Page 111 of House of Crimson Hearts
Chapter28
RED
Falling for her? She’s insane. Of course I’m not falling for her. She turned my sister, who nearly killed me because of her. Besides, it would be suicide in the Hunter Academy to fall for a vamp, look at how Erin was excommunicated.
No. She’s being ridiculous.
We make our way back through the rabbit warren of corridors until we find ourselves in an alcove of the main library room.
Gabriel and Keir are stood at the head of a table. Gabriel’s long, slender fingers are pressed against the leather of a tome. Around the table, each of the teams is clasping a book.
Xavier, I note, has his arm around Talulla, who doesn’t seem to mind one bit. So much for being excommunicated for your vampire associations. Talulla’s taking a bit of a risk being so open about it.
Keir’s tattooed fingers drum against the table. “It appears that we’re at a stalemate. Each of us is holding a whispering book, and it’s our belief that together, the whispers will give us a location for the amulet,” Keir says.
Talulla places hers and Xavier’s book on the table, her fingers holding it down. Protective, possessive.
She clears her throat. “A truce then, we share our books’ whispers and then it’s up to us to figure out where the location is.”
Lincoln goes to put his book on the table, but Dahlia places her hand over his and he returns the book to his chest. “What’s the guarantee you won’t try and take our books?”
“Sister, please,” Gabriel rolls his eyes. “There are five teams, five books. There’s no way one team of two can take on four other teams. Four to one are not great odds.”
“Then what do you propose? Because I’m already weary of this game,” Dahlia says, eyeing each of our books in turn.
Gabriel scratches his jaw and then pulls a pocket watch out of his top jacket pocket.
“Everyone will place their books on the table. I will set a timer and we get twenty seconds to listen to each book’s whisper. Then we move one place around and repeat. Everyone understand?” he says, setting the pocket watch.
Sadie signs at Fenella to find a pen. She scurries off and when she returns, she’s holding a handful and Sadie has sourced several scraps of parchment off the tables.
Octavia leans into me. “You listen and whisper to me, I’ll scribe, I can write faster,” she says.
There’s some jostling as we find paper and get into position. “Right, given that we’ll be keeping our original books, everyone step to the right in three… two… one…” Gabriel says.
We do, though there’s a beat of pause before we all move in unison. I don’t have to be a vampire to know that everyone’s heart rates are elevated. It’s the skittish eyes darting between each other that give it away.
“Quite the game of trust,” I say. And an odd one, given I’m now questioning my fellow hunters over my vampire teammate.
I note the tension in each hunter’s body. The way they’re ready to pull out weapons and stake anyone who moves wrong.
Gabriel displays the pocket watch. “Open books in three… two… one…”
In unison, we open the books. There’s that familiar scratching of paper and rustling of parchment scraps. I lean close to the book and whisper the words I make out to Octavia. She scribbles them down fast, glancing at Gabriel’s pocket watch the entire time.
I close the book just as the time ticks down.
“Move in three, two, one,” Gabriel says.
We step to the next book and the cycle repeats until we’re back to our original book.
“There. That wasn’t so difficult, was it?” Xavier says. “But on that note, Talulla and I are out of here.”
He picks Talulla up, swinging her onto his back and speeds out of the library in a blur.
I open my mouth to tell Octavia she has another think coming if she dares to do that to me, but it seems I’m already on her back speeding out of the library, the wind rushing through my hair as I cling wildly to her shoulders. She races me all the way through the Midnight Market, running faster and faster. I dig my nails into her shoulders but it’s not enough, I have to slide my arms around her neck as I fear I’m going to slip off.
She brings me to her club, stabbing her finger over Broodmire’s tongue. As her blood rolls down the spike and onto the goyle’s tongue, my nose twitches. I realise it’s been almost twenty hours since I last dosed.
