“Afraid we’ll give away your secrets before your big opening?” she asks, staring Theo up and down.
Rosemarie clears her throat, and I damn near hug her for breaking up this pheromone fest. Rubbing her crystals over her heart, in a gesture I hope comes from nerves and not picking up on whatever woo woo vibes I’m missing, she asks, “The waivers you mentioned?”
“Ah, yes.” He gives us an apologetic oops I got distracted by your uber sexy friend gaze and ducks his head a fraction as if chastened. I almost buy his act, except the tiny curve to his lips say he’s enjoying the flirtation.
Theo’s good, but I study everyday expressions and body language like I’m prepping a dissertation in game piece theory. Because the moment I carve a dreamy grin on a warlock out to destroy the world, that’ll be the end of my not-so-lucrative wargaming design career. I clutch my latest Mutter Udder Maniacs miniature in my pocket, a talisman to calm me as much as a reminder that I need to give up my hobby for a real job.
Sliding the tablet across the desk, Theo puts four glowsticks beside it. “To be worn at all times in the house. Your choice of body part.” This guy and his nonstop sex appeal can hit a great big pause button, as far as I’m concerned, but I need to get a closer look at the designs molded into the slim rods. Are those sigils like in my magic games? A spin on Nordic runes? I wish I could snap a photo before he takes away our phones.
Val sneers at the cheap plastic. “You strapping us in LoJack so we won’t steal more of your precious intel?” Not giving him a chance to answer, she snags the tablet and skims whatever’s on the screen. “Theo, I think you screwed up your waivers. This reads more like a kink club menu than a haunted house warning.”
My face flames red, and I scoot closer to Rosemarie in the hope that her constant calm will work on my nerves. Fear, arousal, and general anxiety make for a potent cocktail that I’m not ready to deal with. Wishing we could get the tour over with already, I tighten my grip on the miniature. I’ll name this one Lady Snarl and she can hack and slash anything that comes at me in this creepy mansion.
“I assure you it’s the correct contract,” Theo says smoothly.
“Nope to everything on the list, unless we pick sexy times over scary times.” Propping her hip on the desk, Val slashes her finger over the screen and scrolls. “The rest looks super standard.” If she says so, I trust her. She reads contracts daily for the million-dollar beauty industry she runs with her mother. “Besides, you should know, Theo,” she says his name like a taunting curse, “if the maim and mayhem clause comes into play, you’ll have more than Ava’s mom and her lawsuits to contend with.”
Oh yeah, Val’s mom has connected friends. If anything happens to us, heads rolling won’t be a cliché; it’ll be a bloody reality.
The eternal peacemaker, Rosemarie interrupts. “I’m sure that the company he works for is still tweaking the language.”
I say nothing. Contracts scare the hell out of me. Skipping to the end of the mile-long terms of agreement that my phone gives me with each upgrade? That’s my avoidance method.
As if reading my mind, Val nods at us. “Probably made this as part of the psychological game, to unsettle us before the tour.” She signs with a sweep and twist of her finger. “You two good to sign?”
Rosemarie and I agree, each trailing our fingertips over the lines above our typed names. I’ll say yes to whatever will get us out of here faster.
“There.” Val presents the tablet like she’s throwing down a challenge. “You got a lockbox for our stuff?”
I hadn’t even thought of that.
“Here.” Theo opens a compartment in the bookcase. What else is hidden in those shelves?
Val doesn’t gawk and hesitate like I do. She gathers our phones and Ava’s purse, drops everything inside, and then takes the key. “I’ll keep it close. Cool?” As if we would object. She hikes her foot onto the desk and straps her glowstick around her ankle—because of course she does—before tossing two others to us. Only Ava’s remains.
The sigils etched into the glowsticks don’t look like those from any game I’ve played, and I have played them all. These have the feel of runes, the cut of a famous dice game, and just enough weirdness to make me wish I could study them for the Maniacs design that I’m working on. I fumble with mine for a moment, and Rosemarie saves me by snapping it around my wrist with graceful fingers. While hers looks like just another bracelet, mine digs into my skin a little.
Theo comes toward me, easy grace despite the lethal edge to his swagger. “We’ll start with Meg.”
“Nuh uh.” Rosemarie grips my hand. “We go together.”
“No.” He doesn’t sound rude, but he has perfected Ava’s tone of don’t argue because you won’t win. “The rules say you begin your tour apart. You may, of course, rejoin the group after completing your first task.”
My gamer brain perks up like an over-caffeinated toddler. “Like a mission? A quest?”
“Exactly that.” His smile’s warm and genuine, a sparkle in his eyes that says adventure awaits. “This way.”
I squeeze Rosemarie’s hand to send it’ll be okay vibes that I don’t feel and follow him out, jumping when he shuts the double doors behind us with a click.
“Your journey begins here.” He opens another door to the left of the entrance. I glance inside to stairs that lead downward into darkness.
Backing away, I curl my fingers around Lady Snarl until her horns poke me in the palm. “Oh, hell no. I’m not going into the basement. I saw that slasher flick. Everyone has seen it.”
He tips his head to the side, studying me as though he can read every fear screaming in my brain. “You wouldn’t let down the other players when they’re your best friends, would you?”
The appeal lands hard with my team-player self, who has hated every role-playing guild where I’ve been ditched mid-battle with the big boss. “What’s down there?”
“Only one way to find out.” He wraps his lips around the words, and my sex-starved libido almost stands at attention, except he’s not my type.
Little white lights flicker along the wall, dancing downward in a dizzying spiral. “What if I can’t?” I whisper.
“Then you’ll activate the band you’re wearing.” He taps my wrist, where the biggest sigil lines up with a trio of my freckles. “Press and hold for five seconds, and I’ll come check on you. No matter where you are.”
“In the basement?” Since that’s where he’s sending me.
“Yes,” he agrees with quick certainty, but something in his gaze wavers and makes me think he’s lying. “Leander will be your guide below.”
I edge the toes of my sneakers to the top stair. “I have to go now?”
“The sooner you go, the sooner I can check on your friend, who seems to have gotten lost in the house.”
Ava. I can’t hear water running or footsteps or anything that would clue me in to where she might be. “I should—”
He stretches his arm in front of me, not quite touching me, but definitely stopping me. “It’d be safer that you stay on your own path. I promise to find your friend.”