Cheat the Grave Read Online Free

shadowed amalgam of confusion and surprise. It looked distorted on the dim landing. “Why?”
    Because the chest was too heavy to pick up and take with us, because doing so would be considered stealing…but also because I recognized some of those dark symbols. “It looks antique. I might want to get one like it.”
    â€œHoney, it looks satanic.” She snapped off a quick shot.“You might want to get some holy water.”
    It was foreboding. And if I had to open it, I’d prefer a little distance between me and whatever was beneath that lid. “Maybe we can use that broken broomstick to open it up.” But the stick I’d spotted was as filthy as the rest of this place …
    Catching myself mid-thought, I shook my head. I didn’t use to be so precious about things.
    â€œHere, give me the map.”
    Cher’s mouth quirked in distaste as I wrapped it around the broom’s splintered handle. “We’ll have to sterilize it.”
    â€œFine. Go boil some water. I’ll just work on this latch.”
    Cher—savvy to sarcasm—stayed put, but after a few attempts I gave up on poking the thing with a blunt object and resigned myself to putting my opposable thumbs to good use. Fingers sinking into the silky lining, I lifted the lid. The hinges creaked.
    Something moved inside.
    â€œShoot it!” I told Cher, jerking back, and I didn’t mean with the camera. Cher just screamed like she was at a Madonna concert. A fat gray rat crawled from the chest and scurried away with the whip of a long tail. Shuddering, I caught my breath and, because we weren’t already dead, picked up the flashlight Cher had dropped. Angling the beam back into the chest, I gasped, and tasted sweet victory despite the dank, rotting hallway. Two brightly plumed masks lay wrapped in clear plastic. “Look. Someone has thoughtfully provided waterless hand wash as well.”
    â€œI call dibs on the green one,” Cher said, reaching in, revived by the sight of crystals and plumes. “That’s totally my color.”
    And pink was Olivia’s. I winced as Cher unwrapped it and handed it to me. Not exactly the sort of mask I was accustomed to in my role as a twenty-first century superhero. And just what I needed, I thought wryly. More feathers.
    â€œSo where’s the guide to give us our next clue?” That was the point of the identifying boas, right? I searched thechest for an envelope, letting the flashlight beam fall over every corner, but there was nothing else. Yet when it centered on the open lid, I jerked back.
    â€œWhat?” Cher asked, feeling me startle. She spotted the object strapped to the lid and bent for a closer look.
    It didn’t stir my blood as it would have a handful of weeks earlier, but I recognized the item instantly. A conduit was a weapon that could not only kill humans, but super humans—both Shadow and Light. This one was a silver dagger the length of my forearm, though the sole light caught on a depressed hinge. A trident, then, with two more lethal blades that winged out at a thumb’s twitch.
    Cher reached for it. There was only one thing to do.
    â€œCockroach!” I yelled so loudly my voice ping-ponged down the stairwell.
    She fled down the stairs so quickly she could have medaled.
    I waited until I heard her feet hit the landing, then leaned forward. Someone from my other life had clearly infiltrated Suzanne’s scavenger hunt, maybe even the same someone who’d sent the warning not to go out. Seeing that they’d prepared for the possibility anyway, they also obviously knew me well.
    Though my palm itched to hold a conduit again, I resisted. Mine had been stripped from me when I was turned out from the troop. This owner’s weapon was probably long gone, as the silver was tarnished and clearly ancient, and I wondered briefly if he or she had been Shadow or Light. Then I recalled the sense of being