Labyrinth Society Read Online Free Page B

of Dr. Tarpley's. Got killed in a plane crash on the way home from a dig in Greece."
    "And Devon?"
    "Devon's mum was Dr. Tarpley's secretary, years ago. Name was Jillian or Joanne. She left when she got pregnant with Dev and moved out west. Dr. Tarpley lost touch with her. But when Mrs. T. got wind she'd died, she tracked Dev down and brought her here."
    "You weren't one of her foster kids then?"
    "Me? Nah, I met Mrs. T. in London a while back when she got lost in the east end. I helped her out of a jam when she got her handbag nicked and—"
    "Nicked?"
    "You know, stolen," he said, impatiently, obviously not wanting to be interrupted in the middle of a story.
    I tried not to wince at the word stolen remembering back to the awful memory of my time with the Higgins's. Alex was too busy finishing his story to notice the look on my face.
    "… turned out she needed an assistant, and as it happened, I needed a job, and to get out of London. A beautiful partnership was formed."
    "Why'd you need to get out of London? What did you do?" I couldn't imagine what someone as adorable as Alex could have done wrong.
    "Sorry, luv." He seemed self-conscious. "I'm way too sober to tell you my story. Ask me again when you're twenty-one and I'll tell you over a pint. You're buying," he said, laughing. Little did he know I planned to hold him to it, even if it was nine long years away.
    We walked in silence for a few minutes, and I noticed the further into the labyrinth we got, the less noise from the outside I could hear. It made me feel a little light-headed.
    "You alright?" Alex gave me a strange look.
    "Yeah." But I wasn't so sure. "What about the girl who left?" I asked to change the subject. "Where'd she come from?" I hoped talking would make me feel better, because the last thing I wanted to do was to faint in front of Alex.
    "You mean Morgan Lake?"
    "I guess so. I overheard Devon say she's been gone for less than a month."
    Alex, who'd been Mr. Information up until now, suddenly clammed up and gave me a tight smile. He shrugged and it was like something closed behind his eyes.
    "Morgan was here for about a year. Not quite sure where she came from. Left when she turned eighteen. Nice kid, though, never a problem," he said in one long, breathless rush.
    "Oh, so she wasn't connected to the Tarpley family?"
    "Nah," he said, shaking his head. I was relieved. Hearing the other three girls had a personal family connection to the Tarpley's was making me feel like the odd girl out. Morgan Lake must have come from foster care like I had.
    "Where'd she go?"
    "Dunno." He walked ahead of me and around the next corner. I had to jog to catch up to him. Why didn't he want to talk about Morgan Lake?
    "Here we are," he said.
    We had reached the center of the labyrinth, which was square with stone benches all around the inside against the hedges. The center was paved with ancient-looking brick. It didn't match somehow, and I wondered if maybe the center section had originally been part of another garden. A small pond was in the center filled with greenish water. There were four bright round copper disks, one on each side of the pond, with strange symbols engraved on them. The sun glinted off the disks, blinding me momentarily and glinting off a ring Alex was wearing. It was the first time I noticed the ring. It was silver, with a half-inch wide square in the center. The design in the middle of the square was a familiar one. It was a labyrinth.
    Suddenly, the lightheadedness I had felt earlier grew stronger, and I swayed on my feet. The air felt charged with electricity. I smelled something hot and metallic and stinking like rotten eggs. The world started spinning, and I pitched forward towards the pond. The water was glowing. I was being sucked into it. I started screaming. Alex was calling my name, and his strong hands were pulling me backwards. Then everything went black.
    ****
    When I woke up it was dark outside, and I was in bed. Someone had put a