Page 188 of A Society of Traitors

She didn't seem to like the fact that Alarik wasn't the person she had hoped he would be.

“Just look at the photo on the table,” Larissa said, looking back down at the logbook.

“I find it interesting that they founded a secret society.” Miles sounded lost in thought as he looked at each of us. “First these people from the nineteenth century with their antler masks, and now our parents, aunts, and uncles.”

“What choice did they have? If the rules of the Quatura society had been even remotely as strict back then as they are today, they would have been hunted down by the Councils. Sooner or later, their memories would probably have been erased. At least those of the Quatura.” Julie, who was sitting on the couch opposite Emely, seemed just as lost in thought, except that her gaze was fixed on nothing in particular, wandering through the room. “And this place here was definitely a refuge.”

She was right. It was spacious, yet cozy. The atmosphere had something dark and mystical about it. There were books everywhere, knowledge. What’s more, no one else alive had known about this room. Until now.

“We shouldn’t forget that two of the members of our parents’ generation are dead,” Emely muttered, tucking one of her long, wavy strands of hair behind her ear.

Miles looked at her from his armchair. “Are you afraid of dying?”

His fingers drummed on the leather armrest.

She looked up, her expression serious. “No.”

The two exchanged intense glances, and it looked as if one of them was about to jump up and grab the other by the throat.

Eventually, Emely continued. “I'd just rather be cautious, because there must have been a reason why none of these idealistic plans for this town ever came to fruition.” She looked back and forth between us girls. “Someone must have found out about them. Or maybe they didn’t get along as well as you all think.” Her gaze wandered back to Miles, as if these words were directed specifically at him. “The treaties exist for a reason.”

“Maybe they never stopped working on it.” Larissa sounded serious.

“You don't actually think that silly society still exists, do you?” Emely asked with judging disbelief in her voice, and my thoughts also began to falter.

My mother seemed to have been part of this society, which, when I thought about it longer, didn't surprise me so much, not after all the secrets. But she had moved away and hadn't set foot in Blairville for almost twenty years.

Amara and Amanda hadn't seemed like the closest of friends either, and they certainly didn't seem like they would be happy if someone broke the rules. Two other members were dead, and I didn't know anything about Bastien.

Only Alarik actually gave me the feeling that something secret was still going on behind our backs. After all, he had set up his office below this secret tower room, handed me Alice's book, and initially inspired me to continue investigating.

This man was a walking mystery. A locked artifact to which all my paths kept leading me back. All I lacked was the key. A key that he seemed to be guiding me toward, without knowing that I was afraid of keys.

“No. I don't think so,” Larissa sighed and continued leafing through the pages until she paused in the middle of the book. “The log entries are all formal. Who came when, what books they read, what they debated... They stop at some point. In October 1998.”

Shortly before Alice and Alastair's death.

I snorted in disbelief.