Marked By Lies: A Reverse Harem Series (The Marked Series Book 1) by Paige Orr (best english books to read for beginners .txt) 📕

As I reach the back of the house, I pause when a strange sound reaches my ears. So low that I’m surprised that I can even hear it. The sound of chanting comes from the back garden. Surely they aren’t performing a ritual that involves sacrifice out in the open like that, not even they are that stupid. There is no other place out there though.

I reach the backdoor, scanning around the place for any sign of, well I don’t really know. I don’t want to stereotype, but I can’t help picturing a group of cloaked figures, all speaking in some unforgotten tongue. The thought itself causes a giggle to slip past my lips, and I quietly clear my throat, making sure I wasn’t heard.

I make my way outside, trying to discern where the chanting is coming from, and follow the sound until I reach the shed. The voices are much louder now, leading me to believe that I’m close, but there is no way the full cult and the missing Fae could all be crammed into this tiny shed.

I slowly open the door, stopping just as the hinges begin to creak, and just manage to slip through the gap. Once I'm inside, I ease the door shut, not wanting it to slam behind me, and turn to find an empty shed. This shit doesn’t even make sense. But I know I don’t have long to figure it out as the voices begin to gradually get louder, obviously near the crescendo of their ritual.

I look around frantically for anything that could be where they are hiding, and just as I’m about to give up hope, my foot hits something, causing a hollow sound to reach my ears. Quickly crouching down, my heart races when I find the trap door. These bastards really have a penchant for holes in the ground. Well, I’ll make sure that their fucking graves are nice and roomy.

I ease the door up, surprised to find hinges that are well oiled. The rest of the place made me feel like creaky hinges was their aesthetic. I slip inside the door, lowering it gently behind me, and begin to make my way through the tunnel in front of me. How they managed to get away with building their little underground bunker without any planning permission is beyond me.

As I get closer to the end of the tunnel, the voices reverberate against the walls around, sounding like they are coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once. I won’t deny that this shit is creepy, but I push through the nerves beginning to make their way through me until I come to a bend in the tunnel.

Peeking my head around the corner, I can make out a large group of people, and I know that I’ve finally found what I’m looking for. I just wish that I could let the others know about this place. Sure, they wouldn’t be able to get here in time to help out with stopping the ritual, but it would be nice to know I had backup on the way.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Zaphyr

We all sit around Melissa’s apartment, lost in our own thoughts, worrying about what could have happened to her. Even Annika’s spell found nothing, it just kept telling us she was still at the house. That’s impossible though, my shadows couldn’t find a damn thing, and they never miss things like that.

We are all lost without her here. None of us have any idea where we are supposed to go from here. When we investigated things on our own, we found fuck all. The only person who has managed to solve anything in this case is the one fucking person who isn’t here. Cail and Eli should never have let her leave on her own.

I don’t even want to think about what those bastards could be doing to her right now, because I’m pretty damn sure they aren’t sitting around having a fucking tea party. For all we know, they could have already killed her, but either way she isn’t fucking here. This has all blown up in our faces, and I don’t know what we’re supposed to do to make any of it better.

For the first time in my life, I feel completely powerless, and It’s not a feeling that I like very much. What I do know is that I will fucking find these bastards, even if it’s the last thing I fucking do. They have been pushing me to the end of my ether for too long now, and I refuse to continue to let them walk all over me.

I wish that I could talk to Melissa’s ghost friend; I bet he would be able to find her a lot easier than we could. I know that last night we said we can’t split ourselves apart to look for Melissa separately from our people, but now they are most likely together, so it’s only fear that’s holding us back.

This feeling is so foreign to me, and I don’t know how I’m supposed to be acting. Should I be losing the rag and letting the anger out, or should I be using it to help me focus better. Either way, it all feels like it’s hopeless. Everything keeps going wrong for us, and I have no idea how to make it all better.

Everyone is in a somber mood as we wait for a sign on what we should do. I’ve never seen us all so lost like this, and it's doing nothing to help the nerves that I’m feeling. I don’t know how much longer I can take, sitting around here doing nothing, It's driving me completely stir crazy!

Annika is beating herself up the worst of us all, feeling like if she hadn’t given us the address,