“He must have texted her and she came running,” Cynthia says with contempt in her words. But I know I’m probably no better than Tasia.
“Did you know this was going to happen?” I ask Karter directly. Her complexion is pale. She sure as hell didn’t seem to expect any of what went down, and she shook her head when Tasia tried to get her to leave us and go ahead of the wait with them.
“Nope,” she says, popping the P, her arms crossed and a furrow in her brow. “She wouldn’t come to the game tonight because she didn’t want to see you cheering for him,” she says to me.
Cynthia scoffs. “She’s a bitch.” She glances at Karter. “No offense.”
Karter shrugs. “I mean, yeah, she is, but she seems desperate for Sylvan Connor. She’s always been boy crazy, but this is kind of new for her. It’s like she’s obsessed with getting back at you.” She nods toward me.
“But I didn’t do anything to her.And,”I point out, gesturing toward Ace, who looks heartbroken. “I let her have this fine specimen with no fight.” I put my hand on Ace’s chest as he laughs, and that feels like a victory.
He catches my hand between his fingers and I let him squeeze.
When we drop our arms, we’re still holding onto one another.
But I think of Faust, and I release him.
I haven’t checked my phone since we were standing in the freezing cold and my gloves wouldn’t work well on my screen,and I don’t check it now, but I wonder what Faust Darling is doing on Halloween night since I denied him.
I wonder if I could sleep with him again.
But in my head, I see him on the ice, hitting that guy as hard as he could, then threatening Sylvan a heartbeat later.
Ejected from the game.
Even I know that isn’t common, and it seems like it’s even less so for the captain of the Drayton Dragons.
“She must be going through something,” Karter says under her breath.
“Or,” Cynthia counters, drawing out the word. “She’s just a bitch.” She shrugs and I smile at my best friend, grateful she’s in my corner.
Another scream comes from deep inside the haunt.
“Yeah, well, she needs to be careful,” Ace says. “He seems like a fucking psychopath, and there is a serial killer on the loose.”
Cynthia’s eyes connect with mine and Karter visibly shivers.
I clear my throat. “But they’re not going after women.” I don’t know if I’m reminding Ace or convincing myself.
Ace stares into the darkness ahead. “Not yet,” he mutters.
Before anyone can say anything to that, the doors burst open and a woman in all black with a skeleton mask says, “You’re the next victims.”
When Ace grabs my hand again, this time, I let him.
“Back the fuck up.”I hiss the words as I startle when a scare actor jumps out from the dark, around a turn in the near pitch-black maze of the haunt. The actor is in my face, his ice-white contacts maddening as he turns his head one way, then the other. His arms stay by his side and the face paint that makes him look like he’s a hundred years old is too realistic.
Ace pulls me away from him as Cynthia and Karter both scream up ahead.
I cut my eyes their way, blinking in the low, green light that comes from orbs dotted along the floor. It’s freezing cold here, and I don’t know if that’s part of the sensory element or if it’s just because the castle is so damn drafty.
Both my friends are rearing back from a clown who must be at least six foot five, and perversely, I wonder how hot the person is beneath the black and white striped costume.
The clown stares down at my friends with that insane smile on its mask, then turns its gaze to us.
Ace grips me tighter, and I start to think he’s more afraid than I am.
I doubt Sylvan would be scared.
