“I’ll help you study. Here, look at this.” Quinn grabbed my plate and sculpted my pile of crispy bacon into a pyramid.
“Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to play with your food?” I growled, whipping a piece of bacon from his hand before he could add it to the stack.
“My mother taught me all sorts of things.” Quinn waggled his eyes.
“You’re disgusting.”
Greg tipped the salt shaker on its side and placed it at the entrance of the tomb. “Here’s the mummy off to its final resting place.”
“Don’t you start.” Greg and Quinn cracked up laughing. They’d been getting along really well together lately, especially since we hardly ever saw Andre. Pity Quinn didn’t have eyes for Greg – they’d make a cute couple and it would get him off my case about the girlfriend thing.
I’d never been anyone’s girlfriend before, and I wasn’t going to start with Quinn Delacorte. Although it was tempting. I still got a jolt of fire down my spine every time he touched me, and Ineededmore of his kisses in my life. But I knew he only wanted to go out with me because it would stir up trouble, and… my lips still burned from Ayaz’s touch in the grotto. And Trey… the way he looked at me sometimes, like he was trying to see into my soul…
I needed to sort out my own feelings before I agreed to beanyone’sgirlfriend. Especially since I was clearly crazy in the head for falling for not one but all three of my bullies. There were more important things to focus on right now, like my imminent sacrifice to the Great Old God beneath the gym.
Ayaz and I had been translating spells and reading occult books every spare minute, but we were no closer to figuring out what the god was and how to send it back into its void. Every day without answers was a day closer to the end of the year, when the god would come to collect. I’d made it my mission to break the hold the god had on this school and find a way to give the whole student body their lives back.
But today, today wasn’t about saving the undead. It was about making them pay.
As I wrestled what remained of my breakfast off Quinn and Greg, a faint noise reached my ears. At first I thought it was the toaster on the buffet acting up, but then I realized that it was coming from the wall behind us. The unmistakable scritch-scritch of rat claws.
That’s the second time I’ve heard them outside of the dungeon and the gym.I glanced around, but no one else seemed to have noticed. The din of the dining hall nearly completely obscured the noise unless you knew what you were listening to. I shrugged and went back to my food. Rats in the walls were just part of life here. Who cared it they were migrating around the school? Maybe it would do these spoiled rich kids good to encounter some rodents.
I forgot all about the scritching as we left the dining hall and headed toward the lockers. Andre dashed past me in a hurry to get to the breakfast buffet before it closed. His body brushed against mine and something cold dropped into my blazer pocket. A key.
The master key for the student dorms.
He came through for me. I knew he would.
The school day dragged on. I watched the clock like a hawk, counting down the minutes until the final bell. Even then, I had to wait. Rehearsals started immediately after the final bell. Today we were in the main auditorium, blocking some of the musical numbers. For the first time since learning our parts and lines, Trey and I would be together on stage.
The production was an original written by Dr. Halsey with the help of several drama students, including Courtney. It was obvious from the first reading that my part had been written with Courtney in mind. It was a rags-to-riches story with a love triangle, which seemed ludicrous in this school where everyone believed you were who you were born as. I played a waitress with ambitions to be a fashion designer, and I was been fought over by two guys – a rich all-American hero type, played by Greg, and a dangerous biker from ‘the hood,’ played by Trey.
Despite all the problematic aspects of the script, the songs were great and I loved dueting with Trey. As soon as he stepped on stage, his whole body changed. All his sharp edges ironed out, and the muscles in his face unclenched. Just for those few moments under the lights, he got to become someone else.
And that someone just happened to be locked in a passionate dance with my character.
We spun around the stage, the song rising in intensity as he lunged at me and I leapt out of the way, and then I chased him down and he’d hide. It was a dance of seduction, where our hearts and minds clashed against each other as our characters battled their own demons. Behind us, a row of backup dancers led by Courtney mimicked some of our movements to heighten the tension.
As I lunged at Trey during the first verse, his eyes widened and I really believed – just for a second – that he would rock forward and grab me. But he executed the steps flawlessly, spinning away and singing his lines about how he wasn’t good enough, how he’d ruin me. And then it was his turn to come after me.
He leapt across the stage, landing on his knees and sliding toward me. Under the stage lights, his dark hair looked like dusk, bursting with flecks of starlight. Those blue eyes turned up to me, broad arms held wide, and his voice broke as he sang his last, mournful line.
My breath hitched.
My heart pattered.
Heat pooled in my core.
This isn’t real. He’s acting.
But it didn’t feel like an act. It felt like Trey Bloomberg’s mask was starting to crumble.
I don’t know how I managed to get my next line out, but I sang it in a daze, my eyes locked on his, a million unspoken things passing between us. Trey grabbed me by the hips and lifted me over his head for our finale, tossing me into the air like a leaf on the breeze. His hands on me lit a blaze that burned long after he’d set me down and the wave of applause from our fellow cast members washed over us.
“Congratulations, you two,” Dr. Halsey beamed. “That was perfect.”
The only people who didn’t look happy as we climbed off stage were Courtney and Tillie. I could feel their scowls on the back of my neck as I settled into the front row of seats to watch the next scene.
