The girls smile at each other while also trying not to appear as though they’re sizing each other up before Issy giggles and reaches out to Eve.
“Lovely to finally officially meet you.”
Eve relaxes and reaches back, “Thank you.”
Dahlia brings over the pot and sets it on a heat protector. “Eat,” she commands. She fills each bowl, the broth thick and red,floating with hunks of beans and potato. She hands one to Bam first, then Rhett, then me, then Eve. Last to Julian, who accepts it with a nod and nothing more.
I taste it. Spicy, but good. Bam eats with his hands, tearing hunks of bread and dunking them straight in, not caring that his fingers get stained orange. Rhett eats slow, one spoonful at a time, always watching Isolde. Eve takes a bite, makes a face, but keeps eating.
Dahlia wipes the counter, then finally sits. She doesn’t touch her soup.
Bam sets down his spoon and looks around the table. “We all know why we’re here, right?”
No one answers. He takes that as a yes and keeps going
“We’ve all had our dance with the Board. We’ve all had something taken, or broken, or fucking ruined. Except Jules, but yours is next. Now they want to parade the Hunt on campus, turn it into a fundraiser, make us look like circus animals for the Funders. That’s not happening.”
He waits for someone to say something, but no one does.
“We’re not animals,” Isolde says.
Julian lifts a brow. “You sure?”
She glares, but before she can speak, Eve interrupts.
“They’re going to use the gala footage. Show it to the donors. That’s why they humiliated me. They want the video for leverage. They want to prove the system works. That humiliation is as good as tactic as any to subdue someone.” She reaches into her jacket and pulls out a wad of papers. Each is covered in her handwriting. Names, numbers, arrows, slashes.
“When did you bring these?” I murmur.
“I wrote them from memory last night while you were showering, now shush.”
She lays them out on the table, smoothing them with shaking hands.
“These are every Funder and Board member I could track during my research. There are gaps, but there are also patterns. Look.”
She pushes the papers toward the center. Rhett leans in, scanning. Julian does the same, his face unreadable. Dahlia stands behind her chair, eyes darting from paper to paper, reading upside down.
Bam just waits.
I pull the nearest sheet. “What am I looking for?”
Eve taps it. “There’s a core five funders. Then, when half the Board was replaced, a new set came in, all attached to those funders somehow. Aunts, uncles, cousins. Each of the funders that I could get any research on has a record that has been… wiped. Their staff are a constant rotation. There is not a single one that has worked for a funder for more than a year. They all disappear. I checked the staff lists.”
Dahlia finally sits. “You’re saying the Board is colluding with the Funders to what?”
Eve raises her hands and shrugs. “Not sure. Maybe the Academy is more than just a front to raise corrupt little soldiers. Maybe it’s also a funnel of some sort.”
Bam grunts. “Maybe money laundering.”
“That would explain why the Vicious Kings were in on it.” Julian says.
I look at the spread of notes, the crumpled papers and the lines Eve has drawn between them. It’s a fucking map of who wants who dead, and how soon they plan to do it.
Julian flicks one napkin, then another. “There’s a pattern, yes, but it’s not enough for war.”
Rhett looks up, his eyes cold. “We don’t need war. We just need leverage.”
Eve is shaking, but she says, “We need to find the next runner. Get to her first. Then we take it apart from the inside.”
