by Ally Carter
Eventually, Colin stopped climbing on the ropes and Sadie and Violet stopped playing with the capes and everyone made their way upstairs. Smithers brought out the sparkling apple juice and set up an old record player in the library, and April watched her friends singing and dancing because Isabella Nelson was alive and Evert Winterborne was in jail. Kids like them weren’t very used to victories, so they made the most out of this one.
But Gabriel didn’t dance. Or sing. Or eat or drink. He just drifted back to the windows, Ms Nelson’s letter tucked in his pocket, right over his heart.
April told herself she shouldn’t bother him. But there was something she needed to tell him even more.
‘I never did say thank you. For saving me.’
‘Well, one might say that makes us even.’ Gabriel glared down at her, but there was a twinkle in his eye. ‘Just don’t do it again.’
‘OK. I’m pretty sure I’m ahead anyway. I mean, I did pull you out of the water—’
‘Which I wouldn’t have been in without you.’
‘And nursed you back to health—’
‘Which wouldn’t have been necessary if you hadn’t gotten me stabbed.’
‘And I was instrumental in making sure Evert will probably die in prison,’ April teased. Then grew serious. ‘But I owe you for the museum, so I guess we’ll call it even.’
She didn’t expect him to laugh or smile back. He was still Gabriel Winterborne, after all. But she wasn’t ready for him to look so confused as he said, ‘What about the museum?’
‘You know, when you carried me out of the fire?’ she said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. ‘So I guess that means I owed you first, but …’ She trailed off when she saw his expression. ‘What is it? What’s wrong?’
‘April, I wasn’t at the museum.’
She thought she’d misunderstood him. But he must have misunderstood her. ‘I know you weren’t there during the day. I’m talking about that night. I would have died, you know? I was too busy looking for the key and the smoke was so thick, but then you were there and you found my key and carried me … What?’
‘April, I haven’t been to the museum in fifteen years. Whoever carried you out of the fire, it wasn’t me.’
There were so few things that April knew for certain. Not her birthday or her mother’s name or how she’d ended up with a key that unlocked the Winterborne family’s greatest secret. But she’d known that Gabriel Winterborne had been there – that Gabriel had saved her. April had been so certain. But April had been wrong.
‘If it wasn’t you, who was it?’
Gabriel looked back at the windows that had become a mirror with the fall of night. Her friends were still dancing on the other side of the room, but Gabriel didn’t smile or laugh. He just stared into the darkness and said, ‘That is a very good question.’
No one noticed the breath that fogged the glass. No one heard the low laugh that filled the air. Not a single resident of Winterborne House saw the figure who was running along the cliffs, blending into the shadows and the night, disappearing into the darkness like the wind.
Acknowledgements
I’m sincerely grateful to all the people who helped make this book possible. The team at HMH has been phenomenal, and I can’t imagine better champions, with a special thanks to Catherine Onder and Gabriella Abbate.
As always, I could not have done it without Kristin Nelson, literary agent extraordinaire.
I’m overwhelmingly grateful to my very kind, very wise, very patient friends who helped me talk it through a million times, especially Carrie Ryan, Sarah Rees Brennan, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Rose Brock and Bob.
Special thanks to Shellie Rea, who keeps the real world running so I can focus on the fictional.
And, last but certainly not least, my family. Thank you and I love you.
Copyright
ORCHARD BOOKS
First published in the United States in 2020 by Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt Publishing Company
This edition published in Great Britain in 2020
by The Watts Publishing Group
Text copyright © Ally Carter, 2020
The moral rights of the author have been asserted.
All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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ISBN: 978 1 40835 738 5
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