by Huss, JA
And it is quite beautiful, with the many seating areas filled with overstuffed couches and chairs that are reminiscent of the Glass House, but in neutral shades of leather. At least a dozen little conversation areas that I can see just from this vantage point.
The building is actually a square with an open-air courtyard surrounded by glass in the center. It’s filled with outdoor furniture and greenery. And when I look up, that courtyard extends all the way to the top floor.
“Jesus Christ,” Ax says. “Did you know he was building a dorm?”
“Of course not,” I say. “He doesn’t tell me anything.”
“Well, he’s been planning this a long time,” Ax says, his voice low, because my father is already making his big speech.
“Yeah, since he had her father killed,” I whisper back. “Fucking guilt. That’s what this building is made of.”
“… and so,” my father says, “we knew we needed to acknowledge the Hunter family and their contributions to High Court. Cadee.” He turns to her. She looks flustered and more than a little bit confused. “Welcome to your new home away from home.” He smiles at her. “I know you just bought yourself a house, but I hope you will enjoy your freshman year on campus. And of course, if you want to stay in your suite for your entire academic career here at High Court, the top floor will be yours.”
“What?” Cadee’s eyes find mine in the crowd. “I don’t understand. I’m not living here.”
“All freshmen have to live on campus, Cadee. It’s just a rule. To ease you into your higher learning life. Shall we go upstairs and find your new home? Hmm?” He’s still beaming that creepy smile at her.
“Shit,” Ax says. “Did you know about that rule?”
“I… maybe? I don’t know. I never thought about it. We didn’t even think about moving off campus when we were freshmen.”
We didn’t think about much at all, now that I consider it.
Too preoccupied with ourselves, I suppose.
My father leads Cadee up the stairs, with Jack and Leela close behind. And then everyone is going up the stairs.
I hear Jack call out, “Freshmen and sophomores! You’re on the second floor. Juniors and seniors, you’re on the third floor. Feel free to find your rooms. And of course, the King and his Queen are on the top floor.”
“Whoa, what?” Ax asks. “Since when is Cadee the Cygnet?”
“Since my father couldn’t control me any other way,” I mumble. “Which means, I guess I have a room at the top of this building too?”
It makes sense. Since I am the King in waiting.
But Ax and I are among the last to get to the top and it’s only then—when I hear Lars thanking my father for the spectacular glass suite on the roof—that I realize what my father has done.
I’ve been dethroned.
CHAPTER EIGHT - CADEE
Overwhelmed doesn’t even describe how I feel as I enter the top-floor terrace to find two small apartments made of steel and glass. They both have folding glass doors—wide open right now—that blend the inside space with the outdoors. The kind Cooper has at his mansion. And there are sheer light blue curtains billowing out of mine and dark blue velvet ones tied back for… Lars?
What the fuck is happening?
Lars is King? Since when?
I stare at my new home, trying to will this day into making sense.
“Surprise.”
I turn to find Lars coming out of his glass suite to my left. He’s wearing a dark blue suit and a broad smile.
“Lars,” I say, letting him take both my hands in his. Then I look around and get self-conscious because everyone is staring at us. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, since Cooper didn’t want to be King, I was offered the position. I’ll be living up here with you. In my own suite, of course. But forget about me. Don’t you want to see your new place?”
“Um…” I don’t know what to say. About any of it. The building has my name on it. And my parents’ names. And I’m… a legacy? “Lars,” I whisper, leaning into his ear. “I don’t understand what’s happening right now.”
“My dear,” the Chairman says, placing his hand on my shoulder. “You are the new High Court Queen. Go on, Lars. Take her inside so she can see her suite up close.”
“What?”
Lars leans down to my neck as he steers me towards the right. “Just… go with it, Cadee. Smile and play along.”
I let Lars lead me across the glass and steel bridge that spans the open courtyard below. Trying my best to smile and play along.
