I jabbed a finger at the structure. “If you thought this would give me answers, you were mistaken.”
“Answers are coming.” Quinn dragged me back into an alcove. “I can hear their footsteps right now.”
“What footsteps—”
“Sssssh!”
Trey clamped a hand over my mouth. I sagged back against him, too exhausted and cold to fight. The four of us huddled together in a large niche, backs pressed against the shimmering stone. The wall pulsated against my skin, giving off a mild warmth that was both comforting and unsettling. From here, we could see clearly across the floor of the cavern, but it would be unlikely anyone else would see us in the shadows.
Unless they didn’t see with human eyes.
My ears pricked at a faint sound – shoes thudding on stone, coming from another tunnel on the opposite side. There was a drumming sound, too – a percussion that seemed to form a perfect slow march, but as soon as I tried to catch the beat, it would slip away into something else.
A shadow flickered in front of the torches, then another. Dark shapes circled the room, chanting in low voices – words I did not understand. They stamped their feet on the ground in a furious beat that felt ancient and primal and also familiar – their voices rising and falling in a sublime and discordant harmony. Behind my back, the wall pulsed along with the beat.
Their song sent cold shivers through my already frozen veins.
One of the shadows stepped forward, climbing up onto the central dais, dragging a dark shape behind it like a lump of old meat. At first, I thought it was one of the things that had chased me in the gym, but under the torchlight I could see it was a human wearing a dark cloak.
The figure raised a hand and called forth two others, who climbed up on the platform beside it. Chains dragged across the wood as they unshackled something.
With a heave, they unbolted the trapdoor and lifted the lid.
Hatred poured out.
Chapter Three
All my life I lived in a place where hatred was baked into bone. The color of your skin, the people you called friends, the life you were born into and couldn’t escape – all these things painted a target on your back that attracted malevolence like flies to shit. Those on the outside hated because they were afraid that if they didn’t separate themselves from us then they would become one of us. But that was nothing on the cruelties we could visit on each other in the name of wringing out the tiniest shred of power.
Hatred burrowed into my thoughts and lived close to my heart, so trust me when I say that what poured out of that trapdoor was every ignorant abhorrence, every vicious deed, every revolting thought that had ever been visited upon a human. An avalanche of misery rolled across the cavern and crashed into me, tossing me outside of my body and sending me reeling from the dizzying spectacle of its spite.
The hatred crawled across my consciousness, forcing me to confront memories and possibilities that were more monstrous than the unknown. It grasped me close, feeding me with ineffable loneliness and the shuddering terror it couldn’t help but invoke. And in that terror I knew.
I knew that everything the guys had hinted at was true.
They were all dead. Dead but walking. Kept alive somehow by this thing that Parris had called from the deep, this thing that fed on their hatred, and grew fat and rich off their evil deeds and dark thoughts, biding its time until it was strong enough to… to…
To escape.
A scream rose in my throat, pushing against my teeth, fighting for freedom. A warm hand circled my waist, dragging me back from the creature’s grasp. “I know it’s horrible,” Quinn whispered, his breath hot against my earlobe. “You can’t scream. If you scream, they’ll find us. Screaming’s pointless, anyway.”
I opened my mouth, but no sound passed through my lips. How could I even scream? This was fucking beyond screaming. My mind was being torn to pieces by a battering of perverse imagery that assailed me through the very air I breathed. Unimaginable tortures and abuses played out inside my skull.
Through the haze of vile visions, I managed to stare out into the cavern. I noticed in a detached way that the cloaked figures had stepped back from the platform, leaving the slumped object on its edge, right beside the open trapdoor. Open now, the trapdoor revealed a dark void – a well of darkness that had form, that flowed and moved and shifted as the malevolence grew inside it.
“Behold, our Great Old God, the one who came to our young world from the sky, on a trail of devoured stars,” the first cloaked figure cried, raising its hands toward the platform. “Your dreams have reached us once again, revealing your desires. We, your loyal servants, have returned to you, bearing this gift.”
