Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 167671 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 838(@200wpm)___ 671(@250wpm)___ 559(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 167671 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 838(@200wpm)___ 671(@250wpm)___ 559(@300wpm)
She shrugs. “Maybe? He doesn’t talk a lot about any of his college friends, actually. I only know about Silas and Mavis through Penelope.” She makes a beautiful bouquet filled with roses and blue hydrangeas. “Not since his sister left, anyway …” She sighs.
“Well, in any case, could you give him a message for me?”
“Um, sure,” I reply.
He’s their kid. I don’t understand why she can’t do it herself, but I’ll listen.
“Tell him his dad and I still want a chat. Please have him call me,” she says.
I nod as she hands me the bouquet. “Sure. Thank you.” And I swipe my card.
“I’m sure she’ll accept your apology.” She winks.
It takes me at least three tries to gather the courage to actually knock on her door. I swallow and hold my head high as I prop up the bouquet with a smile so wide it might break my face.
But the door never opens, and Ivy never appears.
Weird.
I knock again and hold my breath, hoping she just didn’t hear.
But the third knock is when a door behind me opens.
“She’s not home.”
“What?” I mutter.
Behind me, a granny with flipflops and her gray hair in a perm blows out some smoke from a cigarette between her fingers. “You’re looking for Ivy, right?”
“Yeah.”
Who is this woman?
“I’m the babysitter,” she says, coughing like she’s trying to hack up her lungs through her mouth. “You look like you’ve got some extra money on hand, judging by that giant bouquet.”
I frown. “This is for her.”
“I don’t want your flowers, silly little boy.” She takes another whiff of her cigarette. “Gimme a hundred and I’ll tell you where she went.”
“Why would you—”
“You look like someone she trusts.” She eyes me up and down and I feel weirdly violated.
Still, I fish the hundred from my pocket and hand it to her. She swiftly tucks it away between her boobs, and I pray I won’t ever have to touch that paper again.
“She’s at some party. Ransom … no …” She taps her head a few times. “Phantom boys … Phantom group … no. Dammit. Phantom something.”
My eyes slowly widen. “Phantom Society.”
The Phantom Society are rivals with the Skull and Serpent Society, and they’re wildly unreliable. There’s no way she’d go there, unless…
Shit.
“Yeah, that’s the one. Anyway, she told me she’d be back by eleven. That’s all I got.”
I bolt off back through the hallways. “Thanks!”
“What, that’s it?” the neighbor barks, but I’m already gone.
I have a thief to catch.
CHAPTER 32
Ivy
“Are you sure it’s okay we’re here?” I ask Océane while I tug on my yellow dress to try to keep it in place. “It looks like a frat party.”
She nods and leans in to yell through the noise. “Talon’s a Phantom.”
“Oh, really?” No wonder he didn’t like Felix and Heath.
“They know me,” she adds. “Besides, the Phantom Society throws amazing parties.”
She turns around and nudges me with her ass, so I do the same and we dance back-to-back to the music, vibing away. It’s been a long time since I last let myself go like this, and honestly, I could do this more often if it wasn’t for the cost.
But I’ll pay Mrs. Schwartz all the money in the world for just a night of this.
Nothing feels better than shutting off my brain and letting the music take over, even if we’re forced to wear these white half-masks that remind me of the Phantom of the Opera. The Phantoms think it adds an element of danger to the excitement, but all it does is confuse me.
“Ivy?” Aspen’s voice makes me stop and do a double take as she peeks beneath my mask. “Wait, it really is you. You’re here!”
Guess I’m not the only one who’s confused.
She throws her arms around me. “Eep, I’m so glad you’re here!”
“Hehe, yeah, I just thought, why not?” I reply. “Wait, I thought you weren’t supposed to be here? Something about homework.”
She shushes me. “Don’t say that out loud. I’m not here, so if anyone asks, you didn’t see me, okay?”
“Right.” I wink.
“Just don’t tell anyone.”
I make a key-turning-in-a-lock motion near my mouth. “My lips are sealed.”
“You should’ve told me you were coming, dude, I would’ve waited,” Océane tells Aspen, sighing.
“And risk my brother finding out I was going?” Aspen snorts. “He definitely would’ve told my parents.”
Océane raises a brow. “Which brother?”
Aspen shrugs. “Both.”
“But Xavier isn’t even in the Skull and Serpent Society …” I say.
With her lips smashed shut, she just eyes me and then averts her gaze to a bunch of muscled masked dudes standing near the door, chatting with new guests.
“Is it Levi?” I mutter.
Aspen smashes her hand in front of my mouth. “He’ll hear you. Don’t summon him.”
I laugh when she finally removes her hand. “Over this noise?”
“You don’t know him. He has ears like a hawk.”
I glance at the boys, who sometimes glance back, and every time they do, Aspen disappears either behind me or behind Océane.