Unmasked | Book 1 in "Dark Descendants" (Editing)

Chapter 36

However, as we spoke, the boy seemed to panic at my newly harsh attitude towards his sister and now answered my question, fearing that the situation would only worsen for them, "Alexander," he said hastily, earning my attention back. "My name is Alexander. This is my little sister."

"Riley," she finished for him. This time I didn't bother with a mean word and instead moved onto my next question.

"Why did she send you?"

Alexander paused, his eyes filled with dread as he turned his head to his sister. She nodded shakily before he spoke: "She...She told us to look for something. Something she said belonged to her."

"And what's that?"

"We don't know."

I raised an incredulous eyebrow. "Really?"

"She showed us a picture in our minds, it's like a box with a unique keyhole. She'd hidden it somewhere here a long time ago and now she wants us to find it."

I snorted in a rather unladylike manner. "Trust me, if she lost her anything here I would know about it."

"She sure seemed to worry about it," he muttered.

Another comeback was swallowed back down as a sickening thought ran through my head, accompanied with another mood swing. "But what the hell would her stuff be doing here?!" I yelled angrily, disgusted at the thought of her being anywhere near my house.

They both flinched in response, looking like they'd rather be anywhere but here. "Sh-she didn't say," Alex stuttered. "She just said 'home sweet home' and we thought it might be here."

My expression softened but I pursed my lips, doubtful. She already had me on the hunt for something she literally couldn't find, why send these two to look for something else when she could just do a tracking spell? And why would their first thoughts be to look here after hearing the words "home sweet home"?

Still, I voiced none of my suspicions and instead lifted my foot from the boy's chest with a sigh. "It doesn't look like you two even want to be part of her army."

"We don't," Riley pointed out, sitting up like she was the one pinned down and not her brother. "She forced us to."

I shared a meaningful glance with Abby before speaking to them again, "Then go free," I said. They looked at me like I was insane. "Go. She sent you on a fool's errand. If she wanted it bad enough she would have looked herself."

Alex turned his gaze to the wall, seeming to be thinking while Riley's troubled stare kept flicking to the door. "Are...Are you sure about this?" he asked quietly. "That she won't hunt us down for this?"

"Pfft." I waved a hand. "As sure as the earth is round."

"Well, actually it's spherical," Abby corrected unnecessarily.

"That's practically the same thing, Abby. Round refers to a curved surface, so the earth's round. End of story."

"But spherical is more accurate."

"And more complicated. Not everybody knows what a sphere is."

"Then not everybody knows the shape of the earth."

"They know it's round. That's good enough."

"Or do they?"While we were intentionally bickering, the siblings saw an opportunity to run for the hills, thinking we were distracted. When in reality, we staged it to make them feel slightly more at ease and actually take my advice. Out of the corner of my eye I saw them as they suddenly disappeared, moving towards the door quick enough to only be seen as a blur.