Chapter 37
Sadie
The gothic mansion rises in the fog like a creature waiting to be fed.
Gravel crunches under my boots as I arrive at the Halloween party with Clara and Juliette.
“Tonight will be so fun.” Clara’s siren costume and elaborate makeup glimmer with teal and purple. “No better way to get your mind off Lucan.”
Black SUVs crawl past us in the driveway to deliver guests at the door.
“Maybe you’ll even meet another guy,” says Juliette.
Her ghost makeup looks eerie, a flowing pale dress trailing her like a river of moonlight.
“Forget guys,” I say. “I want to forget everything tonight. Exams were brutal.”
Clara boops my nose. “Wish granted.”
“Do sirens grant wishes?” I ask with a giggle.
She shrugs happily. “This one does.”
“I’m so done with college right now too,” says Juliette, huffing a cloud of steam. “I had an appointment with Chuck Fairchild this afternoon for advice on my classes. I waited at his office for an hour! He never showed.”
“Some student advisor,” says Clara. “Maybe he wanted to start trick-or-treating early.”
The mansion’s stone steps are slick with damp leaves as we climb them. Carved pumpkins leer at us from balconies, candles flickering in their grinning mouths.
A senior dressed as a skeleton checks our names off a list at the door, stamping our wrists with ink skulls. Her eyes travel over my corseted black-and-ivory dress, teardrop makeup, and dark wings.
“Oooh, Angel of Death?” she asks.
“Fallen Angel,” I reply.
“That’s cute too!”
Inside the house is dark, loud, and smells of woodsmoke and cinnamon. My friends greet people they know, introducing me over the thumping music.
I can tell immediately that Lucan’s not here. When he’s nearby, something in me instinctively responds.
I try to ignore my disappointment and concentrate on having fun. A party would be a terrible place to work out our problems anyway. I’ll settle for drinking in the dark like everyone else.
Laughter echoes from upstairs. A girl wearing a Marie Antoinette costume plays a grand piano, her powdered wig crooked. Guests pour liquor from crystal decanters into red solo cups, and a guy dressed as Robin Hood passes me a drink.
The bourbon makes me wince and my eyes water, yet I take a second gulp. Alcohol hits my bloodstream quickly, encircling me in a warm glow.
Whenever a tall male figure walks through the door, I pause, narrowing my eyes.
It’s never him though, and I realize the alcohol isn’t enough. Lucan’s always on my mind and it sucks.
My friends dance under a chandelier of bones. I’m not in the mood to join them, and my wings would be a nuisance on the dance floor anyway. So I drift through the seemingly endless rooms alone, each more staggeringly luxurious than the last.
Juliette said the mansion once belonged to Benedict Darkbloom. He lived here while establishing the college, and died here too.
At the top of a creaky staircase, I lean on a balcony overlooking the main chaos to watch.
Everyone’s letting loose. Animalistic howling replaces the laughter, and costumed students hook up on velvet lounges in the open.
None of it erases him from my mind. I could drink myself into a stupor and I swear I’d only see Lucan’s intense blue gaze when I closed my eyes.
Have I ruined things between us with my doubts? Did I give up a rare, meaningful connection because I was scared? Scared of how he made me feel, scared of what he wanted to give me, and scared that I didn’t deserve good things.
It might be too late anyway, because Lucan sees the world in black and white. He’s all or nothing.
I wavered, and maybe that was the kiss of death for us.
“He’s not here,” says a male voice with a slight Irish accent, making me turn.
Madox wears a pinstriped suit and carries a fake Tommy gun. His genuine facial scar is the cherry on top of his 1920s gangster costume.
He brims with manic energy, like he’s having trouble standing still. With anyone else, I might blame substances. But from what I can tell from our brief interactions, Mad-dog Madox is always like this.
“A mobster?” I snicker. “Bit on the nose, no?”
He props the gun against his shoulder, puffing a fat cigar. “Why, Sadie, what have you heard about my family?”
On second look, the gun is real.
Madox’s date hangs back, a gorgeous redhead wearing a vintage fur coat over lingerie.
“I wasn’t checking for him,” I say.
“Really?” Cigar smoke billows from Madox’s nostrils like he’s a dragon. “Then why are you hanging out up here alone, looking sadder than a Victorian tragedy?”
“It’s Halloween.” I shrug, my wings moving with my shoulders. “I can look as tragic as I like.”
Madox winks. “Yeah, well, that guy you aren’t checking for had a business thing with his dad today in the city. Said he won’t be back in time for the party.”
My wings droop. “Oh.”
Madox’s gaze moves to the heaving dance floor below. His date, apparently losing the will to wait for him, wanders off.
I follow his line of vision. “Is it Clara or Juliette you’re perving on?”
“Pfft,” he says. “I didn’t even know she was coming. What is she, a mermaid?”
“Clara then. You’re perving on Clara.”
He gives me a deadpan look. “You think you’re clever, huh?”
I hold up my hands in surrender. “Hey, if you want Clara, go for it. She’s amazing.”
“You must be kidding.” Madox sucks his teeth. “Clara is Reeve’s sweet little sister. Apple of his eye. He’d kill me if I tried anything, but only after their father cut off my hands and dick.”
