Page 9 of The Evil Twin

“Are we going back to school tonight or in the morning?” I asked, as a way to end the conversation.

He hesitated for a moment. “Actually, I thought you might want to stay here for a few days. There are a lot of texts in our library that can’t be moved. I thought you might want to look through them. And it might be safer to keep some distance from your double. I can get recordings of your classes so you don’t fall behind.”

It made sense and he was right, but it didn’t stop a twinge of hurt from stabbing through my heart. Logically, I knew it was the smart move, but it felt more as if he was trying to get me out of the way. I was useless as I was, might as well pack me off to the manor to read dusty old books while he made the moves on a prettier, smarter, more powerful version of me.

Completely illogical, but that was why they were called intrusive thoughts, I figured. If they were happy, logical thoughts, they wouldn’t need to intrude; they’d be welcome.

“Sounds good,” I said, forcing a smile before Tennyson picked up on my weirdness. “I’ll let you know if I find anything. And you’ll let me know if Althea wakes up?”

“Of course.”

I left him there in the shadows and went to find my brothers. We’d moved up to the main house in the summer. It hadn’t felt safe leaving my brothers in the cottage without my mother there. Hamish and Fletcher seemed to love it, but Liam was deep into his surly teenager era and hated everything about everything. To be fair, I’d probably be mad if someone stuck me in a strange house and didn’t let me leave, but I was easily bought with Michelin star chefs and comfy beds, which didn’t seem to sway him at all.

They were in the wing of the manor that Tennyson had allocated for us, and had obviously no idea I’d be stopping by. Hamish jumped up so fast that he tumbled over the back of the sofa. Fletcher was a little more restrained, waiting to pause his game before rushing me. Liam, on the other hand, looked up from the book he was reading and narrowed his eyes at me.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

Hamish was a bit too big now to climb up into my arms, but that didn’t stop him from trying. He and Fletcher were talking at me a mile a minute, so I took the opportunity to think how best to answer Liam while the other two wore themselves out.

Once the novelty of having me home wore off, they went back to what they’d been doing, and I took the seat next to Liam. I didn’t want the other two to know exactly how evil our father was; they were too young for that kind of burden, but Liam was older now than I’d been when I got wrapped up in this whole business. He’d never quite forgiven me for not telling him about Sam and all the rest of it, so I tried to be as truthful with him as possible.

“There’s just some stuff going on,” I said. “Our father is on the rampage, but we’re all safe here, there’s nothing to worry about.”

Liam raised his eyebrows, then went back to his book.

“I’ll be around for a few days,” I said.

Liam kept reading. “Great,” he said dryly.

I sighed and got up to take my stuff to my room. It wasn’t really my room, just a guest room that had been allocated to me. It felt more like a fancy hotel room than anything else, although some of my stuff was in the closet. I fell back onto the bed and started to chew over what Tennyson had said to me.

Nope, that wasn’t healthy. There was no hidden meaning behind his keeping me here.

Then my mind drifted to how he’d looked standing there in the shadows with me.

Nope, also not healthy.

I needed a distraction. There was no point delaying, so I changed into my comfy home clothes and headed toward the library.

I only had a vague idea of where the library was. Normally, Althea would get the books. She knew where everything was, how it was categorized, and all that, so there was no point tagging along and getting in the way – her words.

In my head, I’d kind of pictured it similar to the library at school: brightly lit, impressive architecture, all that. Instead, when I eventually found it, it was more like a forgotten dungeon. You know when you find one of those underground fortresses in Minecraft that sometimes have rooms with books, and they’re all cobwebby and kind of creepy? It was like that. I hoped I wouldn’t have to tunnel my way out because I had not brought a pickaxe with me.

It was definitely easy to get lost in there. Row after row, stack after stack of books, all higgledy-piggledy, with no kind of organization that I could figure out. Had Althea just memorized where every book was? Surely not, there were more books down there than anyone could read in ten lifetimes. Nobody could remember them all.

And then I stumbled on the reason why Althea could find the books she needed, not to mention – I suspected – the reason she hadn’t wanted me tagging along.

A guy was sitting at a desk with books piled all around him. I supposed he wasn't a librarian, since it was a private library? A curator, maybe? And that curator was hot. Like, Henry Cavill in The Witcher level of hot. He even looked a little like Geralt, not quite as built and with dark hair instead of white. He was very pale, like he never left the dungeon to go out in the sun, and it was hard to judge his age. If vampires had been a thing, I’d have pegged him as one, but they weren’t. At least, I hoped they weren’t.

I was pretty sure Althea and Harper’s brother, Julian, had something going on, but that didn’t make the curator any less nice to look at.

He glanced up as I approached his desk.

“I don’t know you,” he said in a bored drawl.

“I’m Lucy,” I said.

He raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow. “Your brother is a terrorist, and I will not change my mind. He is not welcome here amongst the books.”

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