My gaze swept the length of the walkway. Nothing.
I let out a breath through my nose, equal parts annoyed and amused. “You’re really pushing your luck,” I muttered. “I’m going to find you.”
Then I saw it. Another sheet of paper was taped neatly to one of the pillars at eye level, placed so deliberately that there was noway I could miss it. I crossed the distance in a few quick steps and peeled it free.
Missed me again. Meet me in the sanctified space where you began stalking me…
“Really?” I murmured, my voice laced with a mixture of sarcasm and amusement.
I knew exactly what he meant.
The Chapel of Saints. Beneath it was the ossuary, which contained the tunnel that my friends and I had discovered during our investigation into the Dionysus Club. The same tunnel that had carried me straight into the heart of Julian’s world when I decided to follow it all the way to the Dionysus mansion in an attempt to figure out what went on there.
My pulse picked up again, heat curling low in my belly as the memory resurfaced. Julian wasn’t just teasing me. He was retracing our story in reverse, making me walk it again with open eyes.
I folded the note carefully and slipped it into my pocket, already turning toward the path that led uphill toward the chapel.
“Stalking,” I said quietly to myself as I started walking. “That’s rich, coming from you.”
I lifted my chin and picked up my pace. Soon, the Chapel of Saints rose before me. Its spindly gothic spires cut into the night sky, and at the highest point, the blackened iron cross still leaned slightly to one side, just as it always had.
I slowed as I climbed the steps, my breath fogging in the cold air. The heavy oak doors loomed in front of me, their carvings unmistakable even in the low light. Angels. Hourglasses. Vines winding through skulls.
I pushed the door open and slipped inside to find the chapel empty. No ghost tours tonight, apparently.
Moonlight spilled through the stained-glass windows, pooling across the stone floor and rows of dark wooden pews. The creepy old bone chandelier hung overhead, ribs arched like wings, vertebrae spiraling outward, skulls clustered at its core.
My footsteps echoed softly as I moved down the aisle, heart beating a little faster now. If Julian was still here, he was hiding well.
“I’ve got you now,” I called out. “Come out, come out…”
A second later, I saw another small piece of paper. It rested on the altar ahead of me, weighed down by a smooth stone.
I approached slowly and picked it up, already smiling despite myself.
Still too late to catch me, baby,the note said.But I’ll give you one more chance. Turn the page over.
I exhaled a soft laugh through my nose and flipped the paper.
Final clue:
Where you used to sit alone.
Where you watched, waited, and learned.
Where you thought no one ever noticed you.
My chest tightened, warmth blooming beneath my ribs. He had to mean the library. But not just any part of it. My little spot. The tucked-away corner desk I’d claimed during my first semester at BHU. Julian had obviously noticed me there when he was ‘surveilling’ me, as he liked to call it.
I folded the note and slid it into my pocket, casting one last glance around the chapel. Then I turned and slipped back out into the night, my steps quickening as I headed toward the library, pulse thrumming with anticipation.
One more chance to catch Julian.
Although… I had the feeling he’d already decided exactly how this game would end.
Five minutes later, the library loomed ahead, its tall windows dark except for a faint glow on the upper floors. That was my first clue that something was amiss.
The library wasneverempty. Even late at night, the place was always buzzing with activity. Students hunched over laptops, coffee cups scattered everywhere, whispers and footsteps echoing between the stacks.
