He groaned. “I love it when you say my name.” He rested his forehead against mine. “I love you,” he said again.
I ran my fingertips over his cheek. “I love you.”
With effort, he pulled away. “We need to go.”
“Right,” I said.
He opened the door.
We stepped out into the darkened corridor outside of the room. Holding hands tightly, we crept down the hallway.
It was silent and dark. Carter didn’t even have a torch or flashlight, so I could hardly see where we were going. I trusted Carter to lead me. He was quiet, lithe as a cat, and we moved as quickly as we could.
We paused in front of a doorway where light spilled out. There were voices inside too.
Carter held me close, listening.
I hardly dared breathe.
He slowly peered inside the room. Then he turned back to me and nodded. Together, we darted past the doorway.
My heart thudded in my chest, expecting someone to run out after us.
But no one did.
We kept moving through the dark hallways. Carter pulled me around corners, down different passages. I had no idea where we were, but he moved with a purpose, as if he’d traced the route many times.
Finally, I recognized the stairs into the inner sanctum.
We were almost free.
Carter clutched my hand, looking around to make sure we were alone.
All I could see were shadows and stone.
We started up the steps.
We reached the top silently, but then we had to open the trap door.
Carter had a key, which he fit to the lock. It turned.
When he pushed open the door, the hinges groaned.
The sound echoed through the passageway.
“Go,” he whispered, pushing me through.
I scrambled out of the doorway, but not before I saw two hooded people running out.
“Carter?” yelled one.
He was behind me, tumbling out of the door. He slammed the door shut after us. “Run.”
I took off, pumping my legs.
Carter was at my heels.
Behind us, I heard the door opening again.
I shot a look behind us. The robed people were coming after us. There were four of them.
“Don’t look. Run,” said Carter. He was going faster than me somehow. He grabbed me by the arm, pulling me along with him.
We careened through the woods, branches snapping into our faces, thorns catching at our clothes.
Carter urged me forward, telling me to go faster.
“Stop right there, Carter,” yelled someone behind us.
“Faster,” he told me, doubling his speed.
My breath was coming in painful gasps. I could hardly keep up with him as it was. I struggled to match his speed, picking up my feet.
But I was falling behind.
He twisted to see me. “Come on, Teagan, we need to run.”
I wheezed, trying to force my body to go quicker.
Suddenly, Carter went down.
He cried out.
I stopped too.
He was clutching his ankle.
“Get up.” I pulled him to his feet.
He tried to put weight on his foot. He screamed. “It’s twisted or broken or something,” he managed.
“Put your arm around me,” I said. “Lean on me.”
He did.
We hobbled forward. Every step he took caused him to wince. “Teagan, you’ve got to go on without me.”
“No,” I said. “I’m not leaving you.”
“They won’t hurt me,” he said. “They need me for the ritual, and they won’t give up on it. But if you could get away, really get away, then you’ll be safe. And as soon as the time for the ritual has passed, I’ll come for you.”
I shook my head. “No, come on, you need to move.” I cast a glance over my shoulder. They were getting closer.
“I can’t. You can move faster without me. You have to go. If they catch you...”
“Carter, I don’t want to leave you.”
“Go.” He pushed me away from him.
Without me to hold him up, he crumpled to the ground.
I looked at him sprawled there. I looked at the robed people who were still coming for us.
“Teagan,” he said.
“But—”
“I love you. Now go.”
“The last time I tried, it hurt.”
“I took off the wards,” he said.
I looked back at the robed people.
And then I ran.
I emerged out of the woods panting, with a stitch in my side. I wanted to walk, but I kept running.
The dorm was ahead of me. I could see that someone was stalking across the parking lot, her red hair streaming behind her. It was Reba.
Great. That was the last thing I needed.
I put my head down and kept running. I wouldn’t look at her.
“Reba, wait!” yelled a voice.
I looked up. There was Harper, hot on Reba’s heels.
“Look, I didn’t tell you that stuff so that you’d run away,” he said.
What if Harper saw me? What if he ran after me too?
Reba was putting the box in the trunk of her car. “Why would I stay, Harper? This whole place is corrupt. I’m blowing the whistle on it. I’m disgusted.”
She was what? I slowed, confused.
Harper looked up. He saw me.
Shit.
His eyes widened. “Teagan?”
I turned back to the woods. The people in their robes hadn’t come through after me yet, but I couldn’t chance running back to them.
However, Harper was in front of me. I couldn’t run to him either. I felt trapped, like a tracked animal. I hesitated.
“Teagan?” Reba this time, running straight for me.
I tried to swerve, but I wasn’t quick enough.
She embraced me. “Oh my God, Teagan, it’s too horrible.”
I pushed her off of me. “Get away.”
“I can’t believe they’re doing this to you.”
“What?”
“Harper told me everything. All about the ritual, and about the power the society needs, and—it’s awful.” She looked around. “My car. It’s over there. We have to get you out of here.”
I backed away. “Is this a joke?”
“Do you know what they’re going to do to you?”
