When we get backto Crimson College the next day, we drive through a snowstorm for the final hour of the trip.
I have a rental car because the back windows of my car are fucking shattered with bullet holes, and because that car, now, is evidence.
Oliver and I don’t talk much.
We’re both exhausted. In pain.
But it’s enough that he’s here with me. Because somewhere along the way, I let myself break my own rule.
I love him.
I’m still not good enough for him, and I still know this will all have to end.
But I love him like it’s a sickness. Like no matter how hard I tried to stave it off, it hit me, slowly at first and then like a speeding train.
I don’t say it.
But it’s there between us in the air for the whole drive.
It’s the most comfortable silence I’ve ever felt, and it’s not reallysilenceanyway, because Oliver put on a low, ambient electronic playlist for the drive.
When we walk into Onyx House, though, the anvil of guilt that had been on my heart for the past day only comes back down, heavily, all at once.
Oliver’s roommate, Percy, is waiting there in the front room when we get back.
The freckled redhead has barely been around the house all semester, but he looks up at us the moment we walk inside, and he looks scared like he’s just seen a ghost.
“I think something bad happened,” he says.
I feel like there’s acid pooling in my stomach.
What more could have happened?
When will I ever be able to breathe?
“Tell us,” I say, because I already have an inkling of fear.
“The guy was here again. There were only, like, three of us at Onyx House Christmas night, and everyone else was off campus. I heard someone rapping on the door at, like, fucking four in the morning, the day after Christmas?—”
“Did he have silver hair?” I ask.
My stomach drops as Percy nods. “Yes. It was the second time I saw him. Niko, I didn’t want to say anything. But I’m the one who tossed those notes into your cousin’s bedroom.”
I glance around the room for a weapon.
Percy seems like the least violent person on Earth, but if he’s working with Callum, I can’t trust him.
“Tell me exactly what happened.”
Percy looks mortified. “The night of the formal, I came home early. He was on the front steps. He offered me a thousand bucks cash if I put those notes in Sevan’s room, and I swear I thought it was just a prank. I didn’t know he was dangerous.”
“What did he do the day after Christmas?” I demand.
“I didn’t want to listen to him, but when I opened the front door, I saw him slip aguninto his jacket pocket. He gave me a sealed envelope, asked me if I knew where the campus administration building was, and then told me to get in his car.”
“Holy shit, Percy,” Oliver says.
I reach out to hold Ollie’s hand instinctively.
