I closed my book, readying myself. The old reflexes were still there.
Xavier sat on the grass beside me. “I’m pleased you’ve kept your hair short.”
I did not respond.
“Am I interrupting?” he asked.
“I was reading about the SWIFT system.” His face went blank, so I said: “The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.”
“Sounds like an interruption would be welcome.” His smile returned.
He wasn’t here about the fire.
“How are you, Xavier?”
“Splendid, thank you. I hope senior year is everything it should be.”
“A few complications.”
“Yes. That business in town.”
I didn’t react. Xavier had connected me to Crystal.
Why did he care? Maybe Sebastian was right, and he’d never quite gotten over our night together when we were fifteen.
“Kind of you to take an interest,” I said blandly.
A wounded look. “Always, with old friends. I’m just curious, should we be celebrating?”
“Celebrating?”
“Was she an assignment? Or was it personal?”
It took me a moment—he wanted to know if Crystal had been my Hefnd.
He wanted me in his club.
“Doesn’t that happen before you’re blooded?” The nearest lacrosse player was fifty feet away, but I lowered my voice. “Bianca must have told you I killed Peter. Lyon was mine as well.”
“And that other girl,” Xavier said with a wave of his hand. “Or was that the good doctor’s work? Murder-suicides are so conveniently opaque.”
I couldn’t answer without screaming, so I stayed quiet.
“Fine, keep your secrets,” he said, wounded again. “The Hefnd doesn’thave hard-and-fast rules—that’s the whole point. If you killed this girl because she annoyed you, we should mark you with a black heart.”
“Crystal wasn’t an assignment, just a loose end.”
“But so close to home. Makes it feel personal.”
I hadn’t done the deed. I wasn’t even there.
“Hate to disappoint you, Xavier, but it was reported to the family and approved. A tragic lack of petty motivations. Hardly any chaos.”
He sighed, leaning back on his elbows. The movement tugged at his sleeves, and a makeshift bandage on his right forearm slipped out.
Plastic wrap, held fast with medical tape. A recent tattoo.
“You killed someone.”