“You hate me.”
“That doesn’t mean I want you raped until you go mad,” she said. “Come on.”
The robed people who’d been pursuing me broke through the woods.
Harper stalked towards us. “Reba, wait! We need your help.”
“Where’s your car?” I said.
She pointed.
We ran again, evading Harper.
She skidded to a stop at the driver’s side and threw herself in.
I ran around to the passenger side. I tried the handle. Locked.
Reba started the car.
I pounded on the window.
“Shit,” she said. “Sorry.”
She unlocked the car.
“Reba!” yelled Harper. He was only a few feet away.
I yanked the door to the car open.
“Get in,” she said.
I dove into the car, slamming the door after myself.
She screeched out of her parking space.
We took the road out of campus going at least seventy miles per hour.
That is, until we hit the first speed bump.
That kind of slowed us down a bit.
But we left Harper and the others behind. And we drove off campus, out onto the main road, putting blocks and blocks between us and Thornfield.
And nothing hurt. Carter had taken the wards off.
I sagged against the seat of the car in relief. I was free.
* * *
“See, I was right,” said Reba. “Something really freaky was going on. You were getting special treatment. T
hey set you up to get that scholarship. You were tapped for Scales and Fangs so that they could keep an eye on you. It was all true. It just wasn’t for a good reason. They were doing it because they wanted to use you.”
I rested my head against the window. “You were right. Everything that happened to be was all about this ritual. None of it meant anything.”
“Oh, not that I’m saying that you’re a bad actress—”
I glared at her. “Really?”
“Okay, well, maybe you have some room for improvement,” she said. “But I still don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Right,” I said. “Like when you fed me that pot brownie and told me it was normal?”
She cringed. “Sorry about that. Did it really freak you out being suddenly high?”
“No, it didn’t feel like anything. I just got really drunk, really fast, and I threw up all over everything.”
“Oh. Well, I’m sorry. I only did that because I wanted you to stay away from Harper, and because I was jealous. I didn’t know that half of the theater department was involved in this horrible scheme to try and complete that ritual. If I had known any of that, I would never have come to this college in the first place. It just makes me sick.”
“Really?” I raised my eyebrows. Reba was not the person I would have pegged as riding the moral high ground.
“Why is that so hard to believe?” she said.
“It’s just that you were so mean to me, and—”
“Well, it’s one thing to be mean and play a few harmless pranks. It’s another thing entirely to try to really hurt someone.”
“You told Dean Surber about me and Carter when you thought it meant he’d lose his job,” I said. “That wasn’t really hurting someone?”
“No,” she said. “Besides, he deserved it. He shouldn’t have been sleeping with you. Although I have to admit it was a relief that you weren’t with Harper.”
I rolled my eyes. Whatever. Reba apparently didn’t have remorse. But she’d saved me, so I guessed I should be grateful.
“So,” she said, gripping the steering wheel, “where are we going? Should we expose these guys to the media like the dogs they are?”
“Scales and Fangs? You think we really could expose them?”
“Sure. We can get the news media into the inner sanctum, can’t we?” she said. “They’ll take their cameras down there, and they’ll show all of America the dark underbelly of secret societies.”
“I’m just not sure reporters will believe us. Rituals? Magic? Wards? It all sounds kind of crazy.”
“You might be right.” She chewed on her lip. “Does that mean the police won’t believe us either?”
“Probably,” I said.
“Damn it. That really sucks.”
“We need to go to my aunts,” I said. “I’ve got to get Carter back. I’m afraid they’ll hurt him if they don’t get to do the ritual.”
“You really like Carter, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” I said. “There’s something between us. Something important.”
“Are you sure he wasn’t just taking advantage of you?”
“He helped me escape,” I said. “He forced me to go on without him when he got hurt. He put my safety above his. Even if he was taking advantage of me, he’s changed. Besides, I care about him. I have to make sure he’s okay.”
“Well, I guess that’s sweet,” she said. “But you have to admit that it is kind of gross that he was your professor when you guys hooked up.”
“I think it’s hot,” I said.
“Why? He’s a creeper.”
“He’s a tortured soul who fought as hard as he could to keep his hands off of me, but couldn’t because he was so desperately attracted to me.”
“Oh,” she said. “When you put it that way, it does sound kind of hot. Plus, he’s always so proper. Did he call you Miss Moss while you guys were making out?”
“Sometimes.”
She sighed. “Fuck you, I’m still jealous.”
I laughed.
“Anyway, what’s this about your aunts?”
“Oh, right,” I said. “Well, they know about magic, and if there’s anyone who can fight off Scales and Fangs, it’ll be them.”
“Cool,” she said. “I want Scales and Fangs to pay.”
“Me too,” I said.
She grinned, and we soared down the highway.
Reba’s phone rang. She dug it out of her pocket and answered. “Hey there, Harper. You tell your pals at Scales and Fangs that—What?” She rolled her eyes and tossed the phone to me. “It’s for you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, it’s always about you, Teagan,” she said. “You’d think after I just rescued your ass that I’d become a little more important. But no, it’s always Teagan, Teagan, Teagan.”
