Page 152 of Let Us Prey

“Hold on!” she pulls back, giving me an excited look. “I need shoes for the second part, silly.”

Oh, right.

“Okay, but be quick!”

After I showedDelores the way the transparency of the drawings she was puzzling over fit perfectly against the actual map of Apex, she almost screamed.

“I knew it! I mean, I didn’t know it, but I knew it was something familiar. The shape of the campus is the same, but the drawings might be… the tunnels underneath?”

I nod, grinning at her in excitement. “I thought so, too. This circular area close to the spot we found the weasel was where Ren and I explored. You saw the pictures, right?”

“Yes. Rennie said some runes were Celtic, which he knew, and Felix recognized the ones from Bloodstone like you,” she says. “Aubrey saw some he knew, too.”

“Exactly. I think we’re looking for something to decode that stone, and the way these tunnels all pass under our home means we’re part of this. I think the key we need is in the Tower.”

“Oooooh, Chessie!” my angel squeals as she throws her arms around my neck. “I know where we should look. There’s a big creepy room with stuff on the third floor. It’s across from the kitchen. We can look there without a problem, but if we have to go higher, we’ll need to talk to Rennie. Above the third floor is super restricted.”

I arch a brow, and she motions like she’s zipping her lips. “Okay, angel. Keep your secrets, but we should explore the first room you mentioned together.”

“No duh!” Dolly grabs my hand, yanking me away from the boards and to the steps with a crazy grin. “Time to find some artifacts, Dr. Jones.”

Oh, hell. I knew we shouldn’t have watched that with her and Fitz.

I see bullwhips in our futures.

Lookingaround the hallway as she tugs me to the door, I ponder. Nothing really looks special, but when she opens the doors to our destination, that feeling changes.

This room has to be important.

“There’s a lot of stuff in here that I figured was old junk,” Dolly says as she walks in the opposite direction I do. “But if the drawing is an overlay map of the school and all roads lead to Jericho, then the key to the weird room you saw might be here.”

I grin over my shoulder at her. “Have I mentioned how damn sexy your brain is, Angel?”

She winks at me playfully. “Back at you, my knight. All my guys have hot, nerdy brains, even Fitzy. People don’t give him credit for it because of his… exuberance, but they just don’t know how he works.”

Running my fingers over the edge of a painting that’s making my instincts flare, I think about her words. Then I remember his comment about Catch-22 and grin to myself. She’s totally right; Fitz’s intelligence got overshadowed by his behavior and neurodiversity. It took someone with patience and love to help him show that side of him without fear.

“You know, Angel, I’ve never seen him act this mature and put together before. I mean, outside of bringing you body parts and dressing like a cracked out unicorn at raves.” I chuckle at the memory of my two loves running around drinking out of fish bowls with glazed eyes.

She bounds over with a weird-looking box and glittering eyes. “I like his gifts and passion for life. Plus, reading out loud to him is fun, too. We play games with it and he has really interesting points of view. Also, I think this is a puzzle box.”

Way to bury the lead.

“Good job, Angel. I think this painting holds a clue, too. I’m not finding anything yet, but the dude in it?” She looks at me curiously as I take a deep breath. “The man in it is almost certainly the twins’ great-great-great-grandfather.”

Her eyes widen comically, and she gasps. “No fucking way!”

I nod, grimacing. “The current Raj took over when his mother retired to Thailand. People weren’t thrilled because he was young with a poor reputation and his mother killed her mate to ascend the throne. She did because he was a paranoid psychopath with delusions of grandeur, but the ambush saw the markers of those illnesses again in her eldest son.”

“Why did she retire, then?” Dolly asks, as I continue fiddling with the frame.

I sigh. “Remember, we weren’t around. The rumor is he forced her to retire much younger than she preferred. Her home in Thailand is more of an exile than a retirement villa, if that’s true. Felix planned to look into that when he took over.”

Her eyes narrow. “Hence the application of a new, unapproved law that prevented him from ascending to his birthright.” I nod and the loud snarl that echoes in her chest shocks me. “I’m coming for that motherfucker, too. Once I handle shit here, your adoptive father is on my new fucking list, Chess.”

The ferocity radiating off my angel is enough to make me drop to my knees, my expression agape as I whisper. “By Odin’s wrinkly balls, angel… you just alpha’d me to my knees. I can’t even look at you.”

“What?! How?! I’m not…” Her breathing escalates and I force my hand up to take hers, still keeping my head down. The touch calms her a little, and she finally speaks. “We can’t let anyone outside of our family know until I figure this out. I’ll have to work with Felix to make sure I can control it.”

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