Trey sat up, his jaw tightening. He wasn’t going to be dissuaded. “Hazel, you have to tell me what happened. Last time I saw you, you swung out my window like a monkey. You were going to see Zehra and tell her about Ms. West’s lab. How did you end up at Dunwich?”
“What happened was that Ayaz betrayed me.” I told Trey everything that happened, from the cave-in to what went down in Ms. West’s office, how they told me that I was emotionally unstable, that I’d been bullying other students and pretending the three Kings were my boyfriends.
“They wanted me to believe it. They’ve been planning this for some time. Ever since Quinn and I overheard that conversation between your fathers and Mrs. Haynes and Ms. West, I’ve been having these vivid dreams. I didn’t say anything because I assumed it was just a side effect of the god’s interest in me… but now I think it was part of your father’s plan to deal with me. They wanted me to doubt my sanity, so… achievement unlocked. I thought I was nuts until you turned up in my dream. Thanks for that, by the way. You pray almost as good as you fuck.”
Trey jabbed me in the breastbone with the tip of his finger. “I think that was allyourdoing – you and the god have some kind of connection. That’s why you keep seeing all this stuff when you sleep. I just got caught in the middle.”
I snorted. “Yeah, well, the god likes to mess with my dreams, but I don’t think that makes me special. Greg had nightmares all last quarter after his run-in with your deity.”
Trey shrugged. “Yet another mystery we can’t solve. Go back to your story. You saw my father at Dunwich?”
“No. I went to the Grand Hotel in Arkham. He’s staying there. I listened outside while he told the doctor who treated me at Dunwich it was his job to find me. He admitted he masterminded the whole thing.” Trey looked flabbergasted at what I’d done. I leaned back and flashed him a smile, a little bit proud I’d managed to render him speechless. I decided not to tell Trey what I would’ve done if the bellhop hadn’t shown up. “What I can’t figure out is why Ayaz went along with it or how they managed to dothis.”
I rolled back my sleeve to show Trey my wrist, where the tattoo had disappeared.
My skin tingled where Trey’s fingers grazed it. He turned my wrist over, his beautiful lips twisting into a frown. “Your tattoo is gone.”
“Yup.”
“This I don’t understand. How can a tattoo just disappear?”
“I’ve asked myself the same question every day since. It was on my wrist when I went into the exam room. I remember seeing it when I was throwing stones at Quinn’s window. But when Ayaz grabbed my wrist in Ms. West’s office, it was gone.”
I thought I was crazy. I touched my fingers to the burn on my wrist, to remind myself that I as much as I wanted to spill my feelings to Trey, the dark secrets I carried needed to stay buried deep. I bit back the words that threatened to leave my lips.You’re the one who brought me back to reality and made me realize that everything had been an illusion. You’re a beautiful, dead boy, and you’re the only thing in my life that feels real.
Trey bit his lower lip. He peered closer. “This looks as though it’s been lasered off. See, there’s a burn here—”
His fingers grazed the scar on my wrist. I whipped my hand away. “Not that. That’s old.”
Trey sighed. “Hazel, Iknowthat scar is old. You touch it every time something happens you don’t want to deal with. I’m talking about the scar next to it. Look for yourself.”
I held up my wrist to my face, squinting at my skin in the light. There was the scar from the fire, but I couldn’t see…
No, wait… there it was, just a tiny discoloration at the edge of my scar. It wasn’t there before I’d gone to Dunwich, I was sure of it. I’d stared at this wrist enough times to know.
“But… isn’t laser painful? How could they have done that to me at school without me noticing?”
Trey’s eyes darkened as he considered it. “Shit, okay. I might know. At Dunwich, they gave you drugs, right?”
“Ooooh yeah. All kinds of drugs. Enough to make a Philly dealer weep.”
“Maybe they knocked you out with drugs when you got there and you were under long enough for them to permanently remove the tattoo? If they had already decided to do that, it would just be a matter of tricking you for a couple of minutes in Ms. West’s office.”
I frowned. “Correct.”
“Well, I was backstage at rehearsal getting some touch-ups a week before this shit went down. Ms. West came around, talking to students, seeing how the production was going. I overheard her asking Lauren about the stage makeup. She specifically asked if it was heavy enough to cover dark features like tattoos. Do you think it’s possible someone in that room could have swiped your wrist with makeup without you noticing?”
I remembered the orderlies lunging at me and my frantic fight to escape. Once Ayaz walked into the room, they could’ve swiped makeup on my wrist or even cut off my whole arm and I wouldn’t even have noticed. “I can’t believe Ayaz would do that to me. He knew it was all lies.”
“Not Ayaz.” Trey’s jaw set hard. “This is all my father’s doing.”
But I know your father is evil. Ayaz was supposed to be my… was supposed to care about me. “Why would Ayaz help him?”
“I don’t know.” A darkness crossed Trey’s eyes. “He won’t talk to me or Quinn. We’re bottom feeders now, stripped of our standing and all our privileges, and he’s top of the school. He’s been trailing around after Courtney like her personal lap dog ever since you left. I can’t get close to him without the other monarchs fending me off.”
“What about Quinn? Is he okay?”
“He’s fine.” The set of Trey’s jaw told me there was something he wasn’t telling me. My stomach tightened. “He’s been more helpful than normal. He’s holding down the fort at school while I try to find you.”
