Page 34 of Monstrous Travels as Wicked as Sin

What was the protocol for that sort of thing? Joe hadn’t a clue. Was he allowed to ask where the two of them stood with each other? Or was that needy and possessive? But Anna was Joe’s friend too, wasn’t she? Not like she was Percy’s ‘friend’. She hadn’t written Joe a letter. A letter like the one Percy needed to smuggle away to read alone.

Joe lay in bed and stared off into space, thinking the same thoughts over and around until he was stunned out of his reverie by papers falling onto his stomach.

“Read it.” Percy wandered back across the room to take up his teacup. “Something’s wrong.”

Without another word, and with a good deal of surprise, Joe took up the letter from Anna and read. No flirting. No cute private jokes. Not much of anything. A rundown of how things had been, some thoughts on the books she’d been reading, the usual reflections on what someone might be up to on holiday, and some requests for book recommendations from Percy.

Joe was relieved to find it all so impersonal. It could have been addressed to him or to anyone else. “I don’t see anything wrong.”

“It’s not what she says, it’s what she doesn’t say,” Percy responded, tying the knot back up tight in Joe’s stomach.

He threw the letter down on the bed with an irritated half-laugh. “What did you want her to say?”

“I don’t know,” said Percy, pacing. “Something of substance? That’s the kind of letter you write when you’re trying to not say something.”

Well, that was true. No flirting. No cute private jokes. Not what Joe had expected, either. But the last thing he needed was Percy reading between Anna’s lines. “She’s clearly fine.”

“What does Evelyn say?”

“I haven’t read it yet.”

Percy gave a directive nod towards the hefty letter, so Joe sighed and took it up. The letter was long, meandering, written over several days. It was warm and funny and very much like Evelyn. Percy offered an occasional scowl at Joe’s various smiles and laughs and intermittent blushes until he finally set the letter down. “It’s maybe a little guarded, but he seems fine, too.”

“A little guarded.” Percy waved his finger at the letter. “That’s not like Eve.”

“It’s just a letter. He’s got a lot on?—”

“Anna,” Percy interrupted. “What does it say about Anna?”

The colour this time was not a blush, but a flush of anger. “Nothing. Hardly anything.”

“From Eve? There you have it. Something is wrong. We have to go back.” Percy put on his watch, began gathering his mail, making as though he were about to leave for the airport right then and there.

Joe sat up in disbelief. “Over that? Over two letters that say nothing at all?”

“Yes,” Percy said simply.

“Percy…” Joe watched him scan the room for anything that might belong to them, though they’d had no time to unpack much. “Percy, stop.”

Full of distraction, Percy spared him half a glance. “What is it?”

“What do you mean ‘what’? We’re here for a reason. We’ve got dead teenagers to investigate, a ghost trapped in a skull, zombies, Cleo murdering people?—”

He was at the wardrobe, throwing his clothes into a suitcase. “Don’t worry. We’ll take the skull with us. If we go now, we have a few hours before they’ll discover?—”

“Percy!” Joe’s furious tone finally halted Percy’s movements. He looked across, but in a vexed way, like he’d just heard the worrisome whining of a mosquito. “Is this an Anna thing? Because…” Joe hadn’t once wanted to ask it, because he was terrified of the answer he might get, but the question slipped out. “Do you love her?”

Lightning fast, Percy turned away, eyes searching the room again, but this time seeming to see very little of it. “They’re our family. If they need us, they come first.”

“Eve’s your family, not Anna.”

The words flew out of Percy’s mouth, fast and sharp. “Can we not make this about your petty jealousy, just this once? You’re becoming a bore.”

Percy had always had a tongue like a viper, but he didn’t turn it on Joe. Not once. Until then. And Joe crumbled on contact. He fell silent, and the look on his face was worse for Percy than the blow had been for Joe, but Joe couldn’t have known that.

Percy was on the bedside in a heartbeat, even as Joe was trying to extricate himself from the sheets. “Stay. Please.”

Joe, feet on the floor, sitting on the edge of the bed with his back to Percy, waited, unsure, the unprecedented nature of the thing sending him into a spin. He felt the weight of Percy as heleaned across, but he refused to look back at the sound of Percy’s carefully gentle voice.

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