Page 78 of Grave Devil
The tension is thick but understandable. “I’m so glad you’re here, Lettie. I’ve been cooped up with these heathens for too long.”
She smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. This isn’t like her. And it worries me. She takes a sip of her drink and clears her throat. “Okay, someone start. Fill me in on what’s going on and what you need from me.”
We spend the next hour catching her up. Draven and Bones do most of the talking. While Aries chimes in now and again with ancient lore. He likes to remind us how the Thorns are excellent record keepers.
She has two more whiskeys neat during this time. I, on the other hand, have gotten addicted to Aries’s French 75s. I never thought I liked gin before, but these go down as easily as water.
“So Felix is coming with Maureen and the rest of the guys? And Libra too?” This is the most hopeful I’ve seen her look since she arrived.
“Yep.”
“And Bailey Bishop with her guys,” Draven adds. “We still need a Wickford. And a Graves girl, so maybe Riot can point us in the direction of a cousin or something. He doesn’t have any siblings, right?”
Lettie shakes her head. She casts an apathetic glare into her drink. “No need to ask him. I know a girl with that last name.”
Bones folds his arms, his shoulders tensing. “Oh, you got to be kidding.”
She purses her lips together before downing the rest of her drink. “Yes, Skyler is a Graves.”
“Isn’t that your ex?” I whisper.
“Yes, she’s my ex,” she says loudly. “I have multiple exes much to all of your confusion.”
Aries clicks his tongue at her. “Looks like you have some juicy secrets of your own.”
She tilts her head upward. “They aren’t secrets, Ries. It’s just not any of your business.”
Sonny cackles at that. “That’s it. Lettie’s my favorite. I denounce the rest of you.”
I nearly spit out my drink.Good for you, Lettie. These boys need a humbling reminder now and then that the sun doesn’t rise and set just for them.
“Will she do it?” Bones asks.
“For a price.”
“So what will that cost you, princessa?” Sonny asks.
“My loyalty. I’ll have to return with her to Hemlock Prep.”
Bones curses under his breath.
“It’s fine,” she continues. “We have unfinished business anyway… It seems like she’s going to have her way after all. She always does.”
I squeeze her hand. “I’m sorry, Lettie. I didn’t want to involve you.”
“It’s my family. My curse too. I’m involved whether I want to be or not. It’s okay.” She forces a smile as she tries to invoke her usual warmth. But I can see that so much is weighing on her. Skyler Graves is so far underneath Lettie’s skin she can barely breathe. I hate seeing her like this.
As if reading my mind, Sonny bounces up from his chair. “Come on. Let’s go talk, princessa.”
She pauses mid step, hesitating for a moment. Heisa lot to take in. “I’m bringing the bottle.”
Draven and Nox break off to go for a walk outside while Aries and Bones head over to the apothecary to pick up a few more cases of poison for the arrival of our incoming guests. Harker Mansion will soon be full of the most dangerous heathens from Raven’s Gate to Wickford Hollow and Hemlock Valley.
There are deals being made even as we speak. Secrets still fester, and we are all scrambling to find our place within this new dynamic…
I make another cocktail and head to the upstairs veranda. I lean against the iron railing and gaze out across the poison fields. I think about my grandmother’s letter. The one she wrote for me before she died.Between the living and the dead, secrets abound.
I still remember how shocked I was when my Uncle Dorian gave it to me. The day he came and got me out of Absentia Asylum. I went from being a penniless orphan to one of the richest women in Melancholia overnight.
