“No.” The word tears out of me.
“I’m sorry.” Constance sounds far away, like her voice is coming from the end of a long hallway.
I dig my nails into my palms. The pain is concrete and grounding, exactly like Kieran taught me when he held his blade to my neck.
“How?” The question scrapes out of my throat.
“The details aren’t important right now.”
“They’re important to me.”
Constance hesitates. “A hellhound inside the caves.”
Inside the caves. It must have been before Jade did whatever Constance said she did—pulled lightning from the sky.
What else has Jade been hiding?
She’s been acting stranger than usual since Halloween. She flinches whenever Oliver’s name comes up. She avoids my eyes when I talk about finding him.
She was out in the storm during the Halloween Ball. She said she needed to go outside to get air and that she got turned around in the storm. Jade tends to get turned around while goinganywhere,but someone with lightning magic being outside when a thunderstorm hits is absolutely not a coincidence.
“I need to be alone,” I say, but the words feel disconnected, like they’re coming from someone else.
Whatever Constance sees in my face must convince her, because she nods and moves to the door.
“All students are confined to their dormitories until further notice,” she reminds me. “The common room’s accessible, but you are not to leave under any circumstances.”
“Understood.”
“If Jade contacts you, let me know immediately.”
“I will.”
She gives me another long look, and then she’s gone, the door clicking shut behind her.
I sit on my bed and stare at Jade’s empty pillow.
Sam’s dead. Elizabeth’s dead. Deidre’s dead. So many others are dead.
My brother’s missing.
Jade’s been lying to me for weeks.
But Logan’s been training her. The percentage chance that he spent all those hours training her and never saw a spark of her supposed lightning magic is slim to none. Which means Logan Ashford has answers.
Stop. Organize. Prioritize.
I take a breath, then another.
Step one: Go to Kieran. He can move freely throughout the academy. He’ll know how to reach Logan without raising suspicion.
Step two: Talk to Logan.
Step three: Find Jade. Get the truth from her about the lightning, about Oliver, abouteverything.
Steps four through six: locate the boats, get off this island, and find my brother.
JADE
