“That seems fair.” He tapped his foot impatiently while I pulled on leggings and sneakers. I looped my arm in his and he led me down to the storage room, threw open the mirror door, and climbed inside the secret passage. “Come on.”
“Is it another party?”
“There is a party, but you’re not invited. Come on.” He gave my arm an impatient tug, the fear rising in his voice. He wrapped his long body around the wall and shoved me ahead of him, probably to stop me from running back to my room.
“I can’t see a thing,” I complained.
“Here.” Ayaz shoved the lantern into my hands. I held it up, watching the flames dance along the bare stone walls. My ears rang as I remembered flames leaping out of the windows of our apartment building as the heat exploded the glass, licking at the fire escape the way any touch from the Kings sent heat coursing through my veins. Fire destroyed my family. Fire turned this school into a funeral pyre. Fire made me want my bullies. Fire followed me everywhere, burning my life to ashes.
Is that…my gaze flicked to a thin vein running through the stone – an iridescent light my eyes couldn’t quite focus on, that was gone as quickly as it appeared. It looked just like the veins in the cavern I saw in my dream.
But that couldn’t be possible, because it was adream. That cavern wasn’t a real place.
Ayaz nudged me in the back. “Faster. We’ve got to get out before they know you’re missing.”
“Who’s they? Trey and Quinn?” Was Ayaz trying to rescue me from what the others had planned? That might make sense. After all, he was in my position once, the victim of the games the Kings and Queens liked to play. Maybe he felt they had gone too far. He had given me that warning about Trey at the party, even though it was as good as useless in the end.
“I’ll explain it all, I promise. But not now. Go, go!”
I ducked low and scrambled out of the cave. Salty wind blew up from the ocean, biting my face as it roared along the cliffs. I hugged my arms, glad I’d thought to put on the hoodie.
Ayaz pointed down the path. “Go.”
I picked my way along the path I’d traveled with Quinn only a few weeks ago, hugging the side of the cliff. After a few minutes, we emerged into the flat terrace where the party had been held. Only this time there was no music or laughter or clinking of glasses, no students making out between the crumbling pillars or bobbing in the steamy grotto. I listened hard, but couldn’t even hear an owl or other night creature. Only the steady crash of the waves.
“Quickly. Down here. They’re waiting.” Ayaz gestured to the edge of the cliff. I was about to tell him to fuck off, I wasn’t getting that close to the edge with him, when I noticed the narrow set of steps carved into the rock.
“What’s down there?” I demanded.
“Your way out.”
My knees locked.This is it. I’d gone this far trusting Ayaz’s vague warnings. If he thinks I’ll walk down the precarious steps of doom without answers, he can eat a bag of dicks.
I backed away from the ledge. “Hell no.”
Ayaz must’ve sensed that I’d come as far as I could, because he grabbed my hand, twisting me so I had to look into his eyes. There was a wildness there, a panic that was so completely out of character it gave me pause. “Look, Hazel. Courtney and Tillie and the others… they’re going to do something to you tonight. It’s really awful, and we can’t stop them. So we’re getting you out of here.”
He blinked, his eyes darting away.He’s lying to me. Maybe not about the danger, but definitely about where it was coming from.
“Why should I trust you?” I demanded. “You’re lying to me right now.”
Ayaz rolled his eyes at the sky, as if begging for strength. When he spoke again, his voice was softer than I’d ever heard it. ‘You’re right. We’ve given you absolutely no reason to trust us. You’re right about a lot of things, Hazel. We should never have let you leave the way you did. You hit a nerve with those things you said.”
“I… did?”
He nodded. “I can’t speak for the other two, but you’re got me pegged. Judging by the way Trey went all quiet and Quinn was pissed as hell, I think you nailed them, too. So yeah, maybe some poor girl from the gutter knows us better than we know ourselves, andmaybethat same girl is in some serious danger and we want to help her. Now, will you hurry up and move, because there’s a chance they might look for you out here.”
Far below, waves smashed against the cliffs. Salt spray misted the steps. I held the lantern out in front of me, using my other arm to steady myself on the cliff, and stepped down.
I moved slowly, because the steps were narrow and slippery from sea spray, and the lantern only illuminated a small circle in front of me. The trees overhead sheltered the staircase from the moon as it curved around the cliff. I peered up, but couldn’t see anything through the thick branches.
“Here she comes,” a voice called up from the gloom.Quinn. My stomach tightened again. I was down here alone with the three Kings. The only thing I had on me for protection was that piece of glass. If they did something to me, no one would find me.
I should have told Greg where I was going. Fuck.
I yelped as something grazed my arm. A warm hand curled around my arm. “Watch out,” Trey said. “That last step is a big one.”
My foot slipped on wet rock and I fell into Trey’s arms. He gathered me up and steadied me while I caught my breath. I held up the lantern and stared into the gloom. “Where are we?”
