Page 55 of House of Lilith

“Dahrian,” I hear my friend call out and I look over my shoulder to throw daggers at him as well. “She’s got nothing to do with that whatsoever.”

I turn to face him, surprised that he’d be takingherside. “It’s becoming obvious it’s all corruption and power grabs here, Ricky.” I throw a glance at her, her obvious silent fuming making me keep my eyes fixed on her. “And she’s part of the problem, believe me.”

She opens her mouth to say something, making me hold my breath in anticipation, but Ricky beats her to it.

“Still,” he says, “with all due respect, it’smydecision, whether she gets to talk to me.”

I can tell she’s surprised, too. I turn to look at my friend and when I see he’s being serious, I force myself to come sit next to him. Still fuming, I fix my eyes on her, both of us waiting for her to speak.

She stays silent for a second, shifting on her feet. Then she looks straight at Ricky and says, “I know we’ve never met—”

“I know who you are,” Ricky cuts in.

She glances away awkwardly, making my anger die down a little. “I guess you would. But now I know whoyouare, too, Eryndor.”

“You can call me Ricky,” my friend tells her.

I shoot him an angry look, but he just shakes his head with a sad look in his eyes. I shrug it off.

“Ricky,” she repeats. “I wish we’d met under different circumstances.”

“Likewise.”

“Anyway,” she starts hesitantly, “I guess I wanted to ask if you could give meyourversion of the events from last night.”

I let out a scoff. “Didn’t know you were an Authority Officer.”

But that just earns me two annoyed glances.

“Sure,” Ricky starts, pretty warmly, considering. “As I already said, I went to ask Professor Onas some questions, I knocked and I went in, probably shouldn’t have, but I did, and then…” He pauses, makinghershift on her feet with unease, andmegrit my teeth because I know he’s in pain about this.

It makes old, unwanted memories surface, memories of my brother’s eyes closing never to open again.

“You don’t have to keep going,” I growl at him.

I feel her eyes dart to me. Fuck, this is all making it very hard for me to stay in control.

“I know,” Ricky says, “but I want to.” He pauses for a second, making her turn her attention back onto him. “Basically, what happened was this. It was dark, I slipped and I fell into a pool of blood. And then that student found me.”

I watch her watch him. And I can see the wheels turning in her head, judging. What right does she have to judge?

“I see,” she finally says. “Well, I guess the reason I’m asking is… I know there’s something weird going on and I can get you out.”

That makes my eyebrows pull down.

“What do you mean?” I hear Ricky ask, but I don’t take my eyes away from her.

She’s avoiding looking in my direction, and she seems extremely uncomfortable with what she’s about to say. It’s all making me hold my breath.

“The item you mentioned,” she continues hesitantly, “the one the Authority claim they didn’t find, well,Idid.”

What the… I feel Ricky shift in his seat. But she’s still refusing to look at me, making me even more persistent in staring at her.

And I can tell she feels me looking. Blood rushes to her cheeks as she says, “In my uncle’s office.”

There’s a moment of silence before Ricky asks, “What does that mean?”

“I don’t know exactly, but I do know they’ll have to let you go as soon as I tell them.”

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