“Let’s use the table,” Morgan suggested.
She and Angela tried to lift the entryway table and move it to the opposite wall, but it wouldn’t budge. “It must be welded down or something. What the heck?”
“Shit,” I cursed. “So, how do we open it?”
Vivian flipped the light back on, pulling our attention to her. Her eyes were on Izzy. “Give me a lift?”
Izzy’s eyes lit up, and she nodded. “You got it.”
Taking her place underneath the correct keyhole, Izzy widened her stance and bent her knees slightly. Low enough to link her fingers and hang them between her legs like a basket. The key rested on her joined palms.
My brow furrowed, but none of the other girls appeared confused or concerned, so I just watched.
Vivian threw her hair up into a high ponytail, grabbed the key from Izzy’s palms, and gripped her shoulders.
I side-eyed Max as they bounced together and counted to three, wondering if this was some weird Camelot Academy thing before I smacked my forehead and realized what they were doing. My natural suspicion when it came to Vivian had jammed my brain.
On three, Vivian jumped and Izzy hoisted her up.
“Cheerleaders.” I groaned. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”
Vivian tensed but ignored me and inserted the key in the lock. Almost instantly, a panel in the wall opened, granting us access to the next room.
Izzy smiled as she came to my side. “Was it the blonde hair that gave me away?”
“That or you got paired with the guy who looks like the captain of the football team,” I teased back.
A moony, lovestruck look appeared in her eyes. “He really does, doesn’t he?”
Laughing, I nudged her through the opening, and we joined the other girls. “Were you King and Queen of the prom, too?”
Izzy’s smile faltered, and she grimaced.
Right before shocking the shit out of me.
“Uh, no…That was Vivian.” She shot me an apologetic look. “And Max.”
“No fucking way.” I gaped at her before whipping toward Max, who had missed her big reveal. “Ohhh, that is…completely unexpected news.”
“Yeah, he was thrilled, as I’m sure you can imagine.”
That, I pictured easily. But he and Vivian standing side by side as prom King and Queen?
Dancing together.
Doing whatever else together.
“Yeah, I’d actually prefer not imagining anything about that. I’d prefer to bleach my brain.”
Catching sight of my wrinkled nose, Max arched a brow. I mouthedlaterbefore turning back to the girls. They’d gathered around the coffee table, where a large map had been laid across the surface.
A wooden slab, three feet wide and one foot deep, lay across the map. Five carvings indented into the surface waited like slots for an item to be placed on top.
The shapes were nondescript and unique, each one different from the last, but with nothing to identify what belonged there. Blobs, a bunch of circles, and jagged lines—I couldn’t make sense of them.
“What are these?” Morgan asked as she felt each one. “None of them match or look like anything I recognize.”
I stared at the map. It looked like an actual treasure map, but it had to be of use in the cabin. My vision blurred as I stared at the landmarks on it.
