“You think you’ve found Ms. West’s laboratory?” Trey glanced up at me from his spot on the designer sofa, his icy eyes narrowed in suspicion.
“Yep.” I pretended to toss my hair over my shoulder and struck a classic Courtney pose. My jaw clenched, but I managed to turn it up into what might’ve passed for a smile. “Frankly, I’m disappointed you’ve been here twenty years and never noticed it before. It’s so obvious.”
Quinn shuddered. “Don’t do that, Hazy. You’re giving me flashbacks.”
“So is it actually obvious?” Ayaz was on his hands and knees, hunting through one of the compartments under his bed. He pulled up a series of plans and maps.
I snorted. “Maybe? It’s big, and it’s around the main school buildings, but I’m not sure exactly where it was because we accessed it from a rickety dumbwaiter from the laundry. There weren’t any windows inside and it was freezing cold, so I believe it’s underground.”
Ayaz dropped his maps on the coffee table. He tried to brush his hand against mine, but I jerked away. I sifted through the stack and unrolled one that gave a three-dimensional cutaway of the dormitory building, showing details of underground servants quarters and storage rooms. “It’s around here, but… this isn’t accurate. None of these spaces have a curved roof.”
“You mean like an icehouse?” Ayaz asked.
“A what?”
“Some old houses would have a cold room or icehouse. Ice would be chipped from freshwater sources and shipped around the country, where it would be packed in special ice houses along with insulation like straw. For Parris to have one up here, the ice would have to be shipped from the nearest freshwater lake, which is a good hundred miles away. It would have been a real talking point among his circle of friends.” Ayaz swept his eyes over the drawings. “It would make sense to have it around here, near where the old kitchens were. There’s probably an entrance above-ground, too – where the workers would pack in the ice and straw without traipsing through the house.”
I bet that was the tunnel we crawled out.I squinted at the lines, but couldn’t see anything that resembled the complex I’d seen. “Is it strange that it isn’t on the map?”
“I honestly don’t know. This map wasn’t made during Parris’ tenancy, but about a couple hundred years later, when the building was being renovated to turn into a school. It’s possible there were rooms underground the workers and architects never found. But an icehouse would be the ideal place to have a laboratory – it would be naturally chilled, and being underground, it’s insulated from sound.”
“There were all these smaller rooms, with what looked like giant freezers inside,” I remembered. “But they were locked. She must keep a key somewhere.”
“She’s not going to let that key out of her sight,” Ayaz said. “It’s probably on her person.”
“We have a very easy way to get under her clothes, right?” A knife twisted in my gut at the thought of Ayaz with the Deadmistress, but I had to remind myself that I couldn’t care now. Not knowing that Ayaz had been a part of what was going on downstairs.
Ayaz’s face darkened. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. She doesn’t tell me anything.”
“I’m not surprised. You’re not exactly a pillow talker. Isn’t that right, Hazy?” Quinn looked at me. A hot blush crept over my cheeks. If Quinn only guessed at the truth about me and Ayaz, he knew now. And his expression…
He lookedhurt.
But why would he even care if I slept with Ayaz? Quinn didn’t care about me, not really. He was all about living in the moment, about chasing the next big thrill, without a care for who got hurt in the process. And I was the ultimate thrill – the forbidden fruit. I thought all this, and yet seeing those amber eyes look away tore me up inside in ways I didn’t understand.
I wanted badly to trust them. Part of me still did, but… but… the stub of Sadie’s ruined tongue burned into my skull.
“She hasn’t… called on me since the first quarter,” Ayaz muttered, avoiding my eyes.
I hated how relieved I was to hear that.
“So?” Quinn crossed his feet on the table, putting a giant crease right through the middle of Ayaz’s map. “Go to her. Work your Turkish mojo and riffle through her pockets when she’s in the bathroom.”
“Don’t you think I’ve already done that?” Ayaz gritted his teeth. “She’s too smart. She doesn’t trust any student, especially not one who’d sleep with a teacher.”
“But she’d have a spare key, right?” I said. “Evil geniuses don’t accidentally lock themselves out of their lairs because they left the key in their other bra. Especially not Headmistress West. She wants a second copy ofeverything,just in case.”
“And we have a secret passage that leads right to her office,” Quinn declared, uncrossing and re-crossing his feet, screwing up the maps even worse. Ayaz balled his hands into fists. “And the most perfect distraction to lure West out of her office.”
“This isn’t a good idea,” Trey said. “If we locate this key, we risk West finding it missing and figuring out we’re trying to get into her lab. She’s going to know we want to destroy the god. Hazel’s deal will be off and all the charity cases will be fair game.”
At the words ‘charity cases,’ a chill ran down my spine.
“I agree with Trey,” Ayaz said. “There are risks.”
“You’re just saying that because you don’t want to put your dick into her again,” Quinn said.
“This might be our only shot,” I said. “I can’t believe you’re both chickening out. You know what’s at stake.”
