Page 21 of Kings & Carnage

"Why close to campus?" I asked before taking another bite of the candy bar. I was suddenly ravenous and I could already feel the sugar working its way into my bloodstream.

I figured I had about ten minutes before I completely crashed.

"We're going to need help," Rock said. “We're owed favors in Blackwell Falls. Plus, we have allies in the other houses at Aventine.”

"So we need a place close to campus that's also hidden from Roberto?" I asked.

"Exactly," Rock said.

"Not sure if it's doable," Neo said, "but I’m having a thought…”

"I might be having the same thought," Oscar said.

Neo looked at him across the front seat. “Daisy?”

Oscar nodded. "Daisy."

Neo started the car. “Activate one of the phones.”

Chapter9

Willa

Iwas surprised to feel the sun on my face when I woke up with my head in Rock's lap. It had been dark when I'd fallen asleep, the muffled quiet of the car and darkness all around combining with the sugar and adrenaline crash finally hitting me all at once.

We’d stopped once at a roadside bar to switch cars — swapping the plates with another car in the lot to prevent being pulled over in a car reported as stolen — but I barely remembered making the switch.

I’d waited groggily in the Impala while the Kings did their thing, then piled into the backseat of our new ride — a shit-brown Buick — with Rock where I promptly fell back asleep.

Now I blinked against the sunlight in my eyes and tried to place the sound of snow crunching under the car's tires.

"Morning, kitten," Rock said. He smoothed my hair back from my forehead. It was so soothing I was tempted to try and go back to sleep, pretend everything that had happened in the last couple of days hadn't actually happened.

"We're here.”

"Where's here?" I asked.

"At our new digs," he said.

I sat up with a groan. My body hurt all over, the Tylenol I’d taken when we left the truck stop long since out of my system.

Oscar twisted around in the passenger seat to look at me and the ruby in his ring glinted like a warning. "Feel better now that you got some sleep?”

"Define better.” I tried to get my bearings by taking in our surroundings. We were cutting through the woods on an overgrown path. "Did I miss something? Are we camping?”

"Not exactly," Neo said from the driver's seat.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked. This wasn't at all what I'd expected when they said we needed a place to hide.

"Conditions might be a little… rough," Neo said. "But we'll have shelter, and most importantly, no one will ever think to look for us here.”

"Okay, you're all being a little cryptic and it's freaking me out," I said.

"Nothing to be freaked out about, tiger,” Oscar said. “I wouldn't call this roughing it, would you?”

I looked through the windshield and was surprised to see a giant old house rising up out of the woods. It had the kind of multi-peaked roofline that made me think of murder mysteries and Gothic novels.

I spotted three chimneys and more windows than I could count, but as we got closer to the front of the house I saw that its grandeur was something of an illusion.

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