I furrowed my brow and put the phone to my ear. “Harper?”
“Hi, Teagan,” he said. “I’ve got something I want you to hear.” There was a muffled sound, like the phone was moving. And then I heard a bloodcurdling scream. “Did you hear that?”
“Yes.”
“That was Carter,” said Harper, giggling. “Guess what I’m doing to him?”
I heard Carter’s voice, strained in the distance. “Don’t come back, Teagan. No matter what, don’t come back.”
“Harper,” I said. “Don’t hurt him, please.”
“That’s exactly what I’m going to do,” he said. “But I’ll stop on two conditions.”
“What?” I said.
“One,” he said, “that you come back to Thornfield College so that you can be part of the ritual to save Scales and Fangs.”
“There’s another condition?” I said.
“That you star in the play we’ve been working on for the past two months.”
* * *
“Don’t go back,” said Reba. We were parked on the side of the road, only about ten miles away from Thornfield. “If you go back, they’ll hurt you.”
“I have to,” I said. “He’s hurting Carter. I can’t let him do that.”
“But if you go back, they win,” she said.
“Maybe not,” I said. “You can go to my aunts and tell them what happened. They can come and rescue both Carter and me.”
She considered. “That would mean that I was pretty important, wouldn’t it? Going on a mission that would rescue everybody?”
“It’s a pretty important job,” I agreed.
“All right, fine,” she said. “You go back and save Professor Alexander. I’ll bring back your aunts so that we can destroy Scales and Fangs once and for all.”
“Thank you, Reba,” I said.
“My pleasure.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
I sat in the dressing room, trying to keep my hands steady as I applied lipstick. Harper and Adelaide stood behind me. I could see their reflections in the mirror, but I refused to turn to face them. It was the night of the play.
“Now, remember, if you mess any of this up, Carter will pay for it,” said Harper.
On arriving back at Thornfield, I’d allowed Harper to take me back down into the inner sanctum of Scales and Fangs again. If I didn’t cooperate with him, then Carter was hurt.
I hadn’t been able to see Carter, only videos on Harper’s cell phone. Carter hadn’t been given proper medical attention for his ankle. It was splinted, but nothing more. And Harper had him tied up somewhere. He used knives and needles and ropes to torture him if I didn’t do exactly as he wished.
He’d been smuggling me up for rehearsals for a week and a half. I couldn’t try to leave the rehearsals, not until I found and saved Carter.
At first, I’d hoped that Reba and my aunts would show up. Every day, I’d expected them. But the days wore on, and they didn’t arrive.
“And Reba too,” Harper continued. “I’ll hurt her for trying to help you. So, unless you want them to be terrorized, you’ll make this the performance of your life.”
Reba hadn’t made it to my aun
ts’ house. Instead, she’d been hunted down by members of Scales and Fangs and brought back. She was being held prisoner along with Carter and me. There was no hope. I had to do as Harper said, or people would be hurt. I had no choices.
I glared at Adelaide’s reflection. “Don’t you think he’s gone to extremes? He’s torturing people. Is that what you do here?”
She smiled coldly. “I think that he’s hit on a very inventive way to keep you in line, Teagan. It seems to be working very well. I’m not going to interfere. Besides, I do love a good play.”
I’d be performing tonight.
The ritual would be later. At midnight.
The show would be done around ten o’clock. There would be enough time afterwards to prepare me for the ritual.
This was it. My last night with my mental faculties. After tonight, I didn’t know what I’d be like. Probably like my mother, seeing things that weren’t there and mumbling nonsense. I’d be ruined.
I was terrified. I wanted to refuse to do this play for Harper. I didn’t want him to get a shred of satisfaction after the horrible things he’d done to me.
But I didn’t want anyone to get hurt.
And the truth was, I loved to act. I was grateful that my last night would be on stage. It was my greatest joy in life. In some ways, Harper was doing me a favor.
There was a knock at the door to the dressing room. “We’re at ten minutes before curtain,” called the stage manager.
“Thank you,” I responded.
“We’ll leave you to get prepared,” said Harper. “But don’t forget that I have no problem making Carter cry like a baby.”
I wanted to strangle him.
Instead, I just glared as he and Adelaide left the dressing room.
I looked at myself in the mirror. I was already in my costume for Ella, the woman stuck between a human fiancé and a man who is a dog during the day and a human at night. Moon and Moon was a quirky play, but Ella and I were both equally as trapped. Still, in a few minutes, I’d be able to escape into her for an hour and a half. I’d stand on a stage, move in ways that had already been decided for me and speak words that had been written for me, but I’d be freer than I ever was when I got to make decisions for myself.
I thought about trying to make a run for it. The back entrance was open so that the other actors in the play could go out back and smoke cigarettes.
I could probably make it.
But they’d warded me again. I hadn’t had a chance to test it, to try to leave campus again, but it would probably be the same as last time. I’d be in excruciating pain if I tried it.
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