“You’re always a surprise, Hazy.” Quinn cocked an eyebrow at me. He stuck out his hand and pulled me through the door, crushing my body against his. My breath caught in my throat as he pressed his chest against mine, as his scent invaded my nostrils and his lips danced tantalizingly close to mine. The air between us crackled with fire.
“Mmmmm.” Quinn’s voice rumbled in my chest as he ran a finger over my lips. “You know, we could just skip the party altogether, go up to my room.”
It took all my self-control to tear my body from Quinn’s and dart away. With my face hidden from Quinn by the gloom of the corridor, I sucked in a deep breath, trying to get my pattering heart and flame-kissed skin under control. “Let’s hit the party. I’m dying to see the rich kids of Derleth trying to tap a keg without ruining their manicures.”
“Ladies choice. We’re going this way.” Quinn grabbed my hand and led me in the opposite direction, away from the stairs. At the end of the hall, he jiggled the handle on the last door until it opened. This room didn’t have a number scrawled on the door. Quinn picked something metal off the floor, and after a few flicks, a small flame inside an old-fashioned lantern leaped to life.
I gasped and staggered back, shocked by the fire, but after I moment I realized it was under control, of course it was, and my breathing calmed.
In the flickering light, I recognized the space as a mirror image of the room Loretta and I shared, except instead of beds and a desk and closet, there were old desks and boxes stacked around the walls. There was no window on the other end, only a tall mirror coated in dust.
Quinn went straight up to the mirror and slid his fingers under the frame. After a moment, the glass swung out into the room, revealing a set of dark stone steps twisting upward.
“Ladies first,” Quinn gestured with a bow.
A shiver ran down my spine. “Fuck no. Your favor was for a party, not stepping into Narnia.”
Quinn sighed. “It’s a secret passage. Old rich eccentric people like the family that built this house had them installed so they could escape if the Japanese invaded or some shit. It’ll drop us out near the party and I won’t have to sneak you through the halls with teachers on duty.”
Scritch-scritch-scritch, went the rats in the walls as they scurried along the roof and circled the walls of the tunnel.
I didn’t move. My mind raced with all the things that could go wrong if I stepped into that dark passage with Quinn.
“Come on, Hazy. We’re missing the party.”
“I’m not going first so that you can slam the door on me and leave me trapped in a hole in the wall.”Especially not with those rats scritch-scritch-scritching inside.
“You’re so paranoid.” Quinn stepped inside with the lantern, folding his bulk into the narrow space. He moved up two steps and then held his hand out for me.
“Gee, what reason would I have for being paranoid, I couldn’t even think.” Thinking about the shard in my pocket, I accepted his hand, climbing into the mirror. His fingers were hot against mine, sending a line of fire straight into my core.
Inside the cramped space, Quinn’s coconut-and-sugarcane scent rushed over me, tropical and tantalizing. The lantern light flickered in front of them, illuminating just enough to that I could see the curve of his ass in his designer jeans.
After twenty steps, we entered a narrow tunnel. The rough stone floor sloped downward. Somewhere in the distance, water dripped, and the air had a damp quality that made my sinuses itch. “This runs under the fields,” Quinn explained, holding the lantern high so that I could see as well.
I remembered what Ayaz had said, about Thomas Parris building secret caverns and tunnels into the bedrock beneath the house, so that his coven could meet in secret to perform their rituals. Was this one of them? A faint chill wafted over my bare neck, but it did nothing to quell the fire inside me ignited by Quinn’s touch.
We walked for what seemed like ages before I could see a faint dot of light. Quinn pulled me forward, and we exited the mouth of the cave. A freezing wind whipped up from below us, and I pressed my back against a rock face.
“Here’s the rule, if you use this tunnel, you’ve got to cover up the entrance,” Quinn swung a mess of vines and branches over the cave. “We don’t want anyone else finding it.”
“Who’s we?”
“Trey, Ayaz, and me. There are three secret tunnels that lead out of school. We’re the only ones who know about this one. And now you.”
Why was he sharing this with me? What made him think that he could trust me when his friends so obviously hated me? “Quinn, what is—”
He held a finger to his lips. “I know what you’re going to ask, Hazy. I’ll tell you one day, but it’s a long story. Tonight, we party.”
Confused, I let Quinn grip my hand and led me away from the cave entrance. “Where are we?” I asked, suddenly afraid. In front of me, there was only a narrow ledge. Below my feet, waves crashed against the cliffs below, the ocean rumbling through my bones, deep and resonant, like Ayaz’s voice.
“We’re on the eastern tip of the peninsula,” he said. “The eminent Thomas Parris created a pleasure garden here for his Bacchanalian orgies. You know about the history of the school?”
I nodded, then realized he wouldn’t be able to see me. “Yes. Ayaz told me, in a rare moment when he wasn’t scowling.”
“I wouldn’t take it personally. Ayaz scowls at everyone. Even Trey, and they’re practically brothers. So yeah, apparently, this Parris guy loved to party. Apparently, the shindigs here used to be out of this world. It’s said that they summoned all kinds of demons and dark things that terrorized the whole area. The school owns it now, of course, and we’re not supposed to go down here. It’s too dangerous, which of course is part of the appeal. Hold on. I’ve got you.” His hand tight around mine, Quinn made his way down the narrow path. I kept my eyes on my feet. One wrong move and I’d slide over the edge and dash myself across the rocks below.
Is that such a bad thing?
