RIOT HOUSE (Crooked Sinners #1) - Callie Hart Page 0,109
while you’ve been away.”
Mercy shrugs at me, pulling a face. “She never used to be this boring, y’know.” Then, to Carina, “As you well know, Wren’s still pissy at me for what happened with Mara. I haven’t been invited to the party, so I won’t be participating in the planning this time. I’ll still go, though. Dash still has a sweet spot for me, even if Wren is acting like a little bitch. Does Dash still have a sweet spot for you, Carrie? I have a feeling that he does.” She grins, an unpleasant slash across her pretty face.
Carina glares at the girl as she wanders over to the largest window and looks out over the maze. “I don’t give a shit about Dash,” Carina growls. “He can go to hell for all I care.”
“He would be perfectly at home there,” Mercy says thoughtfully. “I take it that means that you won’t be coming to the party, then?”
“Of course not.”
Mercy pivots, turning sharply from the window. “And you, pretty little Elodie? I hear my brother’s quite taken with you. Will you be going to the party?”
Fuck. What the hell am I supposed to say here? Pax and Dash said they were planning a party last night when I went to Riot House, but I wasn’t extended an invitation. Wren never mentioned it to me. I have absolutely no idea, now, if he’ll be expect—
“Don’t be stupid,” Carina mutters. “Your brother’s fucking damaged, Mercy. Like, mentally unhinged. Elodie’s not dumb enough to go anywhere near him. She’s not going to the party, either, now please will you just go already? We’re trying to enjoy what’s left of our Sunday, and you’re ruining it with your snark.”
Mercy stands still, her eyes lingering on me, full of amusement; a slow, slanted smile spreads across her face. She looks like she’s got a secret. Or rather, she knows a secret, and she’s savoring the weight of it on her tongue. If she and Dash are close, then maybe he told her I showed up at Riot House last night. Maybe he told her that I disappeared up to Wren’s room and didn’t come back down until three in the morning. From the way she arches her eyebrow at me, toying with the ends of her hair, she does know and she’s enjoying the fact that I’m squirming like a worm on a hook right now.
Horror coils itself tight around my throat. I need to change the subject. Now. “Who’s Mara?” I ask.
Mercy’s surprise doesn’t look real. She lays it on thick, though. “You don’t know who Mara Bancroft is?”
“I wouldn’t have asked if I did.”
Mercy shoots Carina a curious look. “This used to be her room. Before she went missing. She and my brother were…very close.”
Carina gets to her feet. “Mercy, please.”
Mercy ignores her. “She was really beautiful wasn’t she, Carrie? All this beautiful long black hair. These big ol’ bright blue eyes. I was surprised when I found out Wren was interested in you, y’know. You’re nothing like her at all.”
She looks at me like I’m some third rate, discount version of this Mara Bancroft girl. Like she has no idea why her brother would even look twice at me. I’m still stunned from the other snippet of information she just dropped, though. “She went missing?”
“Mmm.” Mercy toys with the ends of her hair. “Last June, right after the last party my brother hosted. It was all very suspicious. She was upset about something and left in the middle of a game of beer pong. Just walked into the woods and…poof. Vanished into thin air. The police suspected foul play. They searched for her for days didn’t they, Carrie?”
“What are you hoping to accomplish right now?” Carina snaps. “This is all in the past. Mara’s gone. We all vowed we’d move on.”
Fuck. When I first arrived at Wolf Hall, Pres made a weird comment about girls leaving the academy. Carina had shut her down. Told her to let me settle in here before dredging up all of that. I thought it was strange at the time, but then I completely forgot all about it. And now I’m learning that the girl who used to sleep in this room, my room, fucking disappeared?
“Mara loved this room,” Mercy continues. “She had all kinds of hiding places for her little treasures.” It’s a weird thing to just blurt out. Carina tenses, hatred radiating off her like smoke.
“Enough already.”
“This bay window, for example,” Mercy says, running her