Page 80 of His To Claim
“What’s all this for?” I ask, grabbing a cup of coffee from thetray. Black, just the way I always drink it. Black, now mirroring the color of my soul.
“Well, you won’t tell us what happened last night, so we figured we’d bribe you with sugar and extract the information we need.”
My face pales as Jade takes a bite of pancake in her mouth.
“Relax, Scar, I was kidding,” Jade says, eyeing me suspiciously. “What the hell happened that has you on edge?”
“Nothing,” I say, cutting a piece of the syrupy pancake and shoving it in my mouth. I moan as the sugar hits my tongue, and it tastes like heaven.
“Okay now, it’s just a pancake, no need to get all hot on us,” she says with a smirk. I roll my eyes at her and take in another bite. “No, but seriously, sis, what gives?”
“Nothing happened, Jade, okay. I just ran into Agent Servite and well, I realized I needed to get out of there. He creeps me out, and I didn’t want to be in the same place as him.”
“That’s a load of bullshit, Scar,” she shouts as she stands up abruptly, nearly spilling the plate of pancakes on my bed.
“What the hell, Jade!” I cry out, catching the plate before it topples over.
Jades is angry, I can tell by the way she’s standing before me with her hands on her hips. “Why are you lying to me? After all we’ve been through together, this is how you act. I thought we were sisters, that we trusted each other, and told each other everything.”
“Jade…”
“No, Scarlett, I’m tired of you keeping things from me. First, I find out you kept things from me about when we were taken to the foster home and that I get, for some reason you thought you were protecting me. But this. Ever since we got here, it’s like you’re another person. I find out that Agent Servite has been harassing you only because I followed your ass after you got yourself kidnapped, and now you take off for hours and don’t even answermy calls. And when I ask you about it, you come up with some half-ass excuse. You always were a terrible liar.”
“Jade, please don’t,” I plead.
“I think I should give you guys a minute,” Stella says, looking awkwardly between us.
“No!” we both shout as Stella stands up.
I look around nervously debating whether or not I should come clean to them. I know they won’t judge me, but somehow saying it aloud makes my betrayal all that more real.
“Do you even know what happened last night? Why we were so fucking worried!” Jade shouts, and I’m unsure what to say. “There was a fire, Scarlett! Inside Servite Manor. A fire inside the mansion and someone said they saw you go inside.”
“What are you talking about, Jade?” I ask anxiously, not understanding a damn thing.
“They escorted us out of the party because there was a fire that started in one room on the third floor, an office or something. They were able to contain it, but I was terrified because I couldn’t find you.”
Shit. A fire on the third floor. Agent Servite’s office. That can’t be a coincidence.
“A fire just like there was all those years ago on Halloween night,” Stella says with a terrified look on her face. “I told you the academy, the Servites, we’re all cursed,” she adds, shrugging her shoulders and taking a sip of her coffee.
“Did they find out what happened?” I ask, and they both shake their heads.
“I called my aunt this morning, but she didn’t have any details. Apparently, she said they think it was a curtain that caught fire on a cigarette bud that wasn’t put out correctly but they’re not sure.”
A cold shiver runs through me, and I don’t know what to make of this.What if someone purposefully set that fire knowing what was going to go down last night? Was it meant for my mother, or for me?
“Is Ruby here?” I ask, and they both shake their heads. The lastthing I need is for Drake to find out what happened between Ace and me from his sister.
“She stayed over with the guys’ last night.”
“You guys need to sit down for this.”
And they do, both climbing on the comforter in front of me, a look of fear flashes before their eyes. They’re nervous about what I’m going to say. Scared even. And they should be.
“The night Agent Servite made the guys kidnap me he told me he needed me to do something.”
“Wait, the Horsemen kidnapped you?” Stella asks, horrified, and I realize Jade and I never shared that piece of information with anybody.