Page 126 of House of Pain
When Alecto climbed the stairs down into their basement, only Val was there. She sat at the corner of the pool table, a fresh blunt burning between her fingers. The Book lay open on her legs and Val was hunched over it, reading something intently.
Val was so focused on the Book she didn’t even hear Alecto approach. When Alecto spoke, Val jumped, almost losing the blunt from her grip.
“What are you reading?”
“I’ve been double-checking the spell for tonight,” she said. “Don’t want any more mistakes and surprises.”
Alecto sat next to Val on the pool table. “You think we’re going to find what we’re looking for tonight?”
“The Tigers’ Book you mean?” Val put the blunt between her lips, inhaling the smoke. “It’s still in their House, even after the fire.”
“Don’t you ever think we crossed a line?”
Alecto wasn’t sure where the question came from. Or why it came out right now. But it was too late to take it back. So, she waited for Val’s answer with a racing heart.
Val’s lips curled into that dark, predatory grin. The one—Alecto only now realized—she wore as her armor.
“Tell me something, Black. Do you like our House? Do you like the luxury surrounding you, the infinite resources and opportunities that are guaranteed to a Snake?” Val paused, taking another puff. “Do you like the taste of power, when even the Dean himself can’t do shit to you?” Val leaned in closer, her breath hovering over Alecto’s lips. “Do you like the feeling ofsafety?”
A chill ran down Alecto’s spine. She didn’t know what safety meant. Not anymore. Alecto imagined it would remind her of the feeling she would get as a child when her mother wrapped her in her arms and the blanket of her black rose perfume.
Or it would feel like the relief Alecto would get anytime there was a Housebogg hiding in her closet or underneath her bed during the night and her mom would be the one to shoo it away by lighting sunset orbs around Alecto’s room.
It’d been a long time since Alecto experienced safety. Yet, she didn’t even have to think hard for the answer to all those questions.
“Yes.”
Val looked pleased. “Then there are no lines not worth crossing.”
Alecto didn’t know what else to say. She decided it was smarter to focus on the task ahead of them while she took the time to figure out what Val’s words meant for her. What the reaction of her body, the tingling excitement rising inside, meant.
She took hold of the Book and pulled it into her lap, scanning the page with the spell for breaking blood protection spells. The Snakes used it to ward their Book, so they assumed the Tigers would have used this type of magic to protect theirs as well.
When Alecto lifted the Book, something slipped from the pages. It wasn’t a piece of paper but a small Polaroid picture.
“That’s weird. I’ve never seen a Polaroid camera in Inathis—”
The words died in her throat when she recognized the blue eyes of the woman in the picture. Alecto’s eyes.
It was her mother, standing in a familiar ballroom. Her long dress was made out of pink satin, flowing down her frame like a spring river. The corset hugged her curves in all the right places, making her waist unnaturally small.
And there was a hand resting on her waist. A hand that belonged to a tall man with inky black hair and dark as night eyes that flickered with the familiar cruelness looking straight into the camera.
Galliermo.
“What the fuck is this?” Alecto finally found her voice, turning to Val.
Neither Val’s eyes nor smile was kind when she spoke. “Oh, you didn’t know?”
“Didn’t know what?”
“Once upon a time, Galliermo Leveau, a young second-year student and a member of the House of Snakes, fell in love with a fellow mortal student, Demitria Hollander. I’m sure you know the gal.”
Alecto stopped breathing.
“Demitria seemed to return Galliermo’s feelings. I mean, he wasn’t the bachelor that Blaze is today because back then, Galliermo didn’t have anything yet. He was a simple warlock who had nothing but his love to offer,” Val continued. “They were great together though. The couple of the motherfucking century. Galliermo and Demitria were chosen to be the King and Queen of prom back in 1954. I think this picture was taken that night.”
Val tapped a sharp black nail on the picture in Alecto’s hand.
