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Because we’ll always be hungry for more.

Stop.

The scent grew intoxicating when I stopped before a wall, my surroundings pitch-black. But I could read the word dripped in blood,hergiggles an echo against my ears.

Nausea rumbled in my stomach as a fire crawled from my throat to the tip of my tongue. Gray eyes flashed across my mind as a familiar face appeared. A deep, taunting voice engulfed my ears.

You’re a monster.

Everything numbed as I sunk deep, deep into the abyss.

ChapterTwenty-Two

ALEK SEPHTIS

Fittings continued on. Ms. Hoko’s persistence to assemble our attires in readiness for the Christmas Ball blocked any potential rendezvous with Katerina the past few days. And though arranged, Christopher’s implication also sent a tinge of annoyance through me.

I had to upkeep my end of the bargain —brought forth after our uncanny alliance— before he could assist me with Kaleb.

The library held three floors; the first housing walnut bookshelves that reached the ceiling, bulky books occupying each layer. The second floor was similar, the difference being the antique, deep cherry desk within the matching, steep shelves.

He sat on his grand chair behind it. His eyes glanced above the rims of his glasses as I closed the door.

Christopher stood, his hands resting upon the grand book. The sight of it twisted my stomach.

“Search through the pages until something catches your eyes.” Christopher spoke in his fixed, still tone, an unnerving chord that disrupted his quivering body. He maintained a concealed expression, a façade that nearly hardened his facial features to stone.

“Why?”

His nostrils flared as he settled his glare on me, a struggle for composure displaying across his appearance. There was no fire that blazed within his bronze eyes, but rather firm lines that emerged between his eyebrows.

“You are undoubtedly digging your own grave, Alek.”

“You were the one that forced the shovel into my hands,” I responded, the familiar façade shedding from my skin and exposing a semblance that I rebutted for Kaleb’s sake. Now before Christopher, there was too much at stake to keep silent. “We’re allies. If questions are left unanswered, then this agreement is off, and we’ll all be dealt with by the Ministry.”

His lips pressed into a straight line. “Sit.”

The seat swallowed my body, the room stretching before me. My gaze focused on the paper he retrieved from his patch pocket, the sheet rustling as he unfolded it and rested it before me. The words were smeared with blue ink, the phrasing distinguishable.

“What is this?”

“An anonymous message,” he said and pointed at the scripture. “It was placed in my study, resting above that piece of work.”

He paced across the room, his arms resting behind his back and his shoulders rigid. “Whoever it was knew the book was in my possession.”

“Whydidyou keep it?” It was a thought that had gnawed at my mind. This couldn’t be for personal gain as it held no substance to him, the risks too grand. Though unspoken, we all believed it was the reason behind our mother’s death— her murder. The evidence was nonexistent, but our silent theories were resolute.

Unless he planned to use it against That Man.

“Mother left behind many unsettled matters,” he said as he paused beside one of the elongated bookcases. “One being a note, instructing me to keep the scripture. In the beginning, I did so in hopes it held hints of her passing. And while this new note proves that, its critical timing carries more than suspected.” His nostrils flared, and he removed his glasses, a hand swiping through his scalp, the few long pale strands of hair disheveled from his braid.

It was the most I’d ever heard him speak, especially with such rawness in his words and expression. A sense of sorrow lingered in his steady eyes.

“How exactly can I help you, then?”

“Skim through the book.” It wasn’t a strict command anymore but instead a request.

I began probing through the dense flaxen-hued sheets, each one a ponderous feather that weighed my palms. In my youth, our mother would scour the book’s pages as if it was one of her favorite classical pieces. Her touch was gentle, her eyes bright while she searched for the world's answers.