by Huss, JA
“Mine?” Cooper asks.
“Paid for, Coop.” I shrug. “And when I asked who paid it, the cashier told me that you don’t pay tuition. Never have.”
“Hmm,” Cooper says, thinking about that.
“But what else is going on upstairs?” I ask. “Because Dane seemed to think that…” God, I don’t even know how to explain it. “And his wife.” I shudder. “She’s creepy. They said…” I have to stop and convince myself that I actually heard what they said.
“They said what?” Cooper asks.
“They said I belong to them, Cooper. That I was… bred for them? What the fuck does that mean?”
His face goes white. “I don’t know.”
I lower my voice just in case someone is listening in. I don’t want this part to be heard. “You’re lying. You know things. You’ve been in that tomb. What happens in there? Why do they call Sophie the offering? What the actual fuck is happening here?”
“I don’t know,” Cooper insists.
I’m just about to lay into him when Ax says, “He’s not lying, Cadee. They don’t tell us anything until after we graduate. We don’t know any more than you, probably. I mean, we’ve seen the inside.” He shudders. “And I’m not gonna lie, it’s fucking insane. But as far as what they really do in there? We don’t know. We won’t know until we’re through initiation and that happens when we graduate. But my father said some very sick things once.” Ax looks at Cooper, not me. Which is telling.
“Was it about me being the offering?”
Ax directs his gaze to me now. “Yes. So I think”—he pauses—“and I hate to say this”—he’s looking at Cooper again—“but we need to go back upstairs and see what the fuck they’re doing.”
“Are we allowed?” I ask Cooper.
“Actually, we’ve all been invited. I’m pretty sure they’re expecting us.”
“Even me?” I ask.
Both Cooper and Ax nod. But they don’t smile.
The three of us collectively sigh. Secrets suck. Especially when you have this very good plan put in motion by evil Dante and now you realize you didn’t have all the facts when that plan was made.
“Fine then. I want to go. I need to know what the hell is happening. That word. ‘Bred’ for him, Cooper? What does that mean? Like… my mind is going places, ya know? Really dark, gross places.”
“I don’t know,” he insists. “But we need to stop pretending things aren’t happening just because we’re not participating. Because clearly, these people are proceeding as usual, whether we’re a part of it or not.”
“And obviously those secrets we thought we had?” I say. “Aren’t very secret.”
“Yeah,” Cooper agrees. “But maybe Dane is lying? Because why would my father leave us alone for all these weeks if he wasn’t worried about them?”
“Did he leave us alone?” Ax asks. “Or, like you said, did they just proceed without us? Because one week ago we were all on the same page. And now, everyone has changed.”
“We don’t know that.” I say it because I want to believe it, not because I do. I lower my voice. “I mean, the whole plan involves discretion.”
“The whole plan,” Ax says, “involves everyone doing their part. You didn’t see all the pledges in the dining room, Cadee. Everyone was all smiles.”
“So they’re out?”
Both of them just shrug at me.
“Let’s go,” Cooper says, taking my hand. “The more we know, the better off we are.”
I’ve been in the Chairman’s dining room several times, but my visits have been few enough that entering it still takes my breath away. The royal-blue velvet curtains and gold tassels that frame the wall-to-wall windows overlooking the college campus and the lake beyond make for a breathtaking initial view. And the many crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling are like a lesson in opulence.
We stop in the doorway. Mostly because we are unsure what to do next. The room is packed with tables filled with people. Forty of them, to be exact. I know this little fact from working in here with my mom a few times. Some of them have a young person—I recognize our pledges from this summer, plus about a dozen more faces just from seeing them around campus—and at those tables, their families sit with them. The Chairman is at the top of the room where a small podium stands. I don’t recognize the rest of the people, but once I spot Dane and his wife—plus Cooper’s other brother, Jack, and his wife—I figure they are all past pledges.
No. That’s the wrong word.
They are current members. Fully vested in the Fang and Feather Society.
Then it clicks. This is an official meeting.
“There they are!” the Chairman bellows from across the room.
Everyone turns to look at us and I want to melt into the background. But Cooper has one hand and Ax takes the other. Both of them give me a little squeeze for courage.
“Over here, kids,” the Chairman says, pointing to a table right up in front of the podium.
The three of us inhale deeply at the same time. Like we’re all steeling ourselves for what might come next. Then make our way past all the other tables to the one up front.
There are three place settings with three notecards on the plates.
Ax has the seat on my left and Cooper has the one on my right.
We take our seats and I kick my bookstore bag under the light blue tablecloth.
Weird. All of this is weird.
Servers appear—none of whom I recognize—and then we have water, and someone is bringing coffee and juice, and then a plate of fruit is put down in front of Ax and a pastry plate is put down in front of Cooper.
“What is this?” I ask, leaning in to Cooper.
But before he can answer, the Chairman says, “Welcome to the annual Fang and Feather new initiate brunch. We have so much good news to talk about today.”
“Really?” Ax whisper-laughs. Then he looks around and I follow his gaze back to the table off to our right where his father sits. Alone.
