Yes, I can hear you.But I couldn’t seem to speak. Or move.
“I think she’s out cold.” Quinn stroked my cheek.That feels nice, too. “Her breathing’s ragged, but regular. She doesn’t have a fever or anything.”
“That’s a good sign,” Ayaz said. “It means they didn’t reach her mind.”
What didn’t reach my mind? I grasped for consciousness, but it was a losing battle. I faded further into sleep, unable to speak or move, unsure if their words were real or part of a dream.
“We should tell her the truth,” Quinn said. “She’s tough. She’s handled all that shit you bozos did to her. She can handle this.”
“Us bozos?” The smirk in Trey’s voice was unmistakable. “If I recall,youwere the one who lured her to that party.”
“Don’t talk about that party,” Quinn growled.
“You think she can handle the truth?” Ayaz muttered, his voice so dark it forced a shiver through my body. “You want to look into the void and claim that?”
“Whoa, cool it, I’m just making a suggestion.” I imagined Quinn with his hands up in a gesture of surrender, his eyes with that mischievous glint that said yes, he meant every word. “You’d know better than me, Charity Boy.”
“I told you not to call me that,” Ayaz growled. “I earned my place here, which is more than you can say.”
“Can you both shut the fuck up?” That was Trey. “Of course we’re not going to tell her anything. She’ll just think we’re bullshitting her and do something even more dangerous.”
“Her mother was killed in a fire,” Ayaz whispered. “And her best friend, too. Do we think that’s a coincidence?”
There was silence for a few moments, and then Trey said, “It doesn’t matter. We’ve seen what they’re capable of. And now she’s caught their eye, and Courtney’s out for her blood. I don’t think we’ll be able to protect Hazel for much longer, especially not if she goes around telling people about Miskatonic Prep.”
“She’s good at keeping secrets,” Quinn said. “I didn’t know about the fire.”
“That’s because you never read her file.”
“Of course I didn’t. Reading is for nerds like you.”
“Her whole apartment building burned down in suspicious circumstances,” Trey said, his voice breathy. “According to the statement she gave police, some kids from a gang were threatening her friend, Homer or Milton or someone. They’d stolen something from him and she got into a brawl with them. The friend ran to Hazel’s apartment to tell her mother like a fucking coward. The gang followed him, and someone threw a molotov cocktail that got out of control, burned the building down.”
That’s not what happened. That’s not—
“She went after a wholegang?” Quinn whistled. “That sounds like our Hazy.”
“Except it doesn’t explain why she had burns all over he hands,” Trey said. “As if she was the one who started the fire.”
There was a few moments of silence, where I almost drifted away, then Quinn said, “What was she saying about following someone into the storage room?”
“I’ve looked in all those boxes,” Trey said. “There’s no newspaper clippings.”
“Well, she wasn’t lying. How else did she know about Miskatonic?”
“This person she said she saw, they must have planted them there. It’s like they led Hazel into that room, like they wanted her to know.”
“You know what I’m thinking,” Quinn said. “I think it’s Zehra—”
“No.” Ayaz growled. “It’s not.”
“But couldn’t it—”
“Zehra isgone,” Ayaz practically whispered, his voice choked with pain. “It’s not her.”
What are they talking about?Who’s Zehra? What…but I couldn’t finish the thought before I slipped into darkness.
Chapter Thirty
