Chapter 1
“Hand me a mug?” Rick says.
I open the kitchen cupboard and leap back, screaming. A fuzzy black spider the size of aplatejust sprang out and landed on my arm. The thing is about six inches wide, no exaggeration. Do they even have such huge spiders in England? Is it one of those poisonous ones that hitched a ride with exotic fruit, and before you know it, it’s taken out the whole household? Are Rick and I about todie? Then the spider’s many eyes start glowing orange. Music fills the kitchen. A plinky, creepy, spooky little tune. I glare at Rick, fists clenched, as I figure it out.
“You asshole,” I hiss.
This is the third time this week he’s gotten me with a Halloween prank.
“This is getting really old.” I grab the stupid toy spider and throw it on the worktop. It looks up at me, eyes gleaming unrepentantly.
“Agree to disagree,” Rick says. “Thisnevergets old.”
My poor abused heart is still rattling around my ribs. I massage my chest, hoping to stave off a heart attack.
“One day I’m going to prank you back,” I mutter.
“Don’t believe you,” Rick says. “You’re too sweet for that.” He sounds serious, for once. That throws me for a loop more than the jump scare.
“Are you okay?” he says, coming closer. I tilt my head to look up at him. Even on tiptoe, I only reach his shoulder. “Not too traumatized?” he adds.
“I’m fine.”
My face feels hot, but more because of his concern than because of the shock. It’s annoyingly difficult to stay mad at him. He looks too good, even after being an asshole, with his perfect dark hair, chiseled jawline covered with just the right amount of dark stubble… and those long-lashed hazel eyes. I might’ve spent a little too long trying to categorize their color, like if I could find the exact shade on the Dulux chart it would furnish the answers to the mysteries of the universe. Today he’s wearing a skeleton T-shirt in honor of Halloween. It’s tight and clings to his broad shoulders and lean waist. When he breaks into a smile, like now, an adorable dimple appears on the left side of his face, softening him from lofty Michelangelo-like beauty to warm and cute andreal. If it weren’t for the dimple, I’d find him too intimidating to even talk to, much less to live with.
Yeah, I know. I’ve got it bad.
“Arden, do you want to go to a party?” he says, out of nowhere.
“Withyou?” I say.
He shrugs, the picture of casual. And I tell my rapidly rising hopes to chill out: he’s just being friendly. Why shouldn’t he invite his roommate to a party? He doesn’t mean it as a date.
Why would he want to date his friend’s nerdy little brother?
“A guy at work has a couple of spare tickets to the Halloween party at Gossmer Hall,” Rick says. “It’d be a shame to waste them.”
I guess it would. That party has been sold out for months. It’s in a big, fancy stately home, almost a castle. The kind of place they film Downton Abbey. The kind of place my grandparents thought I’d be visiting every day when I first moved to England. I don’t have the heart to tell them I spend more time in Gregg’s and Tesco.
“ThehauntedGossmer Hall?” I say.
Rick scoffs, and I laugh to show I didn’t really mean it. I’m a scientist. I don’t believe in ghosts. By the way Rick is acting, I guess he doesn’t either. The only thing holding me back is nerves. It’s a fancy occasion, not my forte. I don’t have anything to wear, and the party is the day after tomorrow. Rick and I had planned Halloween night at the local pub, where a few customers might dress up a little—maybe some plastic devil horns or a set of fake fangs. I don’t have anything good enough to wear to a real costume party at a stately home.
“Are you scared?” Rick says, mistaking my hesitation.
“No way.”
“Come on, then,” he says. “I dare you.”
The worddareshivers all the way up my spine. His teasing gaze is impossible to resist.
“I’m in,” I say.
As he clasps my hand to seal the deal, I get awkward fast. It feels way too good when our skin touches. I take my hand back quickly.
To hide my confusion, I look into the cupboard. “How’d you manage to rig up the spider, anyway… hey, what are these?”
Right at the back of the cupboard, there’s a pack of playing cards. I’m sure I’ve never seen them before.
