“Actually,” I murmured. “I think Idoknow.”
Her face fell. “Oh, god. Your sister. I’m so sorry, I for—”
“It’s okay,” I said gently. “You're really helping us. That's what matters.”
“Is there anything else you could tell us that might help us?” Cherry asked, cocking her head.
Jennifer hesitated. “I don’t think so. Sorry.”
“Did you ever meet a guy named Roman Valcourt?”
“I don’t think so. But I’ve heard of the Valcourt family. Everyone has.”
“What about the Selection hunt?” I asked. “Could you tell us what happened to you that day?”
She let out a heavy sigh and sagged on the bed. “My name was put on the List by… a guy I was involved with at the time,” she said, casting her eyes downward. “I won’t tell you his name, because if someone catches you looking into him, that could be tracked back to me.”
I nodded. “Understood.”
She drew a slow, shaky breath and went on. “When I saw the List that day, I wasn’t afraid. I’d heard all the rumors, of course, but I thought they were exaggerated. Like an urban legend. So I honestly thought it was just a game.” Her voice went hollow. "I didn't even try that hard to hide. I just went to the Chapel of Saints and wedged myself under a pew. My hunter found me pretty quickly, and then he took me down to the ossuary tunnel.”
“So that’s how you learned about it,” Cherry said, nodding slowly.
“Yeah. He told me about all the other tunnels while we walked,” Jennifer said. “We reached the estate in… maybe fifteen minutes. The exit’s on the east side of the property. And from there—”
She broke off abruptly, eyes glazing over.
“What happened after that, Jennifer?” Cherry asked, voice soft. “What did the Dionysus Club do to you during those two months?”
Jennifer’s lips parted, but no words came. Her chest rose and fell unevenly. Then she shook her head. “You don’t understand,” she whispered. “Youcan’tunderstand.”
“We want to understand. Please, just tell us.”
Her hands came up to her face, and her shoulders began to shake. “They took it from me,” she finally choked out. “And I can’t even tell anyone!”
“What did they take?”
“Everything!” she said, voice rising. “They tookeverythingfrom me!”
Cherry and I exchanged a startled glance, but before either of us could speak, Jennifer’s composure cracked completely. Her voice climbed in pitch again, raw and jagged. “I failed!” she cried out. “I failed and they took everything!”
“Jennifer, please take a breath and try to—”
“Don’t tell me to calm down!” she shrieked, jumping to her feet. “You don’t get it! You justdon’t get it! I failed!”
“Failed what?” Cherry said.
“I did everything they wanted!” Jennifer screamed. Her hands clawed at her hair as her voice broke. “And they still—” She cut herself off, shaking her head violently. “They still took it all!”
She began to pace in frantic circles, muttering under her breath; disjointed fragments of sentences that didn’t make sense. “He said I would… but then… no, no, no.”
I lifted a palm. “Jennifer, please…”
Her voice cracked into a sob. “It was my fault!” she cried out again, over and over, each repetition more broken than the last. “My fault, my fault, my fault.”
The door burst open, and two staff members rushed in, their movements swift and practiced.
“Jennifer,” one said gently. “It’s all right. Take a seat, sweetheart.”
