The Conspiracy of Us by Hall Maggie

Author:Hall, Maggie [Hall, Maggie]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Europe, Juvenile Fiction, Love & Romance, Mysteries & Detective Stories, Historical
ISBN: 9780698173453
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2015-01-13T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 23

We sat at the end of the wide, tulip-lined walk to the Hagia Sophia. The postcard hadn’t done the massive structure justice. It glowed orange gold against the night, its four minarets pointing to the sky like sentries.

Behind us, its twin, the Blue Mosque, gleamed like a mirror image. With their manicured lawns and palm trees lit from beneath, the scene struck me like something you’d see at Disneyland.

I wished we were at Disneyland.

I prodded carefully at the new bandage on my leg. We’d picked up butterfly bandages, painkillers, and flip-flops on our way out of the market, and Jack had shown me how to close the cut, musing that I really would know first aid by the time we were finished. His touch was more tentative on my thigh than it had been on my shoulder earlier.

Now he checked his watch. “Three thirty-two,” he said, and we watched a pair of security guards stroll past the Hagia Sophia’s front entrance, then continue on their route.

He sat a careful distance from me—a distance that said he was still thinking about what almost happened in the market, too. I couldn’t help but look at his mouth again. Jack had the kind of mouth that makes you overly aware of your own—full, soft, almost pouting. He caught his lower lip between his teeth, and I pressed my own lips together and turned away.

The cold of the stone fountain’s edge bled through my thin dress, and I shivered, wrapping my hands around the warm, foil-wrapped kebab we’d bought from a street vendor on the way here. It was hard to think about eating right now, but I hadn’t eaten in forever—since back at home, maybe?—and the incredible smell wafting from the kebab Jack was already eating was making my stomach rumble.

I started to peel back the foil on mine, but my phone vibrated. I jumped to scoop it out of my bag. I’d assumed my mom would be on a plane until the morning, but I couldn’t stop hoping. It wasn’t her, though. It was Stellan. This was the eighth time he’d called.

I tossed the phone back into my bag. “Why is Stellan so worried if the Dauphins don’t know who I am?”

Jack tensed, just like he did every time Stellan’s name came up. It was obvious the two of them had a complicated history.

“You’re his assignment, even if he thinks you’re just a houseguest,” he said tersely, taking another bite. His white shirt, with its mutilated hem and spices smeared across the chest, looked orange in the streetlight. “He’s in line for a position in Russia if he proves himself. He can’t slip up at all.”

“Russia? Near his family?”

An ice cream vendor pushed a cart down the street, tinny music blaring from his speakers.

“Near his sister. His parents are dead.”

Stellan hadn’t mentioned that. The more I learned about the Circle and the Keepers, though, the more I wasn’t surprised he didn’t have a normal, happy childhood. He’d clearly thought about the concept of toska way before we met.

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