Page 83 of House of Ruin
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Fifty-three, fifty-four, fifty-five, fifty-six, fifty-seven…
When Alecto counted to sixty, only then did she open her mouth and scream until her lungs burned. The water muffled the sound. After another moment, when she sat up in the bathtub, gasping for air, eerie silence greeted her.
It was too early for the rest of the Inner Circle to be up after all the drinking they had done last night.
Alecto hadn’t had a drink, watching the party from the side, biding her time for the group to get drunk enough so she could sneak out and try to open the journal.
She’d had no luck, though.
The magic that protected the journal was unfamiliar to Alecto, nothing she had encountered in class or anywhere else before. It was thick and dark. Alluring.
She needed to get her hands on the Book once they were back in Darly and see if there was anything there on elaborate protection spells. It might have been something old, maybe one of the traditional spells that were not popular amongst younger generations anymore.
Alecto ran her hands over her face, pushing her wet hair away. And then she almost jumped out of her skin when Blaze’s tall figure appeared in her doorway.
“You have got to stop doing this.”
A cheeky smirk appeared at the corner of his mouth. “How did it go with the spell last night?”
Alecto frowned. “You’ve been watching me, Leveau?”
Blaze shrugged. He strolled into the bathroom before settling on the floor next to the bathtub where Alecto sat. Naked.
“I didn’t say you could come in and get comfortable.”
“Then tell me to leave.”
There was a challenge in his eyes when their gazes locked. He arched a brow, amused. Alecto didn’t tell him to leave.
“It’s very old,” she said after a moment of silence. “The magic is different from what we practice at Venefica.”
“There might be something to help you in the Book.”
“I was thinking the same. I’ll have to check it out once we’re back.”
“You need any help with that?”
Alecto rolled her eyes despite the satisfaction Blaze’s offer gave her. “I’ll handle it myself, thanks.”
Blaze chuckled. He leaned back against the tiled wall. They sat in silence for what felt like forever. Just looking at each other. The arrogant amusement on Blaze’s face changed into something serious.
“My father forbade me from seeing you, you know.” His eyes were cast down to the floor, his thick eyelashes almost resting on his stark cheeks. “That’s why…” He seemed to force himself to continue. “That’s why I pushed you away that time. Right before the shit hit the fan with Rogue.”
Alecto blinked, unsure what to say.
Somehow it didn’t surprise her to hear that Galliermo didn’t want his son to be with her. He’d always seemed to hate Alecto, and if her mother had really left him for Alatar in college, she was starting to understand why.
Yet the idea that Blaze had hurried to obey his father without a second thought made her furious. At the end of the day, it was easier to be mad at him than to let it hurt.
“Well, sucks for you.”
Blaze smirked for a moment but didn’t meet her eyes still.
“Yeah,” he agreed, his voice quiet. Weak. “But the reason I mentioned it is that he told me something that night. Something that struck out to me as weird, and to this day, I still can’t figure out why.”
Alecto ran a hand over the water, sending ripples over it where the tips of her fingers disturbed the water. “What was it?”