Lars pulls the sheer light blue curtain aside and I get my first real glimpse of how the ruling class really live. And OK, I’ve been around these people my whole life. I have looked at those mansions across the lake for nearly two decades. I just spent a summer living inside one of them. I know what luxury is.
But I’ve never had it myself.
The room at Cooper’s house was just a guest room. In fact, every place I’ve ever lived until I bought the inn was just another guest house.
But this building has my name on it. And this apartment on the top-floor terrace… has my stuff in it.
“Where?” I ask, twirling in place as I soak up all the things that were in the attic apartment I shared with my mother. They went missing months ago and now they are all here. In this new… home. All our family photos. The blanket we used to keep on the back of the couch. Even my favorite stuffed bear that my father gave me for my sixth birthday is positioned on the pillows of the elaborate canopy bed that would give the opulent one back in the Valcourt guest suite a run for its money.
“We found the truck,” the Chairman says. “Actually”—he chuckles—“I have to confess, I made up that story about your mother buying a house in North Dakota.”
“You don’t say,” I reply.
“I knew you weren’t falling for it.” He sighs. And his smile falters. “I was just trying to surprise you. So I made it all up. The scholarship job in the Glass House. The moving truck headed to North Dakota. The house, the will… all of it. I just wanted to surprise you. And I didn’t know if you had summer plans, Cadee. So forgive me if it came off as sneaky. I just needed you to stick around until the building was done. We couldn’t start construction with you on this side of the lake so… I’m sorry that I allowed Victor to take the gardener’s cottage. I just needed you on the other side of the lake.”
“Sneaky?” I say, looking at Lars. He smiles at me, a warning in his eyes. Smile back. Play along, that look says. “Well.” I laugh. “It worked. I am… totally surprised. And…” I place my hand over my heart. “I’m touched, Chairman. Truly.”
“Good,” the Chairman says. He visibly relaxes. Like this was a test of how gullible I might be.
And check! I passed. I guess.
“Good,” he repeats. “And please, call me Mr. Valcourt. ‘The Chairman’ is so… formal.”
“Right. Sure… Mr. Valcourt.”
Because that’s not formal. But the last thing I need is him asking me to call him Winston. No. This whole thing is weird. And there’s something very wrong with it. Especially after that creepy encounter with Dane just an hour ago. I can’t get his words out of my head. Bred for me.
“What the hell?”
We all turn to find Cooper and Ax making their way over to us.
“What is going on?” Cooper demands.
“Cooper,” his father says. “I’m glad you came up.” He smiles at his son, then pans his hands wide. “I wanted you to see what you’re missing.” Then he points to Lars. “But don’t worry. Lars is more than happy to take your place, since you and Ax insist on staying at that inn. Such a big place.” Then he turns to me. “I’m sure it will be lovely by the time next year comes around and who knows, maybe you’ll want to move out at that time. Go back to it. Or maybe you’ll want to stay here and sell that place? Once you fix it up, of course. I hope Cooper is handy. If he’s going to live rent-free in your home, Cadee, I do hope you make him work it off. No
thing is free, after all. Cooper always did have a hard time learning that lesson.”
Cooper takes a deep breath. And then he smiles at his father. “Will you excuse us, Dad? Cadee, Lars, Ax, and I need to have a little chat.”
“By all means,” the Chairman says with a flourish of his hand. “We’re having a toast in the dining room on the bottom floor. Cadee, please be down there in fifteen minutes.” Then his eyebrows lift up. “I have one more surprise for you. And trust me, you won’t want to miss this one.”
Then he takes my hand, kisses my knuckles, and walks off.
“What the fuck?” Ax whispers when the Chairman is barely out of earshot.
But Cooper has already turned to Lars. “What the fuck?” he repeats. Only he’s not quiet about it. “What are you doing, Lars?”
“Don’t blame me,” Lars protests. “I’m just filling a vacancy.”
“Hey!”
