“And?” Damon prompted.
Vincent stared pointedly at the fire in the hearth.
“Out with it, man.” The senator boomed.
“It’s simple. You all know what I’m proposing,” Vincent shrugged. “They all need to die. It is what was supposed to happen in the beginning. We’re simply finishing the job. They die and we use that power to break the god free from his cage. Then all the world will be ours for the taking.”
“But Quinn…” Elena’s hands flew to her mouth.
“He’s been dead for twenty years,” Vincent snapped. “Don’t cry over him now.”
She gulped back her sobs as Vincent raised his glass. A trickle of blood flowing over his knuckles. “I ask for a vote. Who is ready to close Derleth Academy for good?”
Once again, hands shot in the air – parents who were supposed to love their children barely even pausing to think before agreeing to kill them. The vote was unanimous. Even Quinn’s mother had her hand in the air while she wiped away her tears.
Vincent glanced at a gold watch on his wrist. “I’ll make the arrangements. We should take our seats. The show will be starting soon. Remember, keep smiling. The last thing we want is the kids getting wind of any of this.”
Heads bent together, murmuring and steadying their old bodies against each other, the Eldritch Club members exited the room. Vincent was the last to leave, closing the door behind him with a loud and finalCLICK.
I let out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. My leg ached from kneeling in the cramped space. I turned to Quinn, gesturing for him to start moving. We had to get all the way back to the classroom wing to sneak backstage before the show started.
But Quinn didn’t move. He didn’t seem to have noticed me at all. He stared out at the empty room with glassy eyes. His body rigid, his heart in tatters.
He’s just heard his mother give up on him.
“Quinn.” I jiggled his thigh. “Quinn.”
Still nothing.
I snapped my fingers in front of his face. He didn’t even blink.
I held my hand out, palm up, and stoked the fire inside me. It wasn’t difficult after everything we’d just heard to drag up a hot rage. A tall flame shot from my palm, nearly touching the ceiling of the passage.
That got his attention. Quinn leaped away, his eyes like saucers. In the flickering light, I could see the vein bulging on his neck.
“Fuck, Hazy.” He clutched a hand to his chest. “You scared me.”
“Yeah, well, you scared me, going all still and silent like that.” I dropped the flame down to a tiny flicker, just large enough to light our way back.
Quinn raised his hand, cupping it around the flame as if warming his palm against a chill. He stared into that light for a long time. By now, my leg was screaming, the old burn agitated by the cramped conditions. I opened my mouth to tell him to move when he broke the silence first.
In a hard, cold voice that didn’t sound like his own, he said, “I hope you burn them all.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
We scrambled back down the passage and crawled out into the pod. Then it was a twenty-minute walk back through the forest to the tunnel, and then out into the basement. The whole way, Quinn didn’t say a word or try to pinch my ass. That worried me more than anything.
Please, don’t let this break him.
I wouldn’t blame him if it did, but I needed him tonight. Now more than ever, we needed every student of Miskatonic Prep to see what their parents had done to them.
When we reached my old room, I was relieved to find it empty, all our bags of props gone. Quinn and I peeled off our sweaty clothes and changed into black from head-to-toe. I picked up my backpack with my supplies and slung it over my shoulder.
“When you first suggested this, I kept trying to think of ways to pull my mother aside so she didn’t have to see it,” he said, his jaw tight. “Now I hope she has a front-row seat.”
Good.I gripped his shoulder. “I’m sorry you had to find out like this, but it’s better you know. What they did isn’t okay. We’ll make them see that.”
That’s my promise to you. Whatever happens tonight, they will suffer for what they’ve done to you.
