Lux (The Nocte Trilogy 3)

“See you at dinner.”

I watch the house swallow him up before I follow him in.

As I walk down the hallway, I can’t help but glance over my shoulder every once in a while because even the sunshine can’t keep the shadows away at Whitley. Something always seems to be watching me, hovering around me.

Always.

When I find Finn in the library, I tell him that.

He shakes his head, annoyed, yet clearly concerned. Like always.

“Have you taken your pills today, Calla?”

“Yes.” If I don’t, I see monsters.

I see red-eyed demons and black-eyed serpents.

I see fire,

I see blood,

I see terrible

Terrible

Things.

Finn stares at me dubiously.

“Are you sure?”

I pause.

Then I grudgingly pull the two colorful pills out of my pocket.

He glares at me. “Take them. Right now or I’m telling mom.”

When I don’t rush to do it, he adds, “Or I’ll tell Grandmother.”

That threat bears weight, and he knows it. I hurry to get a drink of water, and I swallow the pills while he watches.

“You know better, Calla,” he chides me, sounding more like a parent than a brother.

I nod. Because I do.

“They taste bad,” I offer by way of explanation.

“That’s no excuse.”

“What isn’t?”

Our mother breezes into the library, red-headed and beautiful, slim and glamorous. If I’m lucky, I’ll look just like her some day.

“Nothing,” I hurry and tell her.

She seems suspicious, but she’s in too much of a hurry to ask again.

“Have you seen Adair?” she asks us both. “Your uncle is looking for him.”