The figure swept a hand across its shadowed face, flinging back a dark hood to reveal pale skin that glowed in the torchlight, sliced with bow-shaped lips colored crimson. Her dark hair fell in waves of shadow down her back.
Headmistress West.
“We long again for you to rise up from your deathlike slumber, to leave your dark prison and dance among the stars, for you to ride upon your cloud ship and play with your sisters and brothers, as you did when the universe was new. We honor you and your limitless knowledge of the universe.” She swept her cape around her body as she fell to her knees. As one, the other teachers in the room sank to the ground, pressing their foreheads into the stone floor.
The demon or god or fucking shadow whatever creature raged within its prison, satiated by their obeisances. Headmistress West raised her head, her voice booming through the domed space.
“Hazel Waite eludes us. But she can’t have gone far. We will find her, and we will tear her open and discover her secrets. We will figure out why she hurts you.”
Okay, what?
“Please accept this boy as a gift. His soul will repair the wounds she has inflicted.”
Ms. West lunged forward and grabbed the lump. A knife flashed in her hand as she cut away the straps and bag that bound it. A body rolled out and slumped against the platform, its limbs flopping, its face lifeless. It was bound in rope, with a foul gag stuffed in his mouth. As the robed figures hauled it up onto the platform and flung the ropes around it like a harness, the torchlight shone on a pair of glassy eyes and caught the golden threads of hair I recognized so well.
Greg.
My throat closed. They’re going to lower Greg into that pit. And I knew without knowing how I knew that it wouldn’t kill him. Not completely. Death wasn’t the thing to fear in this room. When Greg came out again, he’d be just like Loretta. All the Gregness about him would be gone.
No. They’re not doing that to Greg. Not for my sake.
Trey’s grip tightened around my shoulders. But he had nothing on me when someone I loved was in danger. I tore myself free from his grip and leapt to my feet.
I stepped into the cavern, my head high. “Hello, Headmistress. Hi, faculty members. Greetings, malignant demon of the void. I’m Hazel Waite. I heard you were looking for me.”
Chapter Four
Headmistress West spun around, her face as cold and impassive as ever. The only indication of her surprise to see me was a slight upward movement of one eyebrow, which was quickly reined in again.
“Miss Waite.” A slow, evil smile spread across her face. “We’re so pleased to see you safe and well.”
My legs trembled, but I didn’t dare back down. If I gave an inch to that… whatever it was, then I’d be the next person down that hole.
“Wish I could say the same.” I managed to keep my voice calm, even as my whole body convulsed. “You’ve been out looking for me. It’s odd to have all this trouble for a scholarship student, especially when this school usually doesn’t give a shit about us.”
Behind me, I could hear the boys whispering, arguing about how to deal with this curveball I’d just thrown them. As if I needed their help.
I shuffled forward a step. The entity swelled – not with power this time, but with something that would have been fear if a creature that ate st
ars for sustenance could feel fear.
“You’ve been causing no end of trouble at this school.” Ms. West’s features remained locked in that smug half-smile.
I dared a smile back at her, intending to look a bit sinister. But with the entity’s vile visions pouring into my head, I couldn’t force my muscles to obey, and it came off as a wobbly grimace. “I aim to please. So… what exactly have I walked into here? It looks an awful lot like you’re trying to sacrifice my friend Greg to some cave demon. Which is obviously an insane thing for the headmistress of such a fine institution to be doing. I thought I’d pop out and ask you to explain yourself.”
Her creepy frozen smile didn’t falter. “No, no, that’s what we’re doing. Every year, four students enter this school. They are carefully selected, for we have very strict criteria. They must be exceptional, for it is their minds that our god most desires. They must be orphans, without anyone who will look for them. And they must be able to be broken. Four enter the school, but none will ever leave.”
