Chapter 46
WRAITH
Poppy
The person staring back at me is hauntingly beautiful. She’s wearing a black lace kimono, half her sleek pink strands knotted with shuriken stars. Her arctic eyes are winged, her lips stained a midnight blue.
Too bad it’s just snakeskin hiding the liar beneath.
My gaze travels up, hers along with it, to the Leviathan mask in our hands. It’s a different style than the others, only half a mask. Someone had slipped it under the front door of Morgenstern Manor during the first night I shared with Bronte.
I checked the cams myself. They’d been scrubbed. I then deleted the footage of me finding the mask and tucking it into Bronte’s jacket that I’d been wearing for what was meant to be me brewing coffee for him as an early morning surprise.
I’ve been hiding the mask since then, along with the invitation now tucked into the holster beside my mini Glock strapped to my thigh and hidden under my skirt.
I’ve spent weeks staring at the coordinates and date beneath, waiting for this night to come.
They lead to St. Aurelius’s Liberal Arts.
Unwilling to put Emi in any more danger than I already have, I checked the academy’s website and found a masquerade event being hosted on campus tonight in honor of their founder.
The unwritten instructions were clear: come alone and wear the mask.
I haven’t told anyone.
Tonight, the stars aligned. Mama and Papa are asleep. Bronte is working. Being at the manor has made it easy to keep this from everyone else.
Am I making a mistake? Probably.
But this is my war.
No king or queen who’s unwilling to fight on the frontline deserves their crown.
Texting Bronte that I’m spending the night at Beelzebub’s with Emi, I head downstairs. Jezebel meets me at the foyer, blocking my exit with a loud yowl. She sounds almost…pleading.
I crouch, scratching her cheek. “I’ll be back. Keep the bed warm for me.”
She huffs, pawing at my chest with a whine.
“You can’t come with me.”
She bats me again, and I fold her paw between my hands.
“If I don’t return, protect my parents. They’ll need you more than me.”
She grunts, and my throat burns.
“I will not lose another friend, sweet girl. You will stay here, and if I don’t come back, you will guard Mama and Papa for the rest of your days. Do you understand?”
Jezebel’s glacial eyes search mine, an entire lifetime of unconditional and unfaltering love in their depths. What I face tonight is too dangerous for her. She may follow me into death, but it doesn’t mean I’d ever allow it.
Throwing my arms around her neck, I hold her for long minutes. Her soft whimpers stab my heart and bleed me dry. I kiss her nose, giggling as she sneezes.
“Look after a certain coroner, too, would you? He’s kind of grown on me a little.”
Jezebel bows her neck. I tug my leather jacket on and slip out the house like a wraith, my fingertips skimming the scar over my heart carved by the man I love.