anyone to murder her too soon.
“I’d ask if you’re taking drugs, but I know they probably don’t help you much,” Nina said. She scowled at another student who bumped into her, perhaps deliberately. Nina wasn’t the most popular person at the Academy, by far. If anything, her friendship with the creepy blood head girl in tights and arm gloves was helping out her social status. “Or do they just make you spacey? Too bad sleeping pills are meant to conk you out. I have a lot of those.”
“Sorry.” Angela unbuttoned her blouse collar and tugged it away from her neck. “I’m just kind of out of it today. I have a busy night ahead of me.”
“Really?” Nina’s tone seethed with suspicion. “How so?”
“You wouldn’t be interested.” She led them both around a corner, leaving the majority of students behind. The new hallway was darker and less well traveled, but it connected at the far end to one of the glass tunnels linking one tower to the next, the round panes glittering with the reflection of too many candles to count. Standing in the middle of that circle of light, five silhouettes had gathered, carefully surrounding a much more familiar one—a student with fluffy curls and a distinctive way of clasping her hands. Sophia. Angela could make out the silver of her shoes as they walked closer.
Lyrica stood against the wall, watching Angela’s steady approach with a coolly innocent face. In the brief time Angela and Nina had lingered behind in the classroom, collecting their books, she must have dashed out and told Stephanie everything she’d seen and heard.
And Stephanie must have believed some of it.
She turned from Sophia, and though it could have been Angela’s fear at work, Stephanie appeared more confident than the first time they’d met. Even her expression—while outwardly cheerful—hid an unnameable triumph behind it. But directly beside her, the young woman with the mass of blond braids, Sophia’s punisher, outdid her in second impressions, analyzing Angela with eyes that glittered like onyx. Up close they had the unnerving largeness she recognized from her painted angels, though their lids had been brightened to a misty red. She was the only person not wearing even a semblance of the Academy uniform, dressed instead in a coat that hid her clothing and perfect figure down to her ankles. The tattoo on her neck must have been a nonsense design—meaningless letters made of loops, long lines, and miniature pitchforks.
Angela didn’t like her then, and she didn’t like her now. At all.
What’s going on? Stephanie found out I had class today. She knew Kim was the teacher. And she might know by now that we have some kind of interest in each other.
But would she react to that so fast? Somehow she seemed too smart for that.
“What the hell did you do?” Nina whispered in Angela’s ear. Yet the second they walked closer to join the other sorority members, Nina slid to a careful distance, hovering in the background, as if Stephanie had drawn an invisible line she couldn’t cross. Her loyalty apparently stopped where one territory bordered another, and a short glance from Stephanie was all it took to cement that fact. She mumbled under her breath, receding even farther.
It’s weird. Stephanie is a blood head, yet she’s treating Nina like a freak.
Maybe she didn’t remember what it was like—to be feared more out of disgust than respect.
“Angela.” Stephanie regarded her again. “You’re in luck. I was about to go back to the Sorority House with some of the other members. I hope you wouldn’t mind joining us for the walk.”
Her fingers had wrapped like a clamp around Sophia’s wrist, but Sophia herself made no attempts at freedom. Instead she stared at Angela with hopeful, yet at the same time, very glassy eyes, looking more than ever like a doll. One that Stephanie was stealing away to a dank basement near the sea.
“That’s fine.” Angela had to suck back the
“I’d ask if you’re taking drugs, but I know they probably don’t help you much,” Nina said. She scowled at another student who bumped into her, perhaps deliberately. Nina wasn’t the most popular person at the Academy, by far. If anything, her friendship with the creepy blood head girl in tights and arm gloves was helping out her social status. “Or do they just make you spacey? Too bad sleeping pills are meant to conk you out. I have a lot of those.”
“Sorry.” Angela unbuttoned her blouse collar and tugged it away from her neck. “I’m just kind of out of it today. I have a busy night ahead of me.”
“Really?” Nina’s tone seethed with suspicion. “How so?”
“You wouldn’t be interested.” She led them both around a corner, leaving the majority of students behind. The new hallway was darker and less well traveled, but it connected at the far end to one of the glass tunnels linking one tower to the next, the round panes glittering with the reflection of too many candles to count. Standing in the middle of that circle of light, five silhouettes had gathered, carefully surrounding a much more familiar one—a student with fluffy curls and a distinctive way of clasping her hands. Sophia. Angela could make out the silver of her shoes as they walked closer.
Lyrica stood against the wall, watching Angela’s steady approach with a coolly innocent face. In the brief time Angela and Nina had lingered behind in the classroom, collecting their books, she must have dashed out and told Stephanie everything she’d seen and heard.
And Stephanie must have believed some of it.
She turned from Sophia, and though it could have been Angela’s fear at work, Stephanie appeared more confident than the first time they’d met. Even her expression—while outwardly cheerful—hid an unnameable triumph behind it. But directly beside her, the young woman with the mass of blond braids, Sophia’s punisher, outdid her in second impressions, analyzing Angela with eyes that glittered like onyx. Up close they had the unnerving largeness she recognized from her painted angels, though their lids had been brightened to a misty red. She was the only person not wearing even a semblance of the Academy uniform, dressed instead in a coat that hid her clothing and perfect figure down to her ankles. The tattoo on her neck must have been a nonsense design—meaningless letters made of loops, long lines, and miniature pitchforks.
Angela didn’t like her then, and she didn’t like her now. At all.
What’s going on? Stephanie found out I had class today. She knew Kim was the teacher. And she might know by now that we have some kind of interest in each other.
But would she react to that so fast? Somehow she seemed too smart for that.
“What the hell did you do?” Nina whispered in Angela’s ear. Yet the second they walked closer to join the other sorority members, Nina slid to a careful distance, hovering in the background, as if Stephanie had drawn an invisible line she couldn’t cross. Her loyalty apparently stopped where one territory bordered another, and a short glance from Stephanie was all it took to cement that fact. She mumbled under her breath, receding even farther.
It’s weird. Stephanie is a blood head, yet she’s treating Nina like a freak.
Maybe she didn’t remember what it was like—to be feared more out of disgust than respect.
“Angela.” Stephanie regarded her again. “You’re in luck. I was about to go back to the Sorority House with some of the other members. I hope you wouldn’t mind joining us for the walk.”
Her fingers had wrapped like a clamp around Sophia’s wrist, but Sophia herself made no attempts at freedom. Instead she stared at Angela with hopeful, yet at the same time, very glassy eyes, looking more than ever like a doll. One that Stephanie was stealing away to a dank basement near the sea.
“That’s fine.” Angela had to suck back the
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