“What happens to them?” I took another step. I had no idea what it was I was doing, except that I needed to reach Greg.
“A small sacrifice, but necessary. The alumni of Miskatonic Prep are the rulers of our country, of the free world. They need our god’s power in order to do their work, and so we must all make sacrifices for the greater good of our nation.” With a flick of her wrist, the headmistress indicated the trapdoor. “Our god needs sustenance, just like you and I. Only instead of food, He Who Once Devoured The Cosmos now requires human souls.”
Jesus fucking Christ. As if people like Trey’s dad didn’t already have enough power, they are literally dragging up ancient demons because they’re that afraid of the unwashed masses.
“Is that what happened to Loretta?” I whispered. “You brought her down here and lowered her into that… that…”
“We did her a kindness,” West explained. “Loretta had nothing left to live for. She was at the bottom of the points table, which is how we choose our next sacrifice. She was groomed for the god’s needs – ready to give up her life and slide into oblivion. Souls that are broken are the most delicious to our god, and so she was enjoyed by him. But we are not unkind. For her sacrifice, she was given a second life, a better life, free from her pain. You were a dangerous influence on her – she was starting to believe that she had a chance to be someone in the world, and of course we all know that’s not true. Now she has friends and status and peace – the things she always desired but could never have outside these walls. We don’t usually allow scholarship students back into the student body, but Courtney felt Loretta could better serve our deity by returning to the school and helping to break your spirit.”
As if what I was hearing wasn’t sinister enough, West peeled away another layer of the school’s evil. Loretta was sacrificed to this… this deity, not just because she was a scholarship student, but because she fell to the bottom of the points table and the bullies of this school had tortured her so completely she no longer wanted to live. That’s why they choose us – because we’re orphans. Because no one will help us.
But someone helped me… Trey gave me his points so I wouldn’t be at the bottom. It was supposed to be me.
Loretta died instead of me.
Because of me.
The injustice of it boiled in my blood, turning my veins into rivers of fire. “Where do I fit into this?” I demanded, taking another step forward.
Inside its prison, the deity reeled. A fresh wave of torturous images burned into my skull, as if it were lashing out in desperation. You said I hurt it, but how? Why?
Ms. West circled me, her heels clacking on the stone floor, studying me carefully. “You are fascinating. You don’t fit, Hazel Waite. Our god doesn’t know what to make of you.”
“If he’s a god, isn’t he supposed to be all-knowing and all-seeing and all that jazz?”
“Oh yes, but when one’s life stretches over eons, when one sees the universe make and unmake itself in the blink of an eye, when the death of a galaxy is as insignificant as a speck of dust on your collar, then you may begin to understand why it cannot turn its eye toward you. That is why he needs us, to feed it and tend to its needs and to find a way to understand what you are and why you affect him so.”
I rolled my eyes. For real, this was too much. “Fine, whatever. Just explain why I don’t fit into your insane cultist plot.”
“Our Great Old God grants us his power to make the world in his image, to place his disciples in the mightiest and most influential places where they will gather the most followers and prepare for the day when he will be free of this prison. And in return, he asks for yearly sacrifices to sustain this power. The more broken the spirit of a sacrifice, the more enjoyment our god relishes from the devouring of them, and the more loyal servants they make when they rise again. That is why we first send them to the school, where our student body will prepare them for sacrifice. But you… you have resisted all attempts to break you. Trey and Courtney were tasked with preparing you for sacrifice, but their efforts have yielded some… undesirable results.”
Trey and Courtney… have been bullying me in order to make me fit to be sacrificed to their god? My stomach lurched, but I couldn’t deal with that yet, not while I was facing down Ms. West and that horrific thing she wanted to feed Greg to. “So basically, I’m like Brussels sprouts and cod liver oil to your god?”
“For now,” she said. “But we will figure out a way to break you. We always do. That is why you cannot be allowed to leave the school. I can’t have students telling wild stories about Miskatonic, not when we still have so much work to do.”
