These Vengeful Hearts by Katherine Laurin

Author:Katherine Laurin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Published: 2020-06-25T20:14:47+00:00

* * *

I was nearly back to my car a few blocks down from Alec’s house when a twig snapped behind me. I whirled around, searching the darkness, and groped desperately in my hoodie pocket for the key-chain pepper spray my mom had given me. Safety first.

“Hi,” a quiet voice from the shadows murmured.

“Umm...hi,” I said back. My numb fingers finally grasped the pepper spray bottle. Carefully, I pulled the tiny canister out, trying to keep it concealed in my palm.

A petite dark-haired girl stepped into the light. Gretchen Goldberg.

Uh-oh.

“So, you’re Ember Williams.” Her voice, so shaky when she was talking to Shauna, now sounded sure.

“Yeah. You’re Gretchen, right?”

She smiled and gave an encouraging nod like I answered a question correctly. “I was wondering who they were going to give my job to. The Red Court always finishes its jobs.”

There was something almost childlike in her lilting words, like wonder, or like she was one of a set of demonic twins in a horror movie. I checked behind me to be sure there weren’t two of her. We were alone, but the back of my neck still prickled, alerting me to the dangerous situation I was in. If they weren’t frozen, my palms would be itching.

“Lucky me.” I unsuccessfully tried to choke out a laugh.

“I wanted to see it through, even though I’m on probation. But you knew that.”

I shook my head fervently. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You overheard my conversation with Shauna. I saw you and Gideon when you went up the stairs.”

Shit, shit, shit.

I couldn’t pepper spray her, could I? No, I needed to find a way out of this.

“Don’t worry. I won’t say anything. It’s just a little secret between us. I was worried until I saw you here tonight and figured out that you’re one of us, too.” Gretchen leaned in, a conspiratorial smile on her lips. “What you said to Alec was genius, by the way.”

I faltered, completely off-kilter. “Thank you. But why are you talking to me? You had the upper hand knowing who and what I am. I would have never said anything to you about what I heard.”

“I was curious. I know that’s a dangerous thing to be in our line of work, but I couldn’t help myself. I want to know everything about the Red Court. That’s why I called her. I just had to meet her.”

Her? Shauna. She didn’t pull her fire alarm because of her boyfriend’s suspicions; she was playing Shauna that day in the hall.

Well done, Gretchen. She sure fooled me. “But you only get one and you wasted it. I don’t understand.”

Weirdness notwithstanding, her stunt seemed like a poor use of a valuable resource. Maybe I only felt that way because when I pulled my alarm, I really needed it.

“It wasn’t a waste. It was the price of knowledge. Aren’t you curious about everyone else, too? We were chosen to be part of the Red Court, and there’s so much we don’t know about it.”

Of course I was curious, but I had a feeling that my curiosity and Gretchen’s were not the same.

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