Page 26 of Soulless Rivalry

She quietly agreed and her warmth came off, making me regret my words a little, but it was for the best. The last thing I needed was to grow an erection right then.

Elyssa still clutched the sleeve of my jacket as I grabbed my phone from my pocket. I tapped the screen and the light coming off of it made me wince. I used the lamp app to look at our surroundings.

Next to me, the bane of my existence whispered, “Where the hell are we?” as she too looked around.

Unlike our rooms, which had been renovated in recent years, the walls around us were still made of hard stone and provided hardly any isolation from the cold. A huge marble fireplace was on the largest wall, but it was in bad shape and clearly didn’t work anymore. Furniture dressed the room, although most of it was covered by a white sheet, itself covered in a thick layerof dust. The biggest piece of furniture, right in front of the fireplace, was a four-poster bed with a mattress so old the foam would probably turn into dust if anyone so much as sat on it. There were also several chests of drawers and shattered mirrors which had been left uncovered.

On top of the mantel was a portrait of who I recognized as Seamus Langfield himself, the crazy fuck who’d had this whole castle made.

Elyssa too knew who he was. “This was Seamus Langfield’s private room. It must have been.”

I rolled my eyes, ready to thank her for pointing out the obvious when something else caught my eye at the far end of the room.

I started walking to it, startling Elyssa and making her follow readily. A wooden desk stretched against the farthest wall from where we had landed, and on it were several books, pictures and journals. I picked up some ancient-looking newsletter, The Longfield Gazette, and checked the date. I frowned when I noticed it was from over twenty years ago.

“Chelsea Michaels found dead in the woods…” I was reminded of Elyssa’s presence next to me when she read the headline aloud. “Oh my God, these are our woods! A girl was found dead there.” She all but snatched the paper from my hand to read the article herself.

It took all of my strength not to push the little nuisance to the ground. She seemed to have forgotten not to stand too close to me because I could feel the fucking heat coming off of her.

“Can’t you fuck off for a second?” I grabbed the paper back from her dainty fingers and she made an angry noise with her throat.

Shining light on the article, I read it through while she occupied herself with whatever it was she found on that desk.

The island of Longfield, home of the infamous Longfield Academy, woke up in mourning. Chelsea Michaels, who had just turned fifteen a week ago, was found dead in the woods separating our small, respectable town, from the Academy. Her corpse was found by her older brother after he and his friends went in search of her when she failed to come home. The young man, along with their parents, are devastated by the gruesome circumstances of the girl’s death.

The people of Longfield won’t rest until justice is brought to our little village, for the memory of one of our children.

As a precaution, a curfew has been put in place from nine at night to five in the morning.

The police are investigating but no fingerprints or DNA have been found on the crime scene so far…

I stopped reading when I realized I couldn’t feel Elyssa’s presence next to me anymore. Turning my head around, I noticed she was seated on the little stool in front of the desk.

“Made yourself at home.”

The little minx put her index finger up and shushed me. That’s when I realized she was reading too, only it wasn’t a newsletter like me. She was immersed in some kind of book, or maybe it was a journal.

Without a word, I easily grabbed it from her and inspected the leather-bound thing. Elyssa leapt to her feet and tried getting it back from me.

“Hey! You didn’t want to share yours so give me mine back!”

Given our height difference, all I had to do to keep her away was put the palm of my hand on her face. For some reason, that seemed to piss her off even more, but I didn’t mind. I liked her angry.

The cover was made of brown leather and hadOrder of The Sons of Tycheembossed on it, with a capital T upside down rightunder. I opened the first page and the writing was all in black ink.

This journal belongs to Arnold Hangmire…

She clawed at my hand and eventually wore me down until she snatched the book back from my hand and hugged it to her chest.

“Don’t take my stuff if you’re not willing to share yours.”

I rolled my eyes. “Last time I checked, you weren’t Arnold Hangmire. But whatever, it’s irrelevant. I don’t give a fuck about this room or whatever’s in it.” That was a lie, I would probably come back here alone and swipe through everything. I didn’t have a lot of flaws but curiosity was unfortunately one of them. “We need to find a way out of here.”

“Want to push me on one of these walls, see if any of them gives out too?” she asked sassily and I narrowed my eyes at her, closing the distance between us and surprising her a little.

“Don’t tempt me,moshennik.”

With one last look in her direction, I started walking towards the stairs we had stumbled down from.

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