Edgewood by Kristen Ciccarelli

Author:Kristen Ciccarelli
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

TWENTY-FIVE

THE NIGHT PRESSED IN around Emeline as she traversed the city’s cobbled lamplit streets trying to find her way back to the palace. She scanned the façades of the white row houses on either side of her, hoping for a familiar landmark.

As she walked, Emeline ran her thumb over the twisted shape of the copper butterfly pin. Trying to remember why it was so familiar. So much of what they’d found in the Song Mage’s house didn’t make sense. The mass-produced pin. The manacles in the cellar. The way her song seemed to provoke the Vile.

The Vile had been terrifying, but it wasn’t her monstrousness that captured Emeline’s thoughts again and again. It was the moldy mattress. The rusted chains fastened to the wall.

As she traced the shape of the pin in her pocket, she wondered who had been kept down there.

Suddenly, she was standing before The Acorn, its copper nut-shaped sign hanging over the door, its windows bright with lamplight.

This was the third time she’d passed it.

Emeline hugged her arms. It was getting colder and darker by the minute, and she was clearly …

“Lost?” said a familiar voice from the shadows. It sent a wave of sensation rushing through her. She was suddenly back in that hallway, pressing him up against the wall, running her hands over him.…

She straightened, swallowed, then smoothed out her voice. “What are you, stalking me?”

“Don’t flatter yourself. Rooke and I are here for a drink.”

She turned to find both Hawthorne and Rooke stepping out of the shadows. Oh.

“We might have been following you.” Rooke grinned. “In case you got lost on your way back.”

“Well, I’m not lost.” Avoiding their skeptical gazes, she turned back in the opposite direction, quickening her pace along the cobbles.

She heard Rooke say something to Hawthorne, who growled something in response.

Seconds later, Hawthorne caught up to her. Easily. She glanced over her shoulder to see Rooke enter The Acorn without him.

“I’ll walk you back.”

Please no, she thought. I don’t have the strength.

“You’re having drinks with Rooke,” she pointed out, still walking.

“Rooke doesn’t mind.”

His voice was colder than steel. She dragged her gaze upwards to his perfect scowling mouth. It told her that he knew everything: she’d gone to the Song Mage’s house against the advice of his friends, she’d endangered Grace, and she’d barely escaped with her life.

And for what? She had nothing to show for it. No missing sheet music. Just a tarnished hairpin.

Emeline was exactly what he’d accused her of being: a reckless fool.

And he was here to rub it in her face.

She felt like an exposed nerve. A sparking wire.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were going to the Song Mage’s house?”

Emeline shoved her hands into her pockets. Ran her thumb over the butterfly pin. “You would have stopped me.”

“Of course I would have stopped you.”

A rowdy group of friends started towards them on the sidewalk—likely heading for The Acorn.

“I was looking for the missing sheet music. Which I would have told you about if I’d been able to find you.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.