Page 96 of Liars

The note. Maddox’s threat to break into my room. The fact that someone had tried to take me days ago.

It was too much.

I didn’t want to be alone.

The decision was rash, reckless even, but I threw the covers back and tiptoed out of my room, clutching the note as if it hadthe power to strangle me in my sleep. Kreed’s room was just down the hall. His door wasn’t closed all the way, just slightly cracked.

I hesitated.

Would he let me stay? Would he take the note seriously? Or would he tell me it was nothing? A joke? Would he turn me away and tell me to go back to my room? Tell me it was nothing? A trick? One of Maddox’s games?

Probably.

It could very well have been Maddox who slipped the note into my locker when he had me pinned against it. I could almost hear him laughing about it, but that didn’t stop me from pushing Kreed’s door open. If it was Maddox, I needed to know.

“Kreed?” I whispered, stepping into the darkness.

Silence.

The air was still as my eyes adjusted to the shadows, searching for movement, but the bed was untouched, the blankets perfectly made.

He hadn’t slept here.

A frown tugged at my lips. It was late. Where the hell was he?

Not my problem. That was what I told myself as I turned around, ready to slip back to my room and pretend none of this had ever happened.

Except I didn’t make it far.

I collided with something solid. A hand clamped over my mouth, cutting off my startled gasp. Panic struck like a bolt of lightning, my body stiffening, my blood turning to ice.

No.

Not again.

The mask. The dark clothing. The sharp, assessing eyes peering at me through the holes—familiar in a way that sent my blood running cold. I was ready to fight, ready to claw and kick and?—

My breath hitched as the figure reached up and pulled the mask away. It was his silver eyes that brought on the familiar tingling of awareness.

Kreed.

Relief hit so fast that my knees nearly buckled. “What the hell are you doing?” I hissed the second his hand dropped from my mouth.

He shook his hair before his eyes fastened to mine, hollow in the gloom, like a door half-shut. “I could ask you the same thing, little raven. What are you doing inmyroom?”

I didn’t have an answer. Not one I wanted to give him. Because the truth was, I had come to him for comfort, and that scared me more than any masked figure lurking in the night.

He wore head-to-toe black, which wasn’t crazy for him since black seemed to be his favorite color, but my attention snapped back to the fabric dangling from his fingers.

The mask. Like the ones my parents’ murderers had worn. I felt the blood drain from my face. “Where were you?” I demanded.

He flashed me a humorless smile. “Not your business, little raven.”

My hand lashed out, snatching the mask from his fingers, holding it up between us like a weapon. “Why do you have this?”

His eyes glinted. “Because, in case you haven’t noticed, it’s fucking freezing outside.”

I didn’t believe him.

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