“It’s not just me. This is weird? Right?” I whisper this towards Cooper as the Chairman continues talking. “I mean, sitting the three of us together when everyone else is with their families?” Then I look behind me and catch a glimpse of Mona. “Look, even Mona is sitting with her bodyguards.”
“He’s up to something,” Cooper says. “And we walked right into it.”
“First,” the Chairman says, “let’s welcome our legacies. When I call your name, please join me at the podium. Sophie Bettington.” He pauses while the room claps and Sophie, blushing a bright pink that matches her demure lace dress, stands up and awkwardly smiles. Then makes her way up to the Chairman.
“Next, Mona Monroe. Come on up here, Mona,” the Chairman prods. Like Mona might have other ideas. But she’s playing the game now. And I glance at Dante, who is beaming a smile up at her as she makes her way up to the podium. I guess they’ve made peace with their arrangement.
“And last, but certainly not least, Cadee Hunter.”
My own name echoes in my head as the room claps.
“What?” I say, looking up at the Chairman.
“Come on up, Cadee. Don’t be shy.”
The room continues to clap as I hesitate. “What the hell?” I whisper.
“Play along,” Cooper says, his teeth clenched in a smile.
But. No. Not after Dane ambushed me in the bursar’s office. I’m not playing along. “I’m sorry, Chairman.” I say it softly, still in my seat, but he’s literally right in front of me, so there is no chance he’s not hearing my protests. “I’m not a legacy.”
“Oh, you are, Cadee. Both of your parents were fully vested members of Fang and Feather. And if you will be so kind as to join your fellow legacies on stage, we can get on with their memorial and the dedication.”
But still, I hesitate.
Did I hear those words correctly? Memorial?
“Cooper, I think your date needs some help. Please, escort her up. She’s overwhelmed with excitement.�
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Cooper sighs. Heavily. But he scrapes his chair across the floor and stands, offering me his hand as he leans into my ear. “Five minutes, Cadee. It will be over in five minutes and then we’re leaving, and we’re going home, and we’re going to forget that this morning ever happened.”
I let him pull me to my feet while the room continues to applaud. And I want to believe it. I really want to believe that in ten minutes we’ll be in the Camaro and on our way back to the inn. Back to our new home.
But I know that’s not how this day will end.
Because if I am a legacy and my parents were a part of Fang and Feather, then my life is a lie.
They lied to me.
CHAPTER SEVEN - COOPER
“How many times can I say it today? What the fuck?” Ax whispers.
I don’t have an answer for him. I feel like we got on the crazy train around nine AM this morning and we’ve got no return ticket home.
Cadee joins Mona and Sophie at the front of the room—next to my father, which makes me seethe. First Isabella and now Cadee. Not to mention all the other pledges. And Ax. Only Lars seems to have escaped—but then, when I turn my head to the left, I see him sitting with his parents. His eyes are on Cadee and my father is already talking again, so he doesn’t even notice me.
“Welcome, legacies!” My father claps, so the rest of the room picks it up again. Then the Chairman puts up his hands and pats the air, asking for quiet. His sycophants respond with their seemingly unwavering obedience and go silent.
“How well do you know them?” my father asks. “Probably not well enough.” He introduces Mona. Talks about her family’s history—it’s long. I mean, Monrovian Lake? And the nearby town of Monrovia? Everyone knows where they got their name. The Monroe family were founding settlers in this area. One of the first High Court families.
But it’s not really a family anymore, is it?
I don’t ever remember there being anyone in the mansion next door except Mona and her fucking bodyguards. If she had parents—and of course she did, we all do—they never lived there.
My father moves on to Sophie. Her pale face is blotchy and her too-red hair is a little bit flyaway because she’s standing near an air conditioning vent. Now her I don’t have any clue about. I have seen the Bettingtons around, of course. They are at all the usual parties and I know they have a lake mansion, so they are definitely one of the ‘in crowd’. But that mansion is far, far away from the one I grew up in. Very low in the pecking order.
“And who doesn’t know Cadee Hunter?” my father asks the room.
Well, none of us really, right? Because up until this very moment she was a weird girl in the woods. A Fugling at the summer rush. The homeschooled girl who lived with the gardener and the cafeteria baker who couldn’t even get into the Monrovian Community College because she didn’t actually have a high school diploma.
I was worried that my father would block her entrance when I walked away from the tomb in the woods all those weeks ago. She wasn’t an official student. And there would be no scholarship because none of us finished the summer, and that was a condition of her reward.
But two days later she got an acceptance packet in the mail from High Court College Admissions. It was even delivered to the old inn. And inside was everything she needed to create her student account online and register for classes.
It felt like a victory at the time. We all celebrated. The inn was our new home and we were hanging out together all day. Working on the place. I mean, we hired people to fix most of it, but we all did simple things like paint and pull up carpet to reveal the original hardwood floors underneath. We shopped for things we needed. Kitchen stuff, and linens, and TV’s. Cadee was footing the bill, of course. The rest of us were broke. But we had dinners together too. We barbecued and drank beer out back in the ruins of that weird mini-amphitheater built right along the water’s edge that looked a little bit like a replica straight out of ancient Greece.
But it doesn’t feel like a victory now. It feels like a setup.
