Page 2 of Crown of Death
The sounds of hissing, cooking food, and the fast-paced music of a dance party on the TV mix and assault my ears the moment I close the door behindme.
“Hey guys,” I say with a surprised smile. “What, your TV notworking?”
Amelia grunts an affirmative noise, and doesn’t even look up at me, her gaze fixed on her movie. Her boyfriend, Tanner, has his arm around her. He absent-mindedly twists his finger around a lock of herhair.
I won’t admit it out loud, but I’m happy to see them here. It’s been awfully quiet the last two months. Amelia was my roommate for a little over a year. But two months ago she moved in withTanner.
Now, it’s usually just me in this rundownapartment.
My stomach immediately growls at the scent of food. I follow my nose toward thekitchen.
“You smell like dead people,” Amelia says without looking away from thescreen.
“You know you want to grind up all on this,” I tease her, looking over myshoulder.
A little smile creeps onto her face, but she doesn’t sayanything.
I round the dining room, and the kitchen opensup.
RevealingEli.
Cornelius Rath, or Eli, as I have always called him, takes the garlic from the cutting board and dumps it in the frying pan. He only glances up at me once as he goes back to his work, moving on to a salad in a bigbowl.
“How was work?” heasks.
I give a little sigh, feeling myselfrelax.
Family. Someone I trust. Someone who’s always here for me. Just the sound of his voice makes me feel calm. It’s always so even. But, dark andwise.
Eli is a medium-toned man, with curly black hair, and black eyes. A single piercing holds a gold hoop in his left ear. Black, always, always black clothing hugs his tonedbody.
A single gold ring sits on the middle finger of his right hand, the crest of a raven set upon itssurface.
“Fine,” I say. “Pretty standard night. We’ll finish preparing the body tomorrow, once the family knows how they’d like to proceed fromhere.”
Eli nods, going back to the chicken, which from the smell of it, is nearlydone.
My phone vibrates. Wondering who the hell is texting me this late, I reach into my back pocket and pull itout.
The name across the top—Shylock—sends my heart into mythroat.
You haven’t paid the next installment yet. Bring it tomorrow, or that pretty little roommate might look a little different the next time you seeher.
Thud, thud, thud. My heart surges my blood through my body with hurricanestrength.
Shit. Shit, shit,shit.
I’ll get it to you tomorrow,I textback.
“What’swrong?”
My head whips up to find Eli studying me with narrowed, concernedeyes.
“Nothing,” I lie, the word coming out a little too quick and panicked-sounding to be believable. “How was your day?” I squeeze into the kitchen behind him, washing my hands in the sink, even though I washed and disinfected them atwork.
“Uneventful,” he says as he continues his work, busying around thekitchen.
Be cool,I tell myself.You’ve got the money. Amelia’s not going to gethurt.