We all look at the entrance to my new room and Jack Valcourt enters, pushing the swaths of sheer blue curtains aside. He stops just short of entering. “Wow.” And he whistles to illustrate his awe. “This turned out fantastic.” Then he palms the air with his hands. “But it wasn’t me. I didn’t turn this place into a room fit for a queen. That was all Leela.”
Cooper sighs. Loudly.
“What’s the problem, Coop?” Jack asks his little brother.
“You know what the problem is. We moved out, Jack. Why the hell would you go along with this?”
“This isn’t about you, Cooper.”
“Agreed,” Lars says. “It’s about Cadee.”
“Don’t you want her to have a place of her own? Even if it’s just during college? You’ve grown up in pure privilege, Cooper. She has struggled her whole life. Don’t be a dick about this, little brother. Just be happy for her.”
Cooper turns to me. Takes my hand in his. “I am, Cadee. If this is what you want, I’m behind you one hundred percent. But—” I know what he wants to say. Don’t fall for it. It’s a trap. He’s setting us up.
“But nothing,” Jack says. “And it’s not Lars’s fault you bowed out of being King. You could be living up here with her, Cooper. I mean, hell. If we had this when Leela and I were seniors, we’d have had a blast up here on our own private floor.”
Cooper’s mind must be spinning with visions of Lars and me up here. Alone. All year long. He sucks in a long breath, like he’s about to make an ill-advised speech about such things, but Jack cuts him off.
“Cadee,” he says. “You’re needed downstairs. We’re christening the building, so to speak. And since that plaque out front has your name on it, you’re the guest of honor.”
I look at Cooper, unsure what to do.
“Don’t look at him,” Jack says. “This is Cadee’s day, Cooper. Let her enjoy it.”
“I don’t need you to tell me that,” Cooper retorts. Then he offers me his hand. “Come on. Let’s celebrate.” And when he smiles at me, unleashing those dangerous dimples, I sigh inside. Maybe even swoon a little.
Because having him here, and this building—this whole day, actually, with the exception of Dane—it’s like a dream come true. And I really do feel a little bit like a princess.
I understand what’s happening. Sort of. I get the general idea, at least. This is just another payoff. The Chairman had my parents killed to cover up for his sex-offender middle son.
I’m not going to justify any of that.
But… but… this building has my family name on it. And I am being forced to live in it as a condition of an elite education. It feels very privileged of me to complain about that.
Even if there are strings. Lots of them. And I have no idea what they are. But when I agreed to play this game at the beginning of the semester, I did it to get justice. And some of this feels a little bit justified.
No one has admitted the truth.
Yet.
But they will. And by the time this is over, I will make them admit their crimes.
I put my hand in Cooper’s and he squeezes it. Jack leads the way, Ax falls in behind him, then Cooper and I, and Lars picks up the rear.
We pass all the other Fang and Feather initiates as we make our way back down to the bottom floor. And Jack loudly announces the celebration, so they fall in behind us, everyone talking at once. Not just the girls, either. The boys seem to be just as excited about the new building.
The cottages that act as dorms on the other side of campus are super nice too. I don’t think it’s normal for colleges to offer such sweet accommodations the way High Court does. But this building is way over the top when you consider how few kids will actually live here.
Cooper explained how Fang and Feather works. Each incoming class has three male and three female initiates. That’s six per class. So we should be a total number of twenty-four. But no one in the freshman class was weeded out during summer rush, so that’s four extra. Plus me. For a grand total of twenty-nine members.
I would not call the building huge. It’s four stories, including the royal top floor. But it has a compact footprint. Still, only twenty-seven people in a place that must surely have over ten thousand square feet of combined space.
It’s like we’re living in a vertical mansion.
All the kids around us are excited, but none of them are in awe the way I am. And why should they be? High Court College is grooming the future ruling class—these kids have come to expect opulence like this.
Me, on the other hand?
