Talon leans in, brushing hair from my face. “You’ll call?”
I ignore him, because even if I say yes, he will inevitably text me fifty times.
Zane nudges me toward the doors, but Dredyn’s voice stops us. “Get her inside, safe.”
Zane turns. “Always do. She’smygirl.”
For once, Dredyn doesn’t rise to it. But Zane is beaming with pride at knocking the boys down a peg.
Only when the dorm door closes behind me do I feel the pressure lift. Zane walks me up to my floor, not pushing, just existing beside me like a weight I didn’t know I needed. At my door, he finally speaks. “You don’t have to tell me,” he says softly. “But you’re not okay.”
“It just doesn’t make sense. The Syndicate wouldn’t have allowed this. AGU is supposed to be a safe space for us.”
“I’ll ask Valen about it when I get in my dorm and can call him.”
“Are you still fucking my brother’s best friend?”
“Is there a rule against it?”
“No. Just… weird. Because he’s basically my brother.”
“Well, both of your brothers are hot.”
Then he wraps me in a hug that’s strong and brief and just long enough to remind me I’m not alone. After I step inside, I lock the door and let the silence crush me.
I turn and press my back to the door, but the moment I stop moving, it all caves in. My knees buckle. I slide to the floor, arms around my legs, breathing like I’ve just survived a car crash.
Because maybe I have.
I kissed two monsters tonight.
I let them touch me.
I touched them back.
And I liked it.
And while I was busy unraveling, a boy died outside.
My body still buzzes from Talon’s mouth, and Dredyn’s stare is tattooed on the inside of my skull, but all I see is death.
What if this wasn’t the Syndicate?
But if it wasn’t them—if Toby’s death was random, or personal, or some rogue act outside their control—my father will step in. He’ll pull me from AGU before I can blink. I’ll be packed off to some all-girls political finishing school in Geneva and ghosted from the map until November four years from now.
He won’t let me be here with a murderer on the loose. Not with his name on every headline.
And if I disappear now… what happens to Jasper? To Dredyn? To everything I’ve started to feel?
TWENTY-TWO
MARA
My father stands behind Milo’s desk in the PTO house, his back to me, gazing out the tall glass window that looks over the grounds behind the house. Milo lounges against a bookshelf with his arms crossed. I can tell he’s pissed at me by the muscle ticking in his jaw. He’s furious, though whether it’s truly at me or at how this reflects on him is anyone’s guess.
“Care to explain what the hell you were doing at the party the other night?” my father asks, his anger controlled. He still hasn’t turned to face me.
Not even ahelloas I sit with the straightest pose in a chair that is far too big for me, legs crossed at the ankle, hands clasped in my lap, just like a well-trained doll. My throat is tight, but I keep my chin high. I’m running on three hours of sleep, my mind racing ever since Milo texted me that Dad wanted to come by and talk to the both of us.
