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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The Spryte had finally exploded. The sound of fireworks drew the bodyguard first. I heard fast, heavy footsteps drumming down the hallway, passing in front of this room. Then, Byron's knocking on the adjoining door halted, hesitant footsteps retreating, followed by the banging of his bedroom door as he followed the bodyguard—two sets of footfall thumping down the hallway.
"What the fuck is that?" Mr. Whiskers hissed, staring at the bedroom door in confusion.
"My decoy," I replied in a low whisper, pushing off him to stand. I drew in a deep breath, a hand splayed across the hard shape of the footballer's chest shield. Thank gods. Climbing out of windows was probably nothing to someone like Mr. Whiskers, a hunter, but not for me.
Now, I had to get out of here and across the hallway to the secret servants' shortcut hidden in the wall paneling before they came back.
Mr. Whiskers and I turned to one another and whispered at the exact same time, "There's a secret servants—" We both stopped, surprise reflected in both of our eyes that transformed into broad grins.
Mr. Whiskers let go of my body, but only to lace his fingers with mine. I had one moment to bathe in the electric pulse that had cracked between us as soon as his fingers tightened around mine before I was swept away on the urgent mission to get out of Laurena's room undetected.
He led me quietly, quickly, across the shadowed bedroom, past the fireplace bleeding a dull red hue from the hearth. He silently opened up the bedroom door and peered outside to check our surroundings. Without looking back he pulled the door open wider and tugged me through the doorway.
The smell of bitter smoke drifted on the air from the Spryte and tom-thumb firecrackers. Before I could ask for my backpack so I could dig around for the key to lock Laurena's bedroom door, he had already produced some kind of special key that wisped like shadows and locked the door with a soft snick. I quickly tippy-toed across the hallway, between two walnut credenzas, and felt for the subtle edge of the secret door in the textured papered walls.
A loud stomping came from down the recesses of the mansion. Obviously, the bodyguard and Byron had found my decoy and were stamping out the firecrackers that were erupting all over the dark-stained wooden floor.
I heard, "Kids," and a low curse from Byron, before footsteps started heading our way again.
Mr. Whiskers' broad body was at my back, his powerful arms reaching around me as he searched the paneling with scarred hands. "Where the fuck is the door," he softly hissed.
Oh my gods, the door...the door! Where the freaking hells is it?!
Footsteps were drawing nearer, the murmuring between the men louder.
Finally, I found it. I quietly thumped the paneling, and the door swung open. Quickly stepping inside, Mr. Whiskers following, I shut the door behind us and plunged us into darkness just as Byron rounded the corner of the hallway.
