Two girls. Two secrets.
Only one can survive.
Years before Nelle Wychthorn plans her escape, Tabitha Catt may unearth something in a Horned God's lair that is the key to freedom.
Desperate to save her beloved aunt from a dark curse, Tabitha is out t...
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Tabitha shook her head, her expression carefully schooled into an innocent blank slate as if she had no idea what I was talking about, and couldn't possibly have done such a thing.
I folded forward with an irate groan, bracing an elbow on my knee to rub my forehead with the heel of a palm. Gods, I was a fucking idiot. She'd stolen it from my pocket when she'd been feeling me up.
Glancing up at her, I could feel it in the air, her unease, the desperation to seem nonchalant. I knew her well enough by now. She was good, really fucking good. But she wasn't stupid, she knew I was onto her.
Tabitha shot to her feet suddenly and the blanket fell around her heels like a dirty pool of water. Flipping her hand, she glanced at a watch that wasn't on her wrist. "Well, this has been lovely, but it's late and I need to get back to the Stag Party, they'll be leaving soon." She craned her neck, her hair tumbling down her back like a waterfall, and drank the glass of wine in one long go, her throat working as she swallowed it down. She swiped the beads glistening on her lips with the back of her hand when she was done.
"You knocked that back so fast you'd never have known if it was bold and dry," I muttered sarcastically as I pushed upright. I just knew she was going to hightail it to get out of this with me.
Wide-eyed, she spun around to face me fully. The navy skirt billowed out around her long legs in a bell-like shape. "Pardon?"
I gestured with an annoyed flick of my fingers to her empty wine glass. "The server mixed up our drinks."
She blinked. "You switched the drinks back?"
My bitter laugh warmed my belly at how shocked she looked. For a weird moment, I swore I heard her curse under her breath as she stamped a rockstar heel on the teak wood.
Tabitha ditched the wine glass on the coffee table, scooped up her clutch from the couch, and stormed into motion. She shoved through the cabana's curtains, batting them aside furiously with a fist. I was on my feet after her in a blink.
Fucked if she was going to run from this conversation.
But the godsdamned server blocked me with her inconvenient arrival, the jug of water perspiring with condensation on a silver tray. I barked my demand that our drinks be added to my personal account, anxious to catch up with Tabitha who hustled across the rooftop, her shoulders hunched around her ears, a hand splayed sideways as if to shield herself from the sight of the highrise's edge.
Snatching the pen and pad from the server, who took fucking forever to fish them out of her apron pocket, I hastily scribbled my signature. Bolting across the rooftop, through the avenue of Japanese maples, I cursed loudly, skidding to a halt outside the foyer's doors. Shifting from foot to foot, I waited impatiently for them to open. Through the glass, I could see Tabitha already inside the elevator. She jittered on the spot, shooting me panicked glances as she frantically stabbed the button repeatedly as if it would encourage its doors to close faster.
