Page 139 of House of Ruin
Alecto ground her teeth for a moment. Even though she hadn’t looked Blaze’s way, she knew he was staring at her.
The weight of his gaze was on her.
“I’ll invite him for a rehearsal,” Alecto said, trailing a finger over the corner of the pool table. “There’s one scene we haven’t practiced before, where Carmen and Seville kiss.” She looked at Val’s face to find a dark smile there. “You said he has a thing for me. Well, I hope you’re right. I’ll apply the truth serum to my lips and hope he takes the bait.”
Val chuckled. “Smart, Black.”
“It’s risky, though,” Jolene chimed in. “You’ll consume the truth serum as well, which means that if he asks you a wrong question afterwards…”
“I know,” Alecto said. “He can get a lot out of me. But I won’t give him a chance to do so. You have to figure out a way to get his confession into the right hands.”
Val stood before walking over to the shelves where they kept their Book and spell ingredients.
“Take this with you,” she said, handing Alecto a golden coin with a Snake coiled in the middle. “We’ll make sure someone important is listening.”
Alecto nodded.
Before Alecto could leave, Val grabbed her arm.
“I was wrong about you, by the way.” Val smirked. “I thought your mortal side was what made you weak. If I had known about your mother earlier, I wouldn’t have been so harsh on you.”
Alecto frowned. “Know about my mother what?”
Val leaned in to whisper into her ear: “You get your viciousness from your mother, not your witchy side.”
Chuckling, Val let go of Alecto’s arm and went back to the pool table.
Alecto was very confused. Her mother was nothing but sweet and kind from all the memories she had. What the fuck was Val talking about?
48
Alecto knocked on the door with shaking hands. She didn’t expect Blaze to answer, not after everything that had gone down. Not after the way he’d looked at her back at the black market, with that familiar hatred and disgust.
How quickly she had forgotten how it felt to have him look at her that way. And how much it hurt to be back there once again.
When the door swung open and Blaze appeared, only wearing his black jeans low on his hips, Alecto thought she might faint.
His black eyes were devoid of any emotion as he spoke. “What is it?”
It took Alecto a few tries before she finally managed to speak.
“I—I came to— Can we talk?”
Blaze moved away, giving her plenty of space to enter his room. Alecto stepped inside and waited for him to close the door.
The lock clicked, and before Alecto knew it, her back slammed into the wall, Blaze’s fingers wrapping around her neck.
He didn’t squeeze her throat, didn’t try to choke her. Even if his eyes told her that he would.
He had plenty of reason to.
Alecto swallowed, keeping her chin high. “I came here to apologize.”
Blaze snorted, his eyes roaming her face. “Apologize? You came to apologize forwhatexactly?”
Alecto was trying very hard to keep her anger in check, but it bubbled to the surface so quickly, she could barely breathe.
She shoved at his chest, but it did nothing to move him. A dark smirk curled his lips.
