Page 108 of Semblance

“That doesn’t make you good,” I said. “A crack dealing Mary Poppins is still a criminal, no matter how many spoonfuls of sugar she shoves down a whiny kid’s mouth.”

“I’m not disagreeing with you Aria,” Shadow said. “But as I said, it’s better if you didn’t know.”

“Great, my lover is the Godfather,” I sighed.

“Do you regret being with me?” Shadow asked.

I shook my head without hesitation. “I love you,” I replied. “Although I can’t say when I was a little girl, I had dreams of sleeping with Lex Luthor.”

“I’m not bald,” Shadow pointed out.

“You get the idea.”

The Aston Martin pulled up to unit thirty-seven and the three of us filed out of the car and into the rain. I stood there and allowed every droplet of water to wash over my body.

I wanted to feel cleansed.

“Here goes,” Shadow said, walking over to the storage unit. “Aria, stay back,” he said, his gun in one hand while the other punched the access code into the security key pad.

A green light indicated that the entry was accepted and slowly, the heavy garage doors to the storage unit began to open.

The world froze all around us as we waited for the doors to open, and when they finally did, I was horrified by the nightmare that was waiting for us inside.

#

Chapter Thirty

In the span of a few days, my life was flipped upside down.

I went from making passionate love with Shadow in the breathtaking kingdom of Cambodia to standing in the rain, staring at the corpse of a man, lying on a table.

“It’s Lucien,” Lincoln said, his eyes wide. “What the fuck is going on?”

At the centre of the room, a white light illuminated Lucien’s pale body lying on a black marble table. Soft purple petals surrounded him, creating a sickly yet beautiful display, as if his corpse was the centerpiece of some twisted artistic expression. Resting at his feet was an envelope.

Meanwhile, the entire storage facility had been converted to a cold room with several heavy-duty air conditioners blasting frigid air throughout the unit, no doubt to preserve the body for when we found it.

Whatreallydrew my attention was the black tattoo of a goat’s head, beautifully drawn onto his chest.

Was this referencing a scapegoat?

“How did he die?” I asked, shivering. I was freezing. The dampness of my clothes from the rain didn’t help either as I felt the chill seep into my bones.

Shadow examined the body and shook his head. “There’s no wound,” he said, the vapors from his breath hanging in the air like smoke. He didn’t seem bothered by the cold. “No ligatures or bruises either. My guess is either suffocation or poison.”

Shadow walked over to the envelope, picked it up and pulled out the contents inside. It was a single white card.

“What is it?” Lincoln asked.

“It’s an invitation,” Shadow replied, showing us the card, “Dated for tonight.”

“Come and play at Midnight,” I read aloud. Following the message was a fiery logo that I didn’t recognize. I was baffled. “Come play where? What’s with all these cryptic messages?”

“They want us to come to the Inferno,” Shadow said.

“A gambler’s den inspired by Satan himself,” Lincoln commented. He stared at Lucien’s body for a moment, before turning away in disgust. “I can’t say I ever liked the guy, but he didn’t deserve this. We were chasing the wrong person all this time.”

“Which leaves us with the question, who the hell is orchestrating all of this?” Shadow asked.

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