“Cadee.” My father is still talking. “Welcome to Fang and Feather. Your parents were active members right up until the day they died.” He frowns at her, his face falling suddenly. And of course, I interpret it as fake.
But I pause and study him.
Is it fake?
I can’t tell. He’s that good of a liar.
“I’m so very sorry for your loss. But your place in our world is very special, Cadee. And we’re all very sorry about their loss. The building has been in the works for three years. Ever since your father passed.”
Cadee’s look goes from confusion to WTF? She looks at me and I shrug. No idea, Cades. I wish I knew what he was talking about.
“But when your mother also passed so very unexpectedly, we knew we had to have the building ready by fall semester move-in day.”
Cadee has reached the end of her patient listening. Because she blurts, “What the hell are you talking about?”
My father chuckles, which allows the whole room to chuckle with him. Ha, ha, ha. Isn’t she cute? “Perhaps we should all take a little field trip, hmm?”
Everyone is suddenly on their feet. So I jump up too. My father is leading Cadee away from the stage, his hand possessively around her waist as he leans down in to her ear to whisper something.
“Cadee,” I say.
She stops, even though my father has no intention of waiting for me, let alone hearing what I have to say. He lets go of her and continues.
“What the hell?” I ask.
She blinks her eyes rapidly. “You’re asking me what the hell?” Then she laughs. People are filing out of the room as we both stare at each other.
“Well,” Ax says. “Are we going to follow them? Or just make our escape now before it gets worse and go home?”
“I’m going,” Cadee says. “I don’t know what this is about—”
“Lies,” I say. “It’s about lies.”
“Maybe,” she agrees. “But I want to hear the lies and decide for myself. And what building is he talking about? I didn’t see any new buildings when we arrived today, did you?”
“No. But we haven’t been here all summer. So who knows?”
“Come on,” she says, taking my hand, then Ax’s. Because it’s clear he’s about to call it a day and bolt.
He gives in. Grudgingly. And we both follow her down the stairs and then catch up with the tail end of the Fang and Feather crowd as we make our way past the cafeteria building and into the woods.
We’re on the west side of campus, opposite the stadium and student cottage dorms. There’s not much over here except trails and the gardener’s cottage. But we go past the garden cottage too. And by that time I can already hear the gasps from the front of the crowd. A few moments later we walk up to a large engraved marble plaque that states, in thick, bold letters, ‘The Hunter Building. In loving memory of Ian and Avery Hunter and dedicated to their daughter, Cadee.’
“What the fuck?” Ax says.
“Holy shit,” Cadee exclaims. Then her eyes track up and forward. To the actual building. “Wow.”
It deserves that wow. That’s just the kind of building it is. Reminiscent of both the Glass House out in the woods behind my family mansion and the gardener’s cottage we just passed, it is a spectacular tribute to steel and glass—a giant four-story greenhouse, or a modern example of see-through living. People are already inside. In fact, I can see my father with Mona and Sophie standing on the landing between the first and second floors, chatting with them both excitedly.
“What is this?” I say.
“A tribute.”
I turn, quickly, and find my brother, Jack, walking up behind me with his wife, Leela. Jack and I look a lot alike and even though he’s always been a lot more focused and ambitious than me, his personality is far more chill than Dane’s. He kisses Leela on the cheek, lets go of her hand, and then whispers, “I’ll see you inside in a few minutes.”
L
eela nods at him, then smiles at me, and continues without us.
Jack shoves his hands into his pockets and grins at Cadee. “Surprise.”
“You knew about this?” I ask.
“Of course. I’ve been working on this building for three years, Cadee.”
Interesting that he talks to her and not me. Not that I expect to speak for Cadee or anything. But I think he owes me an explanation just as much as her.
“We hope you like it. We were trying to make it feel like home.”
“I don’t understand,” Cadee says. “What is this place?”
“Oh.” Jack laughs. “Sorry, I just assumed you had caught on. It’s the Fang and Feather dorms.”
“Dorms?” Cadee and I say it at the same time.
Then I say, “What dorms?”
Jack shoots me a look. “The new ones. Come on, let’s go check it out.” He takes Cadee’s hand and starts leading her up the final path to the building’s entrance. “Normally,” I hear him say, “the Cygnet would get the top-floor suite. But Isabella has already agreed that you can have it. Since it’s your building.” He chuckles. “She’s magnanimous like that.”
Cadee looks back at me like she’s begging for help.
Jack notices and calls over his shoulder, “Keep up, Coop. Your little princess here is the star of the show and you wouldn’t want to miss that, would you?”
Ax and I shoot each other a look.
But then we fall in step behind them.
No way we’re going to miss this.
Whatever it is.
Inside, Ax and I gather with the crowd at the base of the stairs. Jack has led Cadee up to the landing where my father stands, hands in pockets, rocking back on his heels, look of pure pleasure on his face as he beams a smile down at Cadee.
I don’t think he has ever looked at me with that kind of… what is it? Pride? Love? I dunno. But it’s creeping me out.
“Attention, everyone.” My father claps his hands and people all around the bottom floor lower their voices to a soft hush, unable to completely stop talking about the beautiful lobby.