Page 119 of House of Crimson Hearts
“Did you know the house could do things like this?” I ask.
Octavia shakes her head, her eyes wide with fascination. She reaches up to touch the wall. It shivers and pulses faster.
“I think it likes you.”
“Well, so it should, I’ve owned the place long enough.” She traces the edge of the map and then she gasps as her fingers sink into the wall.
“What the f—” She yanks her hand out but comes away clasping a roll of parchment the same colour as the wall. And to my delight, there’s a map drawn on it. The corridor wall returns to its usual blank colour.
“Holy fuck, that was cool,” I say.
She’s grinning like an idiot. “We can win this. How much time is left?”
“Just over twenty-four hours.”
“Then I’ll get a carriage ready. We need to make a trip to the Montague territory. The amulet is in there.”
The club door swings open, Gabriel and Keir are standing there and next to us the wall begins to vibrate.
Gabriel’s fangs drop, he hisses at his sister. She rounds on him. Fucking territorial vampires. I grab her arm.
“We don’t have time. Leave them.”
She steps back, rolling the parchment up so Gabriel can’t see it but it’s pointless, the wall is showing him the same map that it showed us. Only he hasn’t realised he needs to peel the map away from the wall.
“Let’s go,” I say, tugging her arm and then we’re running through the club back to her office.
* * *
By the time the carriage is readied, Dahlia and Lincoln are outside the Whisper Club and Sadie is disappearing from the carriage parking area holding a scroll. I can only assume that she already got the map and Dahlia is about to.
“Only Xavier left,” Octavia says as the carriage jerks forward and powers through the night.
“He won’t be far behind. He might not be the brightest of my siblings, but he’s not a fool. He’ll figure it out quickly, and I suspect he won’t even have to pay the blood toll, he’ll just charm the map out of Broodmire.”
I smile. “You love him.”
She nods. “I do. He’s been my brother longer than the others, he came first, and we were together while Mother went through her Morose Mourning period. It was… tough.”
I nod. “Tell me about him.”
I take my shoes off and tuck my legs up underneath me.
She narrows her eyes at me.
“You don’t have to if you feel I’m prying.”
“No. It’s fine. It’s just that no one normally asks. He’s a softie behind his charming exterior. He really cares, you know? He’s a total man-whore. But when he loves someone, gods. They become his entire world. He’d fall on a stake for them.”
“What’s he interested in?”
“We both like chess. It was one of the things that kept us sane while Mother lost her marbles for a few decades. We’d play over and over. He liked it because he tried to trick, charm and corral the win out of me. Talking at me, trying to draw secrets out of me while I was distracted. I suppose it was practice for him. And I’d try and win by strategy, by playing the best sequence.”
“He would make an amazing right-hand man, you know… if you were to lead the city.”
“I would change this city so much,” she says, staring out the carriage window.
“For good or your own benefit.”
