Page 44 of Thrown to the Wolves

Ariadne’s expression hardens, the softness fleeing as swiftly as it appeared. She turns away, gathering her towel and water bottle. “Grandmother told me to send you up to her after training. She has…a gift for you.”

“What?”

On her way to the changing rooms, Ariadne brushes very close to me.

“She knows,” she murmurs, and is gone almost before I decipher what she said.

A chill lances down my back.

Grandmother knows? Knows…what?

And what is this gift she has for me? The implications are as disturbing as they are unclear. Another game, another manipulation?—because that’s all my life has become under her merciless rule.

But if I want answers, I’ll have to seek them out directly.

I gather my things and make my way out of the training facility, heading for the penthouse suite.

CHAPTER 22

Lyssa

Despite the meeting out at Elysium, I’m right on time to meet Scarlett in the alleyway where her brother died. The shop that I assume used to be her family’s restaurant is a laundry now, but the alley seems just the same, or so Scarlett nods when I ask her.

She’s quieter than usual tonight, her eyes wary again every time she looks at me. But there’s something else there, too. Something I’m not sure about.

If I didn’t know better, I’d say there was something wrong with her. More wrong than usual, I mean.

The scents of stale piss and rotting garbage get stronger as we make our way down the alley, the sounds of distant traffic fading to a dull thrum. My footsteps are silent, a practiced stealth ingrained into my very being. But Scarlett’s movements seem to betray the inner turmoil I’m sensing in her—each stride is heavy, weighed down.

Maybe it’s just that she feels the ghosts of this place.

I study her profile, pale skin yellowed in the harsh glow of a flickering light at the back of one of the stores. Those hazel eyes are more haunted than ever. She came here seeking answers with me, but I know this alley will hold no redemption for her, even if we find some kind of clue. And what clue will we possibly find, all these years later?

I still wanted to see it. Get the sense of the place.

“Did you get anything from Ariadne?” I ask, my voice low, but it still seems to fracture the eerie quiet.

Scarlett shakes her head, her ponytail shaking as she does. She’s tied her hair up tonight like I do. “No.”

A flicker of annoyance runs through me. “No” isn’t exactly helpful. But something tells me not to push it.

“See anything useful?” she asks, her voice cool.

I glance around. “I see any number of better positions to take someone out from if I wanted to do it quietly and without being seen by the camera.” I point up at some of the fire escapes on the taller buildings around us. “Easy enough to use a silenced gun from up there—or throw a knife.”

Scarlett looks too, and I see the calculations running through her head as she turns to the camera, too. “You’re right,” she says slowly. She shrugs off her jacket. “Let’s recreate the scene.”

“What?”

“Act it out. Maybe it will jog something in my memory.” There’s something so…dull about the way she says it, her eyes avoiding mine, but she’s already positioning herself in the center of the alley. “I’ll be Adam.” She stares at me. “You take the part of the Wolf.”

“Fine.”

I take my position further up the alley, and I mimic, so far as I can remember, the motions of the woman. Scarlett, however, has turned to face me, watching my approach, even though her brother had his back to his attacker.

I reach her, hold up an imaginary knife, and then drop my arm. “Well?”

“It wasn’t you,” she says, that same blank tone in her voice. “Was it?”

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