Mila opened her mouth. But she didn’t get a chance to answer. There was a soft knock at the door, startling them both.
“It’s okay,” Mila said. Her heartbeat hadn’t quite caught up to her words, though. “I’m still an RA, remember?”
“At this hour?” Lucy said. “And didn’t they send out an email about you being on leave?” The only thing Mila had done for her job since she started watching Lucy was have that call with her boss about Whitney. And surely it wasn’t her boss out there in the middle of the night.
“Yeah, but they neglected to make my door invisible.” Mila looked a little shaky on her feet as she transferred her weight to the floor. “Someone probably just forgot.”
Mila snatched up her green cardigan as she moved to the end of the bed. Lucy watched, still a little enraptured, as the rising bruise in the crook of Mila’s elbow disappeared into the fabric. “Should I hide here?”
“Please,” Mila said wryly. “If you’d really like me to think about the future, I should plan to have a job when this is all over.”
Lucy sat back on the bed, listening to Mila flip the deadbolt, unlock the door, and take the doorknob in her palm. Though as Lucy sat there, she thought she heard a second, softer sound overlaid with Mila’s movements. A sound like whoever was on the other side of the door had gripped the doorknob in return.
Click-click.
“Mila!” Lucy leapt out of bed and made for the other side of the room. “Mila, don’t—”
But as she rounded the corner to the short corridor, the door was already standing open. Mila was facing forward, her back rigid. And ahead, in the fluorescents of the Quincey hallway, stood an unfamiliar young man, flanked by three people whose faces Lucy now knew very well. Sadie. Addison.
And Vanya.
“Connor” was the first thing Mila said. It took Lucy a moment to realize that Mila was addressing the stranger in the center of the group. “I need you to get back to your room and shut your door, now.”
“No, Mila, it’s totally okay,” the boy said. As Lucy took a step closer, she could see that flat, dull look in his eyes. The same look Natalie had in Lower Alton. “I’m sorry. I know you said not to invite anyone in because of someone having a bad boyfriend. But this guy says it’s totally a misunderstanding.”
“It’s totally a misunderstanding,” echoed Vanya. “And just to make sure there aren’t any further misunderstandings, Connor here can wait with us until you invite us into the room. Isn’t that right, Connor?”
“Yeah, man, of course.” Connor laughed as he swayed on his feet. “Glad it’s all gonna work out.”
“Mila,” Lucy said quietly.
“I know,” Mila said. The threat was clear enough. Invite them in, or that was the end of Connor.
Screw it. Lucy wasn’t about to watch some poor kid get slaughtered. “Come in,” she said.
“Lucy,”Mila snapped.
“Ah, well, Lucy, that won’t do.” Vanya’s smile was so relaxed. Like he was giving her some tips on campus life. “You can’t invite me in. You don’t live here. I’m afraid playing house isn’t good enough,” he added, his eyes flicking to Mila’s arm.
Mila’s next words were in Russian—and Lucy could tell they weren’t particularly polite. Vanya laughed, like they’d just shared an inside joke. “I feel like I’m meeting a celebrity,” he said. “Jon’s cute little girlfriend. Not very cute or little anymore, are you?”
Mila’s body screamed with sheer superhuman restraint. Lucy could feel how badly her fingers itched for her bow. But Connor was still staring ahead with his flat, dull eyes. Addison’s painted nails rested on one of his shoulders, and Sadie was whispering a soft litany over the other. He was trapped. Which meant they were trapped, too.
“Connor,” Mila said. “Go back to your room. The rest of you…come in.”
Sadie had to lift herself onto her tiptoes to whisper into Connor’s ear. “You did such a good job, Connor. Go on back home now.”
Connor blinked hazily as Addison rotated him by the shoulders and gave him a gentle push down the hall. By the time Vanya, Sadie, and Addison had filed into the room, Lucy could only just hear the slight stumbling of his footsteps.
Vanya shut the door behind him.
The rest happened quickly.
Sadie and Addison flanked Mila almost too fast for Lucy to see. Mila was already in motion, too—she elbowed Addison in the chest, then rounded on Sadie. But she was breathing heavily, from exertion that should have been nothing for her. Lucy’s stomach dropped like a stone as she realized: Mila had lost too much blood.
Lucy lunged to get between them. She only made it a single step. One hand clamped down on her shoulder, and the other gripped her jaw, wrenching her around.
She found herself eye to eye with Ivan Volkov.