No. This is not normal. And I’m suspicious like Cooper. We know better. All of us—the summer pledges and the seniors—we talked all about this that first night at the inn. Went over every possible way it could play out. And Dante had an answer for every scenario. He had a plan B, C, D… it got to a point where we were just confused.
But Lars understood. His mind works that way.
Still, none of us talked much about Dane. And an hour ago he was threatening me. Practically insinuated that I was going to be his… what? Concubine?
That’s what it sounded like to me.
But this building? It tells me that maybe Dane isn’t calling the shots like he thinks.
Or it’s all a setup. To make me comfortable. Get me used to the high life and then threaten to take it all away if I don’t fall in line.
Isn’t that what the Chairman has been doing to Cooper all these years?
If that is the plan, they won’t succeed. Not with me. I’m not used to any of this. The old inn, with its cracked plaster and leaky roof, is way more my style. I’d be just as happy there.
I won’t get lost in this world. No matter how many nice things they offer me.
This brings back an image of Valentina on the opening day of summer rush, dripping with diamonds, asking all the girls if they wanted what she was offering them.
The jewels, and the mansion, and the money, and the man.
I have the man I want. And a little bit of money. More, if I stay true to Dante’s plan and get him crowned King. I like jewelry, but I don’t need it. Really, I could do without all the other things if Cooper is at my side.
The chairman is already tapping a spoon to a glass when we enter the dining room. “Cadee!” he calls. “Please, join me up here with my family.”
“Oh, shit,” I mutter. Because Dane and his wife are already up front with the Chairman and Jack’s wife, Leela.
“It’s fine,” Cooper whispers in my ear. “One toast, smile, say nice things to people for ten minutes, and then we’re out of here. We can talk it all through later. I’ll stand between you and Dane. He won’t get another word with you. Ever.”
I take a deep breath as Cooper leads me up to the front of the beautiful dining room. It’s not as opulent as the Chairman’s dining room, by any stretch. But it’s very pretty. Each table is lower to the ground than a normal dining table. Not as low as a coffee table, but something in between. And the chairs around the tables aren’t normal dining room chairs, either. They are plush and overstuffed lik
e the leather ones out in the seating area. Like dining in this dorm is an intimate event instead of simply a meal and the chairs need to be super comfortable so we can all lounge around as we’re being served.
But no one is sitting. And servers are passing out champagne glasses that sparkle in the sunshine that beams through the windows. Making all the happy, beautiful faces in this room glimmer gold.
Cooper and I arrive at the front of the room and he positions himself between me and Dane as his father begins making the toast.
The Chairman says a lot of nice things. About me, and my parents, and my work ethic. Not that he would really know anything about that. Then my grades and how much I deserve this education and the building. What grades? This just proves he knows nothing about me or my life. I studied things until I learned them, no matter how long it took. And then my mother proclaimed me proficient and we moved on to some other interesting topic.
But whatever. This whole day is based on some other life of Cadee Hunter. Why stop now?
Cooper is handed two glasses and he offers me one with a smile.
And is that a real smile?
I grin back at him, because I think it is. Then I lean up on my tiptoes and whisper, “I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Me too, Cades.”
Yes. His happiness is real. And that’s kind of nice.
“Cheers to our newest Fang and Feather legacy, Cadee Hunter. And welcome, everyone, to the new Hunter Building!”
Everyone claps and clinks glasses. Cooper and I do as well, and then I sip the champagne.
Which has a strong, but delightful strawberry flavor to it.
“What is this?” Elizabeth says loudly, holding the champagne glass up in the sunlight. “What is this?”
She looks at Dane, who is still drinking from his glass.
“Is this strawberry?” Elizabeth shrieks.
“Shit,” Cooper says.
And then the Chairman grabs Dane’s glass—he’s still drinking—and flings it aside. It smashes on the floor and the golden liquid, along with shards of glass, goes flying up, splashing and cutting the bare legs of a nearby girl.