Page 116 of Cursed

I only hoped her fear of Lucian would keep her silent.

“Let’s leave,” I muttered and turned my back on the water. The unrepentant cheer in Bastian’s voice grated on my nerves.

“Where to then?” Bastian asked. Titus’s phone buzzed insistently in his pocket, but he ignored it.

“Far enough that we don’t arouse any suspicion,” Titus said.

“I know a place,” Bastian said eagerly. “They have key lime pie with meringue—”

I gritted my teeth as Titus nodded and his phone buzzed again. He pulled it from his pocket and strode toward the SUV to answer it.

“You’re in a bad mood,” Bastian sneered. “Lighten up.”

I pushed at his shoulder. “Fuck off.”

“Come on,” he cajoled. “You don’t need to be like that.”

The SUV’s engine revved.

“Titus doesn’t know where he’s going,” Bastian grumbled, and he turned for his bike. “He’s going to take us to a shit place with shit food—”

“Wait.” I grabbed his elbow and Bastian glared back at me.

“What?” he hissed.

“What about what the old man said?” I asked.

“What did he say?” Bastian snapped.

“About Avril—”

My younger brother’s pale eyes fell on the SUV.

Titus hadn’t left yet, but he would be eager to move on.

“What about her?”

Frustration set my teeth on edge. “You heard the old man,” I hissed. “He said that there was something about her— Something her father had done—”

Bastian’s eyebrow rose. “Don’t tell me you think he was telling the truth?”

I shrugged. “Who knows? He didn’t get to finish.”

“Dario Velez tried to kill our father,” Bastian snarled. “He attempted to overthrow his leadership and take control of the Necromi. He failed. And he paid for that betrayal with his miserable life. He’s probably at the bottom of the harbor with Craster—two cursed and rotted corpses keeping each other company. I’m sure they’ll have alotto talk about.”

Bastian shook off my hand and walked toward his bike.

Questions churned in my mind.

Bastian’s dismissal didn’t bother me, but the worry that Crasterdidhave something to tell us— That stuck in my mind.

The idea gnawed at me as I watched Bastian swing a leg over his bike.

I shook my head and walked toward my bike as Titus revved the SUV’s engine again.

Bastian’s bike roared to life, and I kicked mine over, but as Bastian and Titus sped out of the port, something nagged at me.

I had to know.

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