about Grace after she died.
“Fine, let’s just go. McAdams is probably already sleeping.”
When I turned back to Ben, he was staring at Taylor with that same dopey expression on his face. Well, at least he wouldn’t give me a hard time about ditching.
“Ben, I gotta run. You’re on your own.”
“Taylor.” His voice was barely above a whisper, and he didn’t even glance in my direction.
“So, um, you’ll finish up the lab, right?”
“Shiny.” He lifted his hand in the air.
I decided to take that as a yes. “I totally owe you one.”
He didn’t bother responding. Now Liam was a different story.
He was by my side within seconds. “What are you doing?” His voice was loud and clear, despite the fact that Taylor was only a few feet away. So much for keeping things separate.
“It’s nothing,” I whispered, hoping he’d match the level. “I just…I forgot that we sort of have this thing to do during open. It’s for Concilium, and if I skip out again, it’ll go on my transcript, and…you know.” I looked straight past him as the lie left my lips, praying he wouldn’t call me out on it. But he didn’t say a word. I met his eyes again, but they were focused on my neck. More specifically, on Grace’s pearls. Crap.
“You haven’t worn those in a while.” He lifted them with one finger as though they might burn.
I didn’t feel like answering to him. It wasn’t his fault that he cared, but it was also none of his business when I chose to wear my dead best friend’s jewelry. I slipped into emotional shutdown mode as easily as into a broken-in pair of jeans.
“Guess I’ll just talk to you later then?” I couldn’t help it. I turned back to Taylor without waiting for a response.
She reached out her hand, a weak smile pulling at her lips, and I realized how much she needed me right now. And although that was hard to understand or even to admit, it felt good. Not good enough to hold hands, though—that was just weird.
But that didn’t stop Taylor. She grabbed my hand and yanked me behind her, her deceptively strong fingers clamped around mine. She dragged me toward the double doors at the entrance to the cafeteria.
When I turned back to look at Liam, he looked stunned, like I’d slapped him across the face.
And that look on his face mattered. But finding Bethany mattered more.
Chapter 14
We traveled the empty hallways to Station 5, PB’s official detention room, and I slapped the plaque at the door automatically. Abyssus abyssum invocate . “Hell invokes hell.” True to Pemberly Brown form, no one could remember where the rituals came from, and hitting the signs marking the twelve stations for good luck came just as automatically as the rest.
I liked to pretend that I was above all of the ridiculous, antiquated crap that my self-obsessed private school passed off as tradition, but today I wasn’t in the mood to tempt fate. Taylor ran her fingers over the bronze, and it surprised me that girls like Taylor even bothered. Then again, we could use all the luck we could get.
Or maybe she was just thinking about all the Sisterhood had lost over the past few months. The twelve stations also served as the markers to the underground tunnels the Sisterhood had built when Pemberly and Brown first merged in the ’50s. They’d controlled the tunnels for years, using them to navigate the campus after hours from their underground headquarters. But now the Brotherhood had taken over and changed the locks, like some advanced breed of squatters, and by the looks of things, they weren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
In the detention room, half the chairs were full of kids sleeping, texting, staring off into space, or even reading. Alistair was one of the sleepers. I shoved Taylor through the doorway. If McAdams was awake, she was the better candidate to do the talking. McAdams and I weren’t exactly best buds, since I’d spent my fair share of free periods in detention rotting along with
“Fine, let’s just go. McAdams is probably already sleeping.”
When I turned back to Ben, he was staring at Taylor with that same dopey expression on his face. Well, at least he wouldn’t give me a hard time about ditching.
“Ben, I gotta run. You’re on your own.”
“Taylor.” His voice was barely above a whisper, and he didn’t even glance in my direction.
“So, um, you’ll finish up the lab, right?”
“Shiny.” He lifted his hand in the air.
I decided to take that as a yes. “I totally owe you one.”
He didn’t bother responding. Now Liam was a different story.
He was by my side within seconds. “What are you doing?” His voice was loud and clear, despite the fact that Taylor was only a few feet away. So much for keeping things separate.
“It’s nothing,” I whispered, hoping he’d match the level. “I just…I forgot that we sort of have this thing to do during open. It’s for Concilium, and if I skip out again, it’ll go on my transcript, and…you know.” I looked straight past him as the lie left my lips, praying he wouldn’t call me out on it. But he didn’t say a word. I met his eyes again, but they were focused on my neck. More specifically, on Grace’s pearls. Crap.
“You haven’t worn those in a while.” He lifted them with one finger as though they might burn.
I didn’t feel like answering to him. It wasn’t his fault that he cared, but it was also none of his business when I chose to wear my dead best friend’s jewelry. I slipped into emotional shutdown mode as easily as into a broken-in pair of jeans.
“Guess I’ll just talk to you later then?” I couldn’t help it. I turned back to Taylor without waiting for a response.
She reached out her hand, a weak smile pulling at her lips, and I realized how much she needed me right now. And although that was hard to understand or even to admit, it felt good. Not good enough to hold hands, though—that was just weird.
But that didn’t stop Taylor. She grabbed my hand and yanked me behind her, her deceptively strong fingers clamped around mine. She dragged me toward the double doors at the entrance to the cafeteria.
When I turned back to look at Liam, he looked stunned, like I’d slapped him across the face.
And that look on his face mattered. But finding Bethany mattered more.
Chapter 14
We traveled the empty hallways to Station 5, PB’s official detention room, and I slapped the plaque at the door automatically. Abyssus abyssum invocate . “Hell invokes hell.” True to Pemberly Brown form, no one could remember where the rituals came from, and hitting the signs marking the twelve stations for good luck came just as automatically as the rest.
I liked to pretend that I was above all of the ridiculous, antiquated crap that my self-obsessed private school passed off as tradition, but today I wasn’t in the mood to tempt fate. Taylor ran her fingers over the bronze, and it surprised me that girls like Taylor even bothered. Then again, we could use all the luck we could get.
Or maybe she was just thinking about all the Sisterhood had lost over the past few months. The twelve stations also served as the markers to the underground tunnels the Sisterhood had built when Pemberly and Brown first merged in the ’50s. They’d controlled the tunnels for years, using them to navigate the campus after hours from their underground headquarters. But now the Brotherhood had taken over and changed the locks, like some advanced breed of squatters, and by the looks of things, they weren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
In the detention room, half the chairs were full of kids sleeping, texting, staring off into space, or even reading. Alistair was one of the sleepers. I shoved Taylor through the doorway. If McAdams was awake, she was the better candidate to do the talking. McAdams and I weren’t exactly best buds, since I’d spent my fair share of free periods in detention rotting along with
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