“Is their father really that bad? I haven’t met him.”
Madox puts on an old-timey voice. “Doll, he makes King Kong look like a kitten.”
Someone lets off firecrackers inside, sparks skittering across the high ceiling. Madox’s date squeals and runs back to him for cover.
I take the opportunity to head down a hallway alone, strongly suspecting that Lucan told Madox to keep an eye on me.
I’m perfectly okay though, on the outside at least. On the inside, my heart throbs like a wound.
In the ballroom, an impromptu boxing match takes place. Two men pummel each other with their fists under chandeliers. Costumed students circle them, hollering.
Going downstairs to the ground floor, I decide I’m done. I’ve made enough effort to be social and pretend I’m okay for one night. All I feel like doing is returning to my dorm and curling up in bed with a book and hot cocoa.
Clara and Juliette are nowhere to be found when I do a quick lap around the dance floor. I’m relieved though, because I’d hate to be a downer when they were so excited about the party. I’ll message them instead, and see them back at the dorm.
My breath fogs in the cold when I step outside. A wolf howls close by, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
Then I realize the wolf is a man, naked to the waist and running through the dark trees. A trio of witches is cackling and sprinting after him.
Shivering in my dress, I wonder how long it’d take me to walk back to Darkbloom.
Lucan’s stern, disapproving face appears in my mind’s eye. He would hate the idea of me walking alone at night.
I’m not crazy about it either, to be honest. My next paycheck comes tomorrow though, so I have no money to order a ride-share or cab.
A female voice calls out. “Hey! Sadie, isn’t it?”
Looking around, I see a vaguely familiar young woman leaning from the driver’s window of a shiny black SUV. She’s parked among the cars pulled up haphazardly in the circular driveway.
Where do I know her from?
“Come here,” she says, waving me over.
She definitely seems to know me.
Still unsure of her identity, I slowly walk toward her car with my phone in my hand. The other windows are tinted dark and show only my reflection.
Her face is painted white, with trails of bright red running from the corners of her mouth to her chin. She grins, showing what must be custom ceramic fangs, for how real they look.
“It’s Adelle,” she says. “Damon’s twin? We met at the Hale estate for dinner last week.”
“Of course! Sorry, I didn’t recognize you. Are you Dracula?”
“Dracula’s bride.” She points at the mansion, her fingernails painted scarlet. “How’s the party?”
“Really good.” I shrug. “I’m heading back to Darkbloom though. I feel like an early night.”
“Aw, I’m sorry. I heard you and Lucan are going through it.” She starts the car, the engine growling to life. “Get in, I’ll give you a lift.”
“No.” I step back from the car. “Thank you, I can walk.”
“Are you kidding? You can’t walk. There are creeps out there.”
She’s right, there are.
The problem is, she could be one of them. I barely know anything about her, except that Lucan suspects Damon and her of being involved in his cousins’ deaths.
Adelle seems nice though, genuinely.
And I know for a fact that it was a man who attacked me both times.
So what’s the risk here, really? Driving with her is almost definitely safer than making my way on foot in the middle of the night.
“I’m not taking no for an answer,” she says. “I’m serious. Lucan would murder me if he knew I let you walk by yourself.”
Tired and cold, I relent. “Okay. Thank you.”
Before I can go around to the passenger side, someone beats me to it. A man dressed as the Joker climbs into the front seat without looking at me.
“Shit,” I whisper to myself.
Who’s that?
“Let’s go, Sadie!” The fake blood on Adelle’s face gleams in the moonlight. “Get in. Damon wants to go to another spot.”
It’s her terrifying brother.
Am I safer walking through the forest alone or driving in a car with potentially murderous twins?
Clara and Juliette would get me back to the dorm safely, but I’d ruin their night.
Me dying would probably ruin their night too though.
Deciding on a compromise, I hastily message my friends that I’m leaving with Adelle and Damon.
“Just letting my friends know what’s happening,” I say, climbing into the backseat.
There. The twins can’t murder me now. They’d be caught right away and they know it.
Damon and Adelle share an ultra-quick glance, saying nothing. Maybe I offended them, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
The car door locks as soon as I close it, perhaps automatically. Fastening my seatbelt, I have to sit forward awkwardly to avoid crushing my wings.
Once Adelle rolls the SUV forward, Damon looks over his shoulder at me. He doesn’t smile, yet the garish Joker face paint makes him look like he’s grinning. The effect is unnerving.
His dark eyes rake over me before he faces forward again.
To quell my anxiety, I check the group chat for a reply from Clara or Juliette.
My stomach drops when I see the message didn’t go through, due to no service. We must be too high in the mountains.
Oh god, did I walk blindly into a trap by getting into this car? Am I about to die?
At the end of the driveway, Adelle turns right when we were supposed to turn left.
My palms breaking out in sweat, I lean forward. “Darkbloom’s that way—”
“I know a shortcut,” she replies serenely.
Damon’s eyes are like chips of onyx glaring at me in the rearview mirror.
I feel like I’m sinking into wet sand. Like this is the end. My heart thuds extra fast, as though it knows it has only so many beats left.
Adelle accelerates, sending the SUV hurtling down the misty, lonely road.