Page 20 of House of Ruin
“I think the murder might be related to last trimester’s events,” Alecto said. “It does seem as if someone is trying to set us up.”
She was walking next to Blaze, their shoulders brushing each other from time to time.
It was a slight touch, one that wouldn’t look like much from the outside, but the hair on Blaze’s neck rose with every single caress.
When he brought the cigarette to his lips, Alecto’s clever fingers plucked it out of his mouth before he could inhale the smoke.
Meeting Blaze’s gaze, she inhaled one puff and then returned the cigarette.
But instead of handing it back to Blaze, she placed it back between his lips, her fingers softly dragging against his lips.
“I agree. It’s too much of a coincidence that Riverblood was executed right after our Houses tried to steal one another’s Books and Blaze was the one to find the body,” Andro said.
Blaze blinked, having completely forgotten what they were talking about as he forced himself to drag his attention away from Alecto.
“You both might be right,” Val said, coming to an abrupt stop by the statue of Devon Venefica. “However, why would the murder be set up as a Fanhy Coven witch’s work? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“It might just be a way to scare the students. To scare us,” Jolene said. “Everyone fears the Fanhy Coven. If there were rumors of Fanhy witches in Darly, it would make everyone distracted.”
“We need to figure out who’s behind the murder,” Alecto said.
“Absolutelynot,” Andro protested. He shook his head. “We shouldn’t go near the murder or anything related to it. We should lie low.”
Val scoffed. “Of course, leave it to you to suggest something like that.”
Andro glared at Val. “Blaze was at the scene of the murder that night, blackout drunk. The Gods know if he left any fingerprints because his hands were fucking bloody when we found him next to the corpse. If we go sniffing around, I’m pretty sure it’s gonna look suspicious!”
Blaze scoffed, rolling his eyes. He turned away from their group, pinching the bridge of his nose.
The fucking arguments were going to drive him mad.
Never. Fucking. Ending. Arguments.
“Alecto is right. We have to figure out who killed Riverblood,” Val said, her voice low. Her face was hard as stone, her eyes flickering as she glared at Andro, who was a whole head and then some taller than her. “We have to get ahead of this before it’s too late.”
“Alessandro, we can’t hide,” Alecto said softly. Blaze whirled to look at her. It had been rather often that Alecto was on Val’s side recently. “If we leave it at that, we’ll be vulnerable and exposed. Last trimester we made the mistake of not investigating something that was off. And look how well that turned out. We can’t afford to fuck up again.”
Andro looked at Alecto, silent. Of course, Alecto was right about it.
“Listen—” Val’s words died in her throat as she gazed at something behind their backs, furrowing her eyebrows.
Blaze looked over his shoulder to see what Val had noticed.
Today was a gift that kept on giving.
As if being called into the Dean’s office to talk with the police was not enough, all their parents also appeared to be at Venefica.
“What the Hel is going on?” Rufus’s voice was hard as he marched through the campus towards their group.
Octavia, Galliermo, and Alatar, together with the Frone sisters, were right behind them.
Of course, Blaze’s mother wasn’t here.
Too weak, too brittle to show up when it was important.
Something twisted in Blaze’s chest when he thought about her.
You’re going to beat me like your father beats your mother, huh?
