My stomach dropped.
No. It can’t be…
Adrenaline surged through me, and I pushed my way forward with Cherry right beside me. A girl at the front let out astrangled scream before bolting, shoving people aside as she fled across the lawn.
Cherry slid into the spot the other girl had left open and grabbed my wrist, yanking me toward the parchment. “Vee,” she breathed, eyes wide as saucers. “Holy shit.”
My gaze followed hers, landing on the final name.
Violet Jayne Calloway.
The letters blurred before me as my pulse roared in my ears. The air around me seemed to have thickened, pressing against my chest until it hurt to breathe.
“Th-that’s me,” I said woodenly, as if I’d somehow failed to introduce myself to my friends when we first met.
“I know, babe,” Cherry murmured, squeezing my hand. “I… I can’t believe it.”
Another burst of adrenaline suddenly shot through me. Heart hammering, I slid my hand out of Cherry’s grip and stumbled back, shoving through the wall of bodies until I broke free on the outskirts of the mob.
I could hear my friends following, and I blindly reached for Cherry’s arm again as my knees threatened to buckle.
“Guys… what the hell am I supposed to do now?” I asked, voice coming out in a choked whisper.
Cherry’s voice shook as she answered. “There’s only one thing you can do,” she said. “Run.”
1
Violet
4 weeksearlier
Seven seconds.
That was how long it took for a body to plunge from the viewing platform of the 386-foot-tall Blackthorne Harbor University clock tower. Barely any time at all. But just long enough for my sister to realize she was going to die. Just long enough for her to feel that terror before she hit the ground.
What happened to you, Cal?
Who did this to you?
“So, um… I don’t really know any other facts about the clock tower.” Allegra, the tall strawberry-blonde sorority girl who’d been tasked with giving me a campus tour piped up beside me. “So if you’d like to move on…”
I blinked, snapping out of my dark reverie to focus on her foxlike face. “Sorry,” I said, forcing a small smile. “Guess I kind of zoned out there for a second.”
She glanced down at the clipboard in her manicured hands, brows furrowing. “Next up is the Chapel of Saints,” she said,jabbing a thumb eastward. “It’s pretty creepy, but they make us show everyone anyway.”
Fog started to gather in the air as we trudged down a cobblestone path. It smelled faintly of sea salt and wet stone, and the weak sunlight bleeding through the clouds gave everything a soft, silvered glow that made the university campus feel like it was balanced somewhere between the living and the dead.
The shape of the Chapel of Saints finally emerged through the fog; an austere gothic structure with spindly spires and arched windows lining its façade. At its highest point, a blackened iron cross tilted slightly.
“This chapel is actually the oldest building on campus,” Allegra said as we climbed the steps. “It was built in 1723, before the university even existed. The ossuary underneath came later.”
“What was the ossuary for?” I asked, lifting a brow.
She stopped at the heavy oak doors, which were carved with intricate designs: angels, hourglasses, and vines winding through skulls. “They added it after a diphtheria epidemic started in 1734, because after a while, there wasn’t enough room in the cemeteries,” she replied. “So they brought the bones here. Thousands of them. Something about sanctifying their deaths, I think?”
“Oh, right.”
“When the university was built, they used it as a crypt for the founders once they died. Important professors and donors, too.” Allegra wrinkled her nose. “Apparently it’s a huge honor to be laid to rest down there, but I personally couldn’t think of anything worse. Oh, and justwaituntil you see the chandelier…”