I shuddered as a wave of hatred rolled over me, momentarily knocking me back with the force of the vile visions it flung in my direction. This time, instead of shuttering my mind against it, I leaned into the horror, searching for something I could use to escape this situation. And as I dug deeper, I felt the entity’s grip on my skull loosen, felt its shadows recoil from my mind, and I grasped at a possible answer, a single tiny hope.
Something else is going on here. All this searching for me tonight wasn’t just about keeping me at the school to save me for their god. It’s about protecting it… from me.
“That’s not the whole truth, is it?” I said. “Does everyone in this room know how important I am?”
Ms. West shrugged her shoulders. “You have a high opinion of yourself, Ms. Waite. You may be unusual, but you are just another insignificant sacrifice. You matter little in our great scheme.”
I dug the shard of glass out of my bra and held it over my wrist. “Fine. In that case, I’ll open my veins right here. Won’t that please your god?”
The god reared back, its malignancy giving way to shuddering terror. It didn’t seem very pleased.
Headmistress West stepped forward, holding out her hand. “You don’t really want to die, Hazel.”
“You’re right about that. But I’ll do it.”
She took another step toward me. I jabbed the shard into my wrist. I was so cold I barely felt the pain of the glass cutting my skin. A few drops of blood splattered along my arm.
A sound like the universe tearing roared inside my head. The ground beneath my feet trembled as the entity fought against its bonds.
The headmistress dropped all pretenses of calm. She lunged at me, grabbing for the shard. Trey swooped in and flung himself between us, grabbing her and yanking her away from me.
“You don’t know her like I do,” he snarled as Ms. West struggled against his grip. “Hazel will do it.”
“Interesting,” I grinned. “When I hurt, your god hurts. I wonder what would happen to him if I did this.” I dragged the glass over my skin, raising a line of blood. The ground rolled beneath me as the entity’s pain battered its formless body, sending a fresh wave of horror into my mind. I gritted my teeth as I kept on cutting.
Bring it, you fucking cosmic monster. I’ve lived enough hatred in my life that I’m not afrai
d of yours.
“Stop her!” The headmistress fought against Trey as other hooded figures stepped forward, raising their hands to grab at me.
“You’re not touching Hazel,” Trey growled. Quinn and Ayaz stepped out from the shadows, flanking me on both sides.
A cold smile settled over the headmistress’ face. She stopped struggling. “I see the junior Eldritch Club has a new pet.”
I turned to Trey. “The Eldritch Club?”
Still keeping one arm tight around Ms. West’s neck, he lifted the cuff of his sleeve, touching his fingers to the tattoo on his wrist. “It’s a secret society that’s been part of Miskatonic Prep for generations. Only the best students are accepted, and once you’re a member, you belong for life. We are the god’s chosen children, his priests and priestesses, his favorites.”
“And all the monarchs are in this club?” I remembered Quinn’s identical tattoo.
Trey nodded. “Our parents are the senior members. We control the school. We prepare the sacrifices.”
“You break them.” It was all starting to come together – every horrifying piece of the puzzle. Bit by bit, the monarchs tore down the scholarship students with bullying and torture, taking away their chances even to excel academically, until like Loretta they wanted to take their lives. That was monstrous. It was unthinkable. It…
If their job was to break me, then why are they trying to help me? Why give me Trey’s points? Why try to put me into that boat?
Or are they really just trying to stop me from killing myself to save their precious god? I can’t deal with this. I can’t…
I can’t think about it. I have to save Greg and Andre. That’s it. That’s all that matters.
“Take your hands off me, Trey,” Ms. West commanded. “Or I shall have to report your insubordination to your father.”
Don’t do it, Trey.
Trey’s lip quivered. He released her neck. She sagged to her knees, clutching her throat with long, trembling fingers. Trey stepped in front of me, facing off against the headmistress and the other teachers.
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