This Wicked Game by Michelle Zink Read Free Book Online Page B

upstairs, looking for a quiet place where she could text him without seeming rude. She knew the Toussaint house as well as her own. Most of the Guild’s big events were held there, and Claire had been roaming its halls since she was a kid.
    She headed for the east wing, as far away from the staircase as possible. Her hopes were dashed that no one else would bother to go that far for a bathroom when she saw Allegra St. Martin in the hall, leaning toward an antique mirror and reapplying her lip stain. She wore a simple white dress that hugged her every curve. It stood in contrast to her exotic coloring and was topped off by an elaborate swan’s feather headpiece, her glossy dark hair twisted up around it.
    Feeling the twinge of self-consciousness that Allegra always inspired, Claire prepared to turn around and creep back the way she came.
    “Hey,” Allegra said, catching her eye in the mirror.
    Claire sighed, continuing reluctantly toward the bathroom.
    “Is someone in there?” Claire tipped her head at the closed door of the bathroom.
    Allegra nodded, pulling back from the mirror. “Laura.”
    “I’ll find another,” Claire said, relieved for the excuse to leave.
    Allegra’s voice stopped her as she was turning around. “Claire.”
    “Yeah?”
    Allegra bit her newly stained lower lip. “You’re not as alone as you think, you know.”
    The words took Claire by surprise. She searched her mind, trying to figure out what Allegra was talking about. They weren’t enemies. But they weren’t friends, either.
    “What do you mean?” she finally asked.
    Allegra leaned against the ornate, gilded table under the mirror, one bare leg exposed in a slit that extended well above her knee. “Listen, I know you don’t believe, but that doesn’t mean the craft isn’t real. And it doesn’t mean you don’t have the power, either. It’s yours to call on whenever you need it.”
    “I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” Claire said softly. But even as she said it, she was unnerved. Rumor was that Allegra had a proven gift for precognition and had predicted all kind of things—good and bad—since she’d been old enough to mix recipes and cast her own spells.
    Allegra stepped toward her, stopping when they were only a foot apart. Claire flinched as the other girl put a gentle hand on her arm.
    “You’re in trouble,” she said. “We all are.”
    “We?”
    “The firstborns,” Allegra clarified. Her eyes seemed to cloud over, her voice growing distant. “I can’t see the threat clearly, but it’s out there.” She hesitated, seeming to return from some far-off place. “I know we’ve never been close, but I just wanted you to know that you’re not alone. We’re here for you, even if you don’t want us to be.” She smiled. “Kind of like family.”
    Claire was mesmerized by Allegra’s eyes, an icy blue that stood in contrast to her Creole coloring, and a soothing quality in her voice that Claire had never noticed before. It took her a few seconds to step back and break the spell.
    “Thanks. I appreciate the concern.”
    The door to the bathroom opened and Laura stepped out. She smiled in surprise.
    “Claire! You look so pretty!”
    Claire had to force herself to smile as she headed for the bathroom. “Thank you. So do you.” And she did, though Claire barely had time to register the black dress that set off Laura’s shimmering copper hair as she made a beeline for the bathroom. “I’ll catch up with you later.”
    She shut the door even before she turned on the light. Then she braced herself against the sink, taking big deep breaths and trying to resist the urge to puke. She told herself it was irrational. That Allegra was just drinking the voodoo Kool-Aid.
    So why did she have a sinking feeling that Allegra was right? That something
was
coming for them—for her. That whatever it was had been put in motion by the order of the panther blood and the presence of the people on