Storykiller Read Free Page B

there.
    Two adorable someones, in fact.
     

     
    Tessa turned around, knowing even before she did so that it was going to be Micah and Brand.
    Sure enough, they were both standing, just on the other side of the wooden gate, staring at her with their mouths hanging open like fish.
    “Um…hi?” Brand offered.
    Micah looked at him like he was insane.
    “What…what was that?” he asked, not even missing beats. “Am I, am I having a stroke?” He looked at Micah now who turned back to face Tessa. “You saw that, right? Tell me you saw that!”
    Micah just nodded, her eyes wide.
    “Tessa?” they asked as one, as if her name itself was the question.
    Tessa looked at them. She had no idea what to say. Her mind was utterly blank. She didn’t know how much they had seen, and she didn’t understand a lick of it anyway so what could she say?
    Her mind raced, but somewhere deep down she felt sure that the best thing she could do for them was to get them away from her.
    Something was happening to her.
    Something bad from the looks of it.
    And they didn’t need to end up as collateral damage. Innocent bystanders. And super nice ones at that. All she could think was that she had to get them out of there and away from her no matter what, and if boarding school had taught her anything it was deny, deny, deny. Admit nothing. Oh, and how to be mean. She’d learned that too.
    “I have no idea what you’re talking about. And you’re on private property, kindly get off it,” she said, a cruelty in her voice that made her cringe inside. But they didn’t move. They just stood there, gape-mouthed and confused. So she looked at them for just a moment, making her eyes hard. “Get out of here, right now.” She didn’t even watch to see their shoulders sink, their expressions fall, she just picked up the bat, stepped through the broken picture window, and disappeared into the house.
    Tessa sat on the kitchen floor for a while listening to them argue in hushed tones. They finally gave up and left and then Tessa burst into tears. She curled up on the hardwood and sobbed into a dishtowel until she fell asleep.
     
    Tessa woke to the sound of the doorbell buzzing. Disoriented and confused, wondering if perhaps she had dreamed the entire bizarre incident, Tessa stumbled to the front door, tripping on overturned furniture that suggested it had not been just a nightmare. Tessa peeked through the window to the side of the door and then yanked herself back at the sight of the albino supermodel standing on her front porch. It was still light outside, but several hours had passed, the sun low in the sky. The woman called to her through the door.
    “Scion. Bluebeard has your minions.” 
    Tessa crinkled up her nose. What in seven hells did that even mean? Tessa spoke back through the door.
    “What’s a Scion?” Tessa asked and then, furrowing her brow even more deeply, she raised her voice, “Exactly who are you and what do you want?”
    The woman sighed, clearly irritated. “I am The Snow Queen. I’ve simply come to tell you that Bluebeard has your minions.”
    Tessa scrunched up her face and unlocked the door, but kept it mostly shut, peeking through the crack, “Who has my what?”
    “Bluebeard. He has your minions.”
    “Lady, I don’t understand like…ANY of the words in that sentence.”
    The woman sighed even more deeply. “Those two small Mortals I saw you with before—your minions—”
    “Micah and Brand?”
    The woman looked offended, “I don’t learn minion names, Scion. Those two small Mortals have been taken by Bluebeard.”
    “What’s a Bluebeard?”
    The woman sighed again and pushed her way into the house. “You are entirely tedious. I was led to believe that Scions at least had their wits about them, even if they were just Mortals.” The woman looked around the disheveled house, her judgmental gaze deepening until she noticed the broken window. She looked more carefully at Tessa, puffy eyed and more than