Kai nods once, watching me, watching the way I process it.
“No one knows where he came from,” Beatrice picks up, folding one leg over the other. “No connections to any of the usual families, no ties to the school outside of the job itself.”
Will stretches his legs out in front of him, adjusting his camera as he does so. “His record isperfect, too,” he adds, voice light, flippant. “Almost too perfect. No gaps, no red flags, no past jobs worth mentioning. He just appeared one day.”
That unsettles me more than I want to admit.
Because Brentwood isn’t the kind of school you just walk into. It’s old money, it’s legacies, names that have been there for decades. Everyone is connected—the teachers included. They know the students’ parents, their uncles, theirgrandparents.
But Dominic Anderson?
Nothing.
That’s not justweird. That’s just wrong.
I exhale, pushing a strand of hair behind my ear. “That doesn’t mean he’s guilty of anything.”
Kai nods, slowly, like he’s acknowledging the point but not necessarily agreeing with it. “No.”
Then, out of nowhere—
“The Foundry.”
My breath catches.
I don’t even have time to think, toprocess, before my body reacts first—shoulders stiffening, fingers curling just slightly into my palm. And what’s worse is that Kai sees it. Ofcoursehe sees it.
His head is tipped back against the tree, but his eyes stay locked on mine, watching—waiting.
I swallow. My voice barely comes out.
“H-how?”
Lilia’s voice cuts through the moment, abrupt and confused as she looks from me to Kai. “What are you talking about?”
There’s athunkfrom above.
I glance up, and of course Liam has climbed back into the tree, despite almost cracking his skull open not even ten minutes ago. He’s hanging upside down from a lower branch now, his eyes narrowed.
“How ominous,” he muses, then his gaze flicks sideways, landing on Kym. “Don’t you think, Kymmy?”
I barely have time to register what he’s just done before Kym turns slowly, her glare so lethal I’m momentarily concerned it might manifest into something physical.
Liam, to his credit, doesn’t flinch. If anything, his grin widens.
Kym, on the other hand, looks like she’s contemplating murder.
I briefly consider stepping in—not out of concern for Liam’s feelings, but for hislife.A part of me thinks there’s no way someone as elegant as Kym would actually push him, but there’s another part of me (the bigger part) that wouldn’t put it past her.
And judging by the way her fingers flex at her sides, she’s at least considering it.
Liam, blissfully unaware (or painfully aware and just enjoying himself), swings his leg again, completely unbothered.
I glance between them, half-expecting to have to break up an actual homicide.
“Liam,” I say slowly. “Maybe don’t push your luck.”
He blinks innocently at me, and I roll my eyes.
