Page 22 of An Inheritance of Monsters

“Right, that’s the pitch—the problem is, Carson has the same exact one.” I kept my tone even and calm, even though I was boiling inside. “This gives him just as fair a shot with the Sci-Fi Network. So, no, looking for anything that might improve our odds isn’t being cute.”

I brushed past her, my disappointment from earlier morphing into irritation I could take out on an easy target.

Maybe it wasn’t fair to her, even if we clashed at the best of times, but for some reason I wanted her off the island.

Away from the monsters. Away from my discovery, somewhere she couldn’t ruin it for me with her disdain.

“It’s called being realistic.” I looked back at her as I walked out of the room. “Unless you want to miss out on this chance—but we all know the Sci-Fi Network won’t hand out second chances for the losers.”

I strode down the hall, needing to be away from her for a moment, but even then, her voice carried.

“She’s such a bitch sometimes.” Sierra’s mutter reached my ears loud and clear.

A twinge of guilt ate at me when Crispy replied, “Cut her some slack. She’s been working on this nonstop since we got the invite.”

I’d probably been too hard on her. It was just difficult to get along with Sierra sometimes.

Both of us would bark, and bark, and finally bite—and then we’d take a break from each other and come back all smiles.

We were just stressed out. Our careers were on the line.

That was all.

I locked my door and grabbed my makeup bag from my backpack, and went into the bathroom to fix my face.

Lots of heavy concealer under the eyes. Some mascara. Some careful editing on Crispy’s part would disguise the worst flaws of a sleepless night.

I dragged a brush through my long hair, half-flat and half-curled from sleeping on it wet, and paused before I put my things away.

Finally, I took a tube of extra lip gloss from my makeup bag and knelt next to my bed. I put the tube on the floor, and waited.

Rask didn’t appear. That sense of shadowy presence was faint.

I thought he would like this offering. Maybe he just needed to get used to me, too.

I scooted it further under, just beneath the gap, and got up to grab my Black Book.

Chapter7

Juno

The time spent getting ready was not enough time away from Sierra.

We’d checked the feeds from the other cameras stationed around the house and gotten absolutely zilch. Her huffing and puffing as we laboriously clicked through was beginning to grate on my nerves all over again.

Finally, she sighed and rubbed her eyes. She’d been frowning all morning since our fight. “Let’s just do a reading. Try something small before we work our way up.”

I noticed she’d changed while I’d been doing my makeup. She’d exchanged the sports bra and yoga pants for a simple white dress, a crystal pendant sparkling at her throat.

Unlike her, I wore cut-off denim shorts and another tank top. Despite the chill outside, the inside of the house was warm—and we’d be hiking up and down a lot of stairs today.

She didn’t look at me as she walked away. Crispy glanced at me, lifted one shoulder as though to say, ‘What can you do?’, and followed her.

We found ourselves in the library of Duskwood Manor, which was, I had to admit, one of the most impressive ones I’d ever seen.

It was three stories tall, with a dark wood mezzanine lining the upper two floors, and the bottom stacks trailed into darkness. I found myself squinting down at the rows of dark shelves.

Like the greenhouse, the library was one of the places in Duskwood most revered for being haunted. Madeline Marsh, Elizabeth’s grandmother, was reputed to have spent most of her waking hours here.

---