Ninth House By Leigh Bardugo Novels & Stories

Was it already too late? Caitlin extracted the loose, torn page from the book, and held it in her hands. She stared at it, knowing that she couldn’t let this go. She had to find the other half. She felt guilty, holding it there like that, with both her hands, out in the open, when every instinct in her, a rare book scholar, told her that the page should be protected, inserted back into the book it came from. But she couldn’t help it. Scarlet’s life was at stake here. As she held the page, she realized she could not let it go. She had to steal this page, take it with her, out of the library, and then do whatever she could to find the other half.

"Time to come home." **END OF CHAPTER NINE**

Even as my skin burns and itches under all that punishment. Punishment I’m not expecting to stop suddenly, but it does. And that’s because Nora decides to run her hands over her handiwork. Her nails through each hot area. She drags her nails all the way down my back. My body bows, and I present myself to her. The dull pain at her touch chills my skin and raises every hair on my body. At my ass, she dares to scratch. Leave her mark on me. I shiver excitedly under this but say nothing or move. I keep my hands planted to the wall, though they want to wrap around my engorged cock and stroke until I come.

Her face was soft and pretty, the kind of face people compared to a lily. But her eyes were sharp and calculating. And her smile made the hair on my arms stand up. I couldn't exactly refuse, so I let her walk me down the corridor. The second we reached the bathroom door, she leaned in close, her breath warm against my ear. "Ada, want to make a little bet with me? Let's both fall down at the same time. We'll see who Professor cares about more." Her stiletto came down on my broken leg. Pain ripped through me. I went white, cold sweat sheeting down my back, and I crumpled onto the floor.

“There’s a safehouse not far from here. We rest, then we talk.” Elior barely listened as they moved through the darkened forest. His body still burned, not from pain, but from something more terrifying—raw power coiled beneath his skin, waiting. And for the first time, he wasn’t sure if he feared it… or craved it. The safehouse was a forgotten ruin, half-buried in the roots of an ancient tree. Time had eaten away at the stone, but it still stood, hidden from prying eyes. Inside, it was cold, the air thick with dust and old magic.

Furniture overturned, books scattered, and in the centre of the living room, a young woman with copper hair sat bound to a chair, very much alive but gagged with what appeared to be silver silk. "Kayla," Casie breathed, immediately moving forward. "Wait." Nathaniel's hand on her arm stopped her progress. "This is too easy. The Sparrow doesn't leave witnesses." Rick was already scanning the room's corners, his newly enhanced senses picking up details his human eyes might have missed. "There, behind the bookshelf. Someone's hiding."

During my three-year-old son's preschool physical, his blood type didn't match mine or my wife's. I had just printed the divorce papers when I suddenly heard my son's voice. [This disgusting man is so stupid. He's raised me, his own little brother, as his son for years and still has no idea!] [Lol, hurry up and get divorced. Once they divorce, I can cling openly to my real mom!] [And divorced men are unwanted anyway. From now on, every dollar he earns will be mine!] My wife was still anxiously explaining, "Honey! I really never betrayed you! Do you really want a divorce?" I looked at my son's tightly closed lips and excited eyes, then tore up the divorce papers instead. "No divorce. S

“Derrick. “Lock her in the storage room and let her think about what she has done. “Until Sheila comes back, she is not coming out.” Without a word, Derrick grabbed me with one hand, dragged me away, and threw me into the storage room. The door locked from the outside. The world became silent. The wound on my forehead would not stop bleeding, and blood kept dripping from my nose. In the darkness, I wiped it away again and again until I no longer had the strength to lift my hand. I did not know how much time had passed when the system’s voice finally sounded again.

"Shit, you've got to be kidding me." I wait in the ceiling hoping that by waiting I can give myself a pretty good distance between them and myself. I hear the tapping of nails coming back towards me, I sit there waiting and then a black dog jumps into the ceiling breaking through the sheetrock. It falls back down to the floor, I can see the hallway clearly as the girl is standing, looking into the hole. Her eyes now pitch black, her body grown taller, bugs climbing into her mouth and in her skin. "Found you!"

Her fingers hovered over the cover before she finally opened it. The name at the top of the page wasn’t Delilah. It wasn’t anyone she recognized. But Alec’s voice was a low whisper behind her. “She’s part of the Nine.” Zara’s head snapped up. “The Nine? That’s a myth.” “No,” Alec said, leaning close. “It’s not. It’s real. And Juliette’s just the first pawn. The rest of them? They want something far more dangerous than your father.” “What?” “You.”