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Mrs. Bach handed me a paper tag on a little loop. “We’re doing a themed game of hide-and-seek. Here, put this bracelet on, I’m about to explain it to everyone.”
I slipped on the yellow rubber bracelet stamped with my name and followed them all back into the main room. Everyone was gathered around the lifted platform and the atmosphere was brimming with excitement.
“It was either this or a dinner murder mystery,” said Mrs. Bach. “But I thought everyone would be too drunk for that.”
“I am a bit drunk,” I admitted.
“Hopefully not too drunk to hide,” Candice chimed in.
Mrs. Bach alighted the platform and clapped her hands and everyone went quiet.
“Alright, we’ll draw three names out of a hat and those will be the seekers,” she said. “Or, as we’re calling them, the James Bonds of the evening. And the rest of you are the villains. Now, feel free to go into any unlocked room, as well as outside in the yard so long as you remain within the fence perimeters. We don’t want our seekers to be traipsing through the forest trying to find you.”
A ripple of laughter passed through the crowd. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Merrick, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.
Names were drawn from a hat. Caden, a woman called Megan, and her cousin, Iwan, were picked as the seekers. They were shoved unceremoniously into a closet and Mrs. Bach set a timer while everyone fled the room.
I took a moment to pry my heels off and then I padded barefoot down the middle hallway and took a left. The house was enormous and it took less than five minutes for the laughter and shrieking to die down. Silence fell.
There was a heavy door at the end of the hall and I pushed it open, slipping into the library. I could hear breathing and I knew someone had already claimed this spot, so I kept moving, taking the back door into an old servant's staircase.
The stairs wound around and put me back out into the front hallway, close to the party room.
Footsteps sounded and I saw a flash of Caden through the doorway and I dashed backwards into a room just behind me.
It was a living area with a huge, ancient fireplace. The Bach’s clearly used it as a study because every surface was covered in an artifact or curiosity. I let my eyes skim over the vintage items as I padded across the Turkish rug and pulled open one of the two doors on the far end.
It was a closet and Merrick was leaning against the wall, scrolling his phone. His eyes snapped up and narrowed.
“This is my spot,” he teased.
Footsteps sounded on the other side of the door. We both froze for a second and then he grabbed my wrist, tugging me through the curtained doorway into the next room.
It was a storage area with another door on the far end. Merrick’s hand slipped down my forearm and his fingers slid through mine, tugging me across the floor and pulling the door ajar. It was a small closet, empty save for a broom and a mop.
We both paused, listening. It was hard to tell if the footsteps were in the main hallway or in the study.
“Come on,” he whispered.
We both ducked into the closet and he pulled the door shut save for a sliver of light. I slid back against the wall, watching him as he leaned forward to peer through.
“I think we’re safe,” he said.
“I thought this would be dumb at first,” I breathed. “But it’s kind of fun.”
“I’m a sucker for shit like this,” he admitted.
There was a short silence and he cleared his throat, barely audible.
“Osian gave you a gift?”
My fingers came up and pinched the necklace Osian had insisted I wear. It was a smooth oval on a white gold chain with a gem of the worst shade of bile green. He’d said it was my birthstone and I hadn’t corrected him because what was the point?
How he’d fucked that up, I could only guess.
“Yeah,” I sighed. “I’m going to sound like a huge brat when I say this, but it’s horrible.”
“Can I see?”
