I gulp, turning to look again at the menacing, huge mansion towering above us. Two guards flank the massive front doors, both in plain black Bauta Venetian masks that cover their entire faces, the jaw and chin parts jutting outward.
“Creepy,” Gabby murmurs quietly.
I nod, shivering as a violent tremor ripples through me. I glance at her, my lip catching between my teeth. “Are you worried?”
She hesitates a moment, then shakes her head. “Well…no. But…” Her exposed mouth twists as she lowers her voice. “Okay, I’m sort of friends with my Adept…the girl who invited me.” She winces almost apologetically. “I know, I know. It sort of feels like cheating. But I swear she hasn’t told me anything about what might go down here tonight. But we go back a long way, so… I don’t think she’s going to bethathard on me.”
I exhale. “The stuff I read online…”
Gabby’s slender throat works. “Right? Demonic blood sacrifice?Cannibalism? I mean, that’s all bullshit, for sure. My friend wouldneverbe involved with that, let alone invite me.”
I nod. “Yeah, but the facing your fears part…”
“Snakes,” Gabby mumbles, shivering. “Motherfuckingsnakes. But my friend isn’t a sadist, so, again…” She shrugs. “I’m notthatworried.” Her brow pinches under the mask. “How about you?”
“My fear?”
I’ve thought about that. I mean, I don’tlovespiders or creepy crawlies. Not big on heights, either.
But I’m not sure if either of those is my “biggest” fear. I’m not actually sure what thatwouldbe.
Gabby shakes her head. “No, I mean who invited you?”
Fear coils and twists inside me.
“I—”
“Ladies?”
We both jerk around when we hear the deep male voice. One of the two guards at the front doors to the house has taken a few steps down toward us, his black Bauta mask chilling as he looks right at us. “The initiation is beginning shortly. It is not recommended that you be late.”
“Shit. Sorry,” Gabby mumbles for both of us, grabbing my wrist and tugging me after her up the steps.
The two men open the huge, heavy wood and wrought-iron front doors. I feel like we’re being ushered into a medieval castle.
Then we step inside, and my heart jumps when the doors shut behind us with a heavy thud.
“Fuck.”
It’s not until Gabby says it that I truly see where we’re standing.
Whoa.
I’ve been surrounded by wealth my entire life. So has Gabby. But the sheer opulence of the castle-like mansion we’ve just stepped into is next level.
“What is this, fuckingVersailles?” Gabby mumbles. We both drop our heads back to stare up at the massive, almost triple-story grand entrance, complete with two curved staircases winding up to the second level and a fresco of angels and devils battling it out on the ceiling high above.
“Ms. Nikitin. Ms. De Luca.”
We both gasp at the sudden appearance of a man in a blood-red robe, a black and red Bauta mask covering his face and black gloves on his hands.
“Follow me.”
He bows as if he’s a butler escorting us into a dinner party, but it’s clearly a command, not a request.
“So much for anonymity,” Gabby mutters as we fall into step behind him.
He escorts us through more of the sprawling mansion, drawing us deeper into the ominous energy of the house. At last we step through a set of guarded doors into a large banquet space, the room ringed with columns, a balcony on the level above, and a glass ceiling above that.
