Page 116 of The Revenge Plan (Forbidden Descendants 1)

Charlie rolled her eyes at the oldest Webster sibling, and then turned back to me. “So?”

I laughed a little, loving their byplay. “Turns out my parents took off for a romantic weekend getaway, so… They’re not even home.”

“Bummer,” Charlie said.

Darcy huffed out a long breath. “Isn’t it depressing to know your parents are getting more than you are?”

I nodded, totally feeling the sentiment. It definitely made a newly single girl feel like a loser loner.

“Hey, you should come with us tonight,” Izzy announced suddenly.

When Darcy and Charlie both sliced her with surprised glances, I went cautious as I warily asked, “Where’re you going?”

“Oh my God. It’s going to be a blast,” Izzy started. “Every year, all four of us siblings go to spook houses together. Then we have a slumber party afterward, and play board games, and talk, and all kinds of stuff. Since this is, like, the only weekend Wick doesn’t have a game before Halloween, we decided to do it tonight at his place.” Her eyes bugged. “I mean, as long as you’re cool with that and don’t care if we all invade the front room when we get back from the haunted houses and crash here for the night.”

“No way,” I answered instantly. “That sounds like fun. But…” I cringed, feeling as if I was imposing. “If it’s just a sibling thing, then maybe I shouldn’t—”

“You should,” Izzy argued, gripping my arm encouragingly. “You very much should.”

Charlie made a face. “But I thought we made a pact that only siblings could get in on the yearly spook-house sleepover.”

Izzy scowled at her. “That was just because we didn’t want Darcy’s loser boyfriend at the time to tag along.”

But Darcy shrugged. “Hey, a pact’s a pact.”

Stepping up to my side, Izzy hooked her arm intently through mine. “Then I officially adopt Haven as a surrogate sister.” When neither Darcy nor Charlie responded, Izzy’s shoulders slumped. “Come on, guys,” she implored. “Have a heart. She’s working through a breakup and she just got ditched by her parents. Plus, she’s letting us stay in her apartment. It’s only fair.”

“It’s Wick’s apartment too,” Charlie started, only for Izzy to freeze her with a death glare.

“And she let us eat all her cookies,” Izzy added sternly.

We glanced at the wax paper, which was utterly clean of no-bake remains. We’d even dabbed up the chocolate drippings and crumbs.

Darcy sighed, giving in. “Whatever,” she said. “If you really want her around, I certainly don’t mind.”

Izzy turned to Charlie. I’m not sure why she was petitioning so hard for me to be included, but it did feel nice to be wanted so strongly.

When Charlie had no objections to the idea either, Izzy turned to me, her eyes alight with glee.

“You’re going to love this. I swear, Wick is the best person in the world to go spook housing with. He lets you cling all over him when you get freaked out. He doesn’t get annoyed when you scream in his ear. And just when you think you’re going to pee your pants from being so scared, he’ll laugh at one of the ghouls and make it feel not so scary at all.”

“Yeah, no. Wick pisses you off when you go spook housing with him,” Darcy contradicted. “Nothing ever scares him. It’s no fun at all. I mean, you can’t spook the guy one bit.”

“We ha

ve competitions of jumping out at places and trying to catch him off guard,” Izzy explained to me, before rolling her eyes Darcy’s way. “Darcy’s just sour that she’s never won.”

“Damn right, I’m sour,” Darcy grumped. “That time I jumped him in the dark, creepy parking garage at the mall when we went Christmas shopping last year was classic. But what did he do… Just blinked at me and said, nice try. Seriously, what an ass.”

I smiled as the sisters went on, comparing times they’d tried to scare their brother. It made an ache grow in the pit of my stomach, wishing I had some siblings to share such stories with. I’d been lucky to get to be so close with my cousins, but this—having a brother or sister—this would’ve been nice.

From the front of the apartment, the door opened.

The sisters immediately stopped talking, and Charlie cried out an exuberant, “Wick’s home!”

She raced from the kitchen with Izzy hot on her heels. Even Darcy left to go meet him at the front door.

Curious to see the four of them together, I wandered that way, pausing in the entrance to the living room as Charlie jumped up and clung to him like a spider monkey. Wick whooshed out a surprised breath and had to drop his huge, bumbling gym bag to catch her, while Izzy rounded him from behind, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, and the oldest sister murmured, “And Darcy goes in for the kill,” before she mercilessly tickled him in the gut.

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