^^Above, some more Sellings - Left: Charlie Hunnam as Solomon Selling; Right: Ruby Stokes (pictured in Lockwood & Co.) as Marjorie Selling.^^
The Zombi-Hunting Primer
Published by the Association of British Supernatural Hunters
This Primer is the Property of: Byron Gifford
14 April, afternoon. — Father summons me to his office almost immediately after my last lecture finishes. Over the last few days I was sure he'd find out someone had been messing about in his desk. Or, alternately, he found out already and was just waiting for the right moment to bring it up.
"Perhaps you would like to explain something to me, Langdon," he says, once he motions me inside and orders that I sit in one of the hard wooden chairs in front of his desk. "My anti-theft device was not the way I left it."
"It wasn't?" I try for innocence. "Surely that's not right, Father."
"I am never careless, Langdon." He slams his palm on his blotter, making me jump. "I know exactly how it looked when I left. And it was different when I returned."
"Father—"
"It was you, wasn't it?" His eyes narrow, and the candlelight flashes off the lenses of his spectacles. "You got in here. Did you find anything useful?"
I want to say Yes, I did, and I know you want me to kill my best friend. But that doesn't come out. Instead, what does, is: "It was a dare. My mates made me. Seaton especially. You know how he is."
"A dare, hmm?" Father's eyebrows go up.
"Yes, Father." I nod. I'm glad I asked them to corroborate my story beforehand, so if Father interrogates them separately, our stories will line up. "Stupid, really. A lark. Won't happen again, I swear."
He seems almost ready to believe me. And I think he nearly does, until he asks the next question.
"Then how would your friends explain this?"
He's holding up something long, silver and pointed. It's Naomi's iron dagger, one of two I'd always seen her carrying around. I can't let on that I recognise it.
"Isham probably dropped it. He's always losing things."
"I would believe you, Langdon, except for one thing." Father's eyes narrow again, and suddenly, without warning, he stabs the dagger downward, into the wood of the desk in front of me with a sudden chunk. "What does it say on the blade, near the hilt?"
I lean forward and wriggle the dagger free, squinting down at the faint etching in the metal. At first I can't tell what it is, but then it forms a familiar name: Hudson.
"I find it interesting that your friends would have a Hudson blade and leave it carelessly lying about for someone to find," Father says, voice soft and dangerous. "How did they get it, may I ask?"
My mind races, refusing to come up with an answer.
"Langdon?" Father demands.
"I must have left it," I say quickly, the words rushing from me. "After that last time at Lord Grafton's...I met the Hudsons there. I've been meaning to return it, but I haven't seen them since then."
"I see." Father's tone is indecipherable. "I never would have thought you that irresponsible."
"Sorry, Father." That's all he ever hears from me. Sorry sorry sorry. "I'll return it. Soon as I see them again."
YOU ARE READING
Thrill of the Chase (Hunters & Heartbreakers 1)
Historical Fiction(✔️) Langdon Wilkes is a reluctant - and somewhat bumbling - hunter. But because his father is the headmaster of the Institute of Paranormal Study and Prevention, just as every Wilkes before him, he hardly has a choice. That is, until he runs into...
