gabriel shrugs as the table rocks. Two crystals slide off the edge and crash on the ground. “Don’t you?”
I snort. “And have them inherit my blood and all its associated charms? No thanks.”
Another crystal flies off the table. The planchette jerks under my fingers and slides across the board. I have to hand it to this Odette chick, she’s good.
Odette’s eyes sparkle as the planchette spins wildly across the table. “All this tension is feeding the energy in the room. Howard Malloy, speak to us now—”
A blast of cold air whips past me. Several of the candles flicker out, leaving the room in nearly pitch darkness. There’s a thump, followed by a metallic click.
“What the fuck is going on?” I yell.
Beneath my fingers, the planchette continues to fly around the board.
“Odette?” Gabriel’s voice wavers. “Is this part of—”
“I am not doing this. I swear. I’m not.” For the first time, Odette speaks without her affected accent. She sounds genuinely terrified.
I tear my hand from the planchette. “That’s it. I’m getting the lights—”
BANG.
The sound explodes in my ears.
BANG BANG.
Someone screams. Or maybe I scream. The sound hammers in my ears. I’m blind. I can’t see a thing. I don’t know if my family is safe. I shove my chair back just as a candelabra slams to the ground. The flames catch the edge of the rug and surge to life. Odette slumps to the side, her mouth hanging open. I reach for her to drag her to her feet, and my hand lands in something warm, something liquid.
“What the fuck?” I yank my hand away and hold it up into the light of the flames.
It’s covered in blood.
I whip a candle off the table and hold it close to her. Bile rises in my throat as I see the wound in her chest. Blood burbles through a bullet hole.
She’s been shot.
A killer is in my house.
TO BE CONTINUED
George is Claws’ best friend, and she has her work cut out for her when she heads to university and her roommate mysteriously disappears. Read Pretty Girls Make Graves, set in the world of Stonehurst Prep.
http://books2read.com/prettygirlsmakegraves
“I’ll do anything it takes to get into an Ivy League. I’ll even become theirs.” Find out what the second generation of Stonehurst Prep teens get up to a new dark high school romance, Poison Ivy – http://books2read.com/elite1
Get your free copy of Cabinet of Curiosities, a Steffanie Holmes compendium of short stories and bonus scenes. To get this collection, all you need to do is sign up for updates with the Steffanie Holmes newsletter.
http://www.steffanieholmes.com/newsletter
My Savage Empire
IUtinam populus Romanus unam cervicem haberet!
