AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Forcing myself to calm down, I put on some cheerful music and contemplate what excuses I can make for showing up this late at a parent’s home.
I have nothing of importance that Andromeda has “forgotten” at school, because she doesn’t forget things. Her desk is always clean. Her books are always tucked neatly in the cubby. Her homework is always done on school premises. Do I dare go with the classic, “I was in the neighborhood, and thought I’d stop by”?
What if they’re already…working?
Swallowing rage, I decide I’m going with the classic I was in the neighborhood. As though this entire town isn’t in the neighborhood. Mountain Vale, Virginia is a pretty small place tucked into a clearing surrounded by mountains and trees. On my half of the town, there’s my school, a higher-class residential area, a sprinkling of woods, and the “big road” that leads out to the nearest city. On the other half, downtown, the library, and thicker patches of forests that get more dense the farther into them you go.
Technically, depending on how much you like to walk, I think you may be able to go from one side to the other by foot in a matter of hours.
As soon as my GPS alerts me that my destination is on the right, I snap out of my skull, look up, and feel my stomach drop.
I ease my car into park in front of the overgrown brick wall and broken wrought iron gate. Mouth agape, I stare at faded peeling black paint beyond a yard of thigh-high overgrown grass. Broken windows and shadows and cracked sidewalk greet me the longer I stare.
It’s a manor.
A Victorian-style manor tucked onto the corner of an otherwise normal neighborhood.
With a waning gibbous moon hung in the cloudy sky behind it…it looks starkly haunted.
This is not where my little lives.
This can not be where my little lives.
It’s chilly tonight.
The windows of her house shouldn’t be broken, but if they are, they should at least be covered.
You know.
With something more than spiderwebs.
Closing my eyes, I give myself half a moment to collect my nerves, stretch my fingers, catch my breath. Maybe I should call the cops right this second, wait for them to arrive, and shove their faces in the most obviously not child-friendly home I have ever seen…?
Opening and all but slamming my car door, I forfeit that idea in favor of strangling Mr. Strakh myself.
Wind whistles past me, rustling the four-foot-high grass on either side of the moss-eaten walkway. An eerie sensation drags a finger up my spine. I ignore it as I lift the antique knocker and let it pound three times.
Moments later, a butler opens the door, and my perfectly plastic smile falters.
The tall man’s gray eyes take me in as he adjusts one sleeve of his black tailcoat. Complete with a small, wilting rose in the front pocket.
Dim light from a crystal chandelier illuminates the marble floor and the twin staircases leading up to a balcony on either side of him.
He smiles—pleasantly—and presents a graceful bow, one gloved hand splayed over his heart. “Welcome, miss. What brings you into my humble presence?”
“Yama-nii-nii.” Andromeda’s voice cuts the young man’s smile off abruptly. Sliding down the railing of the staircase on the left, she jumps off and shoves him away from the front door. Stabbing her finger into his chest, she snaps, “No.”
Wholly reserved, the man lets his gaze wander over the top of her curly head. “I was being polite.”
“Do not make me bite you.”
His smile broadens as he tucks his arms behind his back and leans down. “My. Aren’t you a little old to be flirting with me, tiny monster?”
She clicks her teeth together.
He tsks and taps her nose with one gloved finger. “Point taken and understood. The pretty miss is your company, not mine. Shall I alert Pollux?”
Andromeda folds her arms. “I am certain he is already well aware and having an existential crisis right now.”
