Tabitha’s POV

“What the hell do you think you’re doing here?” Luca’s voice barrels into me before I can even pretend to be innocent.

I spin around, startled, my hand still wrapped around the rusted gate lock. My heart thuds as I find all four of them standing there, surrounding me, their expressions unreadable but far from amused. It feels like I’ve been caught committing treason, not just snooping around a dusty wing of the estate.

“I— I was just reading,” I stammer. “It’s a library.”

“Right,” Luca says, a biting edge to his voice. “And you just accidentally wandered into the one section of the library that's locked.”

I...