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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Metal creaked in protest as I climbed up, up, up, right to the very top of the tall ladder. It jostled from side to side with my weight and movement and had my heartbeat skipping and clammy sweat making my palms slick. I should have had someone here to hold it steady for me, but typically, I had no one. Carefully I let go of the upper rung—don't look down, don't look down—climbed the last step and reached up to start the mammoth task of undoing all the fastenings that kept the numerous strands of fairy lights attached to the ceiling. Strand after strand of lights began to drape downward, tangling together as they swayed, the crystal clinking up against one another like rainfall, clink, clink, clink...
This part of the mansion was relatively unused and mostly a graveyard, just as the floors above were too, where I'd housed Varen for the duration of his stay in the same wing where he and his twin sister had been put for the Servants' Dance. We aired the rooms once a week, so I was confident that no one would hear me muttering beneath my breath while I worked, my vexation simmering like a steaming pot of water at Varen's unwanted presence in my life.
I couldn't deny that a small, sly part of me wanted to kiss the hells out of him as soon as I'd seen him. But most of me wanted him out of my orderly life.
I couldn't afford to have my plans to save my aunt disrupted.
He was a kink in my life that I needed to straighten and get rid of.
A soft click like a door shutting had my heart thudding in my throat and my body twisting around too fast. The jerky movement made the ladder wobble beneath me and a low warbled shriek almost crawled from my throat as I teetered off-balance. The ladder suddenly righted itself and I found myself staring down at Varen Crowther holding it steady.
Anger spiked into a sharp crescendo. Had the godsadamned man learned nothing? Did he simply not care that he was putting me in jeopardy, yet again, if we were found here, alone?
"What the hells do you think you're doing coming in here?!" It had barely been ten minutes since I'd left him on the servants' lawn. Was he freaking stalking me now?
His sensual lips parted. As he began to reply I twisted around to face him fully and struck out with a foot, aiming for his gorgeously scruffy face.
He shirked aside, dodging my wild kick. Incensed, his features bunched up in bewilderment. "For fucks' sake, I'm trying to help!"
I struck out again wanting to plant my deadly shoe right across his forehead and permanently stamp it with its chunky tread. "Help?!" The ladder jostled dangerously back and forth and I flung my arms wide to keep my balance. "All you're doing is getting me into further trouble!"
"Calm down, or else get yourself off this ladder before you tip it over and fall," he urged, unease bursting within his eyes.
"Get out!" I whisper-shrieked. "Get out, get out, get out!"
