Page 36 of Road To Runes

I snorted. The last thing I wanted to look at when I was putting my earrings in every morning was some snooty long-dead lady.

"I'm more of a watercolour girl," I muttered.

"Of course. It's all aboutyourtastes."

"Listen sassy-pants. You know the rules: you take what you can carry.You."

"Then I'd like to change the terms of our agreement."

"Not in the middle of a job you're not, now will you please focus?"

We made our way into a large entrance hall and up the giant staircase that sported busts all the way up the stone banisters, some of the missing noses and with cracks in their faces. In the corridors on the first floor, there were fewer expensive items on display but many more doors. Thank goodness I already knew where to go. Getting lost in this place would have been so easy if I hadn't done my homework.

I tried my hardest not to let the sensation of holding Asher's hand again distract me. His skin felt softer than I remembered,with only a few of the calluses left over from his hard life as a grifter. Its warmth enveloped my cold digits; a comfort I couldn't enjoy in quite the same way with gloves. I liked it.

We sneaked to the door of what I hoped was Troy's bedroom, and I crouched down to put my eye to the ornate keyhole. A tangled lump of sheets and duvet sat on top of the bed, with a few tattooed limbs protruding out of them. A dozen soda and beer cans lay sprawled on the floor and shoved together on top of the bedside table. So far, everything pointed to that half-naked lump being Troy.

I grasped the door handle and inched it down little by little until the door opened with the slightest of clicks. Sneaking into the room, I edged nearer to Troy, reaching out with my power to try and find his. Grabbing a crystal out of my pouch, my power graced Troy's as it lay, unmoving and undisturbed inside him. I wrapped my power around it and extracted it from Troy without so much as an uncomfortable wriggle.

Maybe the damn thing wanted out of him as much as everyone else did.

I tucked the power into the crystal and slipped it into my pouch before edging back out of the room. I chewed my lip as I closed the door and breathed a long sigh of relief.

That was it. I had the first piece of the puzzle to finding out about my prophecy. Unlike the other powers I had stolen, this one actually felt like stolen property. All the people I had taken powers from before had never crossed paths with me, likely never would, and even if they did, wouldn't know who I was. Taking something from Troy Franklin, who had seen my face on more than one occasion, and whose family had some serious resources behind them, felt alien. But if I was going to get to Romilda and the knowledge she had about me, I had no other choice.

"Got it?" Asher whispered.

"Yep. Now let's get out of here."

I turned around and my forehead smacked into something hard; it felt like Asher's collarbone. As I staggered backward, his grip on my hand tightened, but I tumbled onto my back even so. Asher grunted somewhere above me and I wheezed as he landed on top of me, squeezing all the air from my lungs. Hecate fell off my shoulders and landed on her paws, turning visible just a few feet away. She strolled back over to bat at my head.

"What did you do that for?" Asher muttered.

"I didn't do it on purpose. I can'tsee," I whispered.

I made to get up, but Asher pressed his weight down on me so hard that I struggled to breathe.

"What are youdoing?" I hissed.

"Don't move." Asher had barely finished speaking when a door just down the hall from Troy's swung open, and a ruddy man dressed only in boxers appeared in the doorway, looking up and down the hallway.

Shoot. One of Troy's insomniac family had heard us.

Chapter 20

Ibit down on my lip to stop any noise escaping, but even my breathing sounded too loud. The man, in his late thirties and sporting a red moustache speckled with grey, took a further step into the hallway. He looked up and down it as if expecting to see something new every time he looked in a new direction.

Oh crap. Hecate.

I strained my eyes to look for her, but she had disappeared. Hopefully, she had found a dark shadow to hide in.

Asher and I however, sprawled on the floor like starfish hidden under a thin layer of sand, had no such luck.

The man rubbed his head, scratching the bald spot there as he pottered a little further toward us.

Gods man, go back to bed,I thought, my heart beating that little bit faster with every step he took in our direction.

He couldn’t see us, but I didn’t want to risk him hearing us if we moved out of his way. If he was going to bugger off, his suspicion needed to die in the silence.

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