Page 76 of The Phantom's Vice

A low growl sounds out as Brett backs away, her cheeks flushed and her eyes downcast. “Must you always show up at the worst moments?”

“It’s my specialty.” Orion smirks, waggling his thick brows at Brett. “He loves it.”

I sigh, reaching an arm out to haul Brett against my side. “That is up for debate. Anything at the apartment?” Orion nods, handing a stack of mail to me. Brett looks up at me, her eyebrows scrunched in a question. “I have an apartment in the city, where the Sanctum believes me to be living right now,” I say, fanning the mail and plucking one with a gold embossed seal. “The bastards can’t help themselves. They like to pretend they’re so secretive, yet they send me mail that looks like this.” I shake my head with a scoff, ripping the envelope open. My eyes scan the words, a stone hardening in my gut as I realize what they mean.

P-1313,

You are formally invited to the Sanctum headquarters on May 23, 9:00 p.m.

Signed,

George Bartholomew, Head Table member.

I swallow the lump forming in my throat and pocket the note, facing a concerned Orion. “They want to speak with me. Tonight.”

Brett’s eyes go wide. “You’re not going, though, right?”

I shrug, unable to look into her eyes for the first time all morning. “I must. Anything else could pose a threat to you and Orion. If I go tonight, I may die. However, if I don’t, they will comb the entire continent trying to find me. Eventually, they will, and I will not risk your lives like that. Ican’t.”

Brett shakes her head, a defiant sheen in her eyes. “Ghost, no. You can’t. I don’t care what happens to me. Risking your life like that is fucking stupid!” She looks at Orion desperately. “Tell him! Tell him that he shouldn’t go.”

Orion shrugs, shoving his hands in his pockets with a disgruntled expression. “He already knows what I think. It doesn’t matter.”

Brett opens and closes her mouth, her earlierdesperation replaced by outrage. “Fine! Then I’ll just camp out by the door. Or I’ll follow you and give you backup. You’re absolutelynotgoing there alone,” she declares, hands on her hips.

I sigh, cupping her cheek with my palm. “Oh, Brett. You really are so fucking adorable.”

Her eyes go wide at the same time Orion tosses me a syringe, a world of betrayal shining behind her eyes as I plunge the substance into the side of her neck.

“You… you can’t…” Her eyelids grow heavy, and I hold her weight in my arms as she goes under. She mumbles something else right before she goes unconscious, but I can’t tell what it is. And it doesn’t matter, anyhow.

“I’m sorry, darling,” I whisper, brushing strands of her raven hair out of her eyes. “But I can, and I will. For you—for your safety—I will do anything.”

I hand Brett off to Orion carefully, then grab my dagger and suit jacket from the kitchen counter, giving him a nod of thanks as he carries her to the couch.

“Take care of her and the animals if I don’t come back?” I ask, my wrist already tapping against the stone wall.

Orion nods, his baby blues screaming all thewords he won’t say. That he doesn’t want to lose me. That heneedsme to come back. “Just… be careful, Ghost,” he murmurs, taking a seat in the armchair next to the couch to watch over Brett until she wakes. “I’m worried she’ll kill me if you end up dead.”

“I love you too, kid,” I whisper, sliding out of the house. “I really hope you know that.”

I stand in the massive meeting room, breathing through my mouth so the sickly smell of Madam’s perfume doesn’t make me vomit all over the Persian rug of the meeting hall. Her cruel green eyes are barely visible through the slits of her grand venetian mask, but I can tell they are full of malice.

And it’s all pointed in my direction.

Madam clasps her hands on the table, the clicking of her nails mingling with the low rumble of Nix and Niege at her feet.

“The young FBI agent is missing,” Madam announces, speaking for the first time since I entered the room. The toe of her heel taps the floor, making a dullthunk thunk thunkonthe carpet.

I shrug, making sure to keep my shoulders loose. “So?”

Her foot ceases tapping. “Two of my Disposers are missing as well.”

I keep my body still—so still, I’m sure she’s somehow learned to turn me to stone with those cruel green eyes showing through the slits of her elaborate gold mask. She stands from the table abruptly, her chair making an awful scraping sound as she does so.

“Do you have nothing to say,Phantom?” She utters the last word like a curse. When I glance down, I notice her long red talons digging into the palm of her hand.

“Did you check the computer lab? Perhaps they were playing with forks and light sockets again.”

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