Page 150 of Tricky Girls

‘Don’t be a dick, Haz.’

She smirks. ‘Got friends in high places, don’t I? Well, Nic does. I just borrow them sometimes.’

‘To break into peoples’ graves?’

‘Yeah, and the rest.’ She knocks on the wooden door at our backs. ‘That’s how you get down to the labyrinth. One of the entrances, anyway. I’ve seen it but never ventured any lower than the graves. I was with Serafina—you know, head honcho’s kid? She didn’t really like us mucking around with her dead family members.’ Forgoing the little plastic lid-cum-cup, she sips straight from the thermos. ‘Valid, I guess.’

Serafina…Fina. Huh. Had that been her then? On that day I was so rudely kidnapped by Blakely? Makes sense. If Serafina’s dad’s dodgy, it stands to reason that she is too. And Margot obviously is given what she knows and accepts about the Vaults. Not really a crowd I want to find myself in too much, even if I have seminars with Aurelie on the regular.

Tracks that Nic’s involved though. There’s none dodgier than that fucktard. And, you know, mentally unbalanced.

She spat in my mouth, for god’s sake. Even now I can’t believe it.

I hold the thermos under my chin, letting the chocolatey steam warm my face. ‘This was such a good shout.’

‘Can’t have our witch freezing to death, can we? We’d be fucked without her.’

‘Aw. Sweet.’

‘I mean the film will be fucked.’

‘Sure. If you say so.’

My back tingles upon knowing there’s dead bodies just behind it. I wonder how many, if they go all the way back to when Hazelhurst was a working castle. I can’t imagine a family staying in one place for so long. The council’s moved me and Mum on tonnes of times, up and down the country.

‘Wonder what else is in the labyrinths then,’ I muse.

Haz is quiet as she drinks. I feel her eyes on me, the cogs whirring behind them.

‘Tell you what,’ she says, wiping the chocolate moustache from her top lip. ‘Why don’t we find out. Nic can get us access, no problem.’

‘I’m not going with Nic.’

‘Obviously.’She hits her head against the door. ‘Fuck, you’ve barely said two words to each other since Christmas. Every time you’re in the room together there’s this weird energy. Can’t tell if you want to kill each other or fuck—or both.’

‘Definitely the former.’

‘Right,’ Haz drawls, eyes narrowed on me. ‘Because you’re so super straight?’

I frown, shaking my head. ‘Because Nic is an asshole. Wouldn’t fuck her even if I wasn’t straight.’

‘So, you’re still straight?’ she presses. ‘Definitely wouldn’t fuck a girl?’

I look at her, trying to divine the meaning behind her words. They seem simple enough but there’s a tone in them I can’t decipher, one that makes me instantly suspicious. Maybe she’s not as oblivious as me and Elly think. My heartrate picks up thinking of everything she might know, everything she might haveheard.

‘Still straight, Haz. Soz.’

She looks away, thermos up to her lips. ‘Bummer.’

I shift uncomfortably. ‘So—you think you can get us under Hazelhurst then?’ Anything to get her off the perplexing topic of my sexuality.

‘Since I won’t be getting you under me, I guess that’ll have to do. I’ve got shit on this evening but I’ll be free tonight. Meet back here at nine.’

‘Will it just be us?’

Haz eyes me. ‘Do you want it to be?’

I nod slowly. I do want it to be just us—as in no Nic or Blakely or Serafina—but the idea of being trapped underground, in a maze, the complexity of which I experienced Halloween night, where only Haz has the key, our one way out, well…that would be intimidating for anyone. Let alone someone who’s been keeping a fuck-off secret from her.

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