by Ruby Vincent
Kai ripped off his glove just so he could flip me off and I laughed even harder. Unlike him, I was doing well. I carefully propelled myself through the snow like the instructor taught us.
“Very good, guys,” the instructor called. “Now I’m going to show you the proper way to hold your skis—”
“So you don’t hit anyone!” Tanya Leggot threw Kai a withering glare. The bruise on her forehead was turning purple.
“—and then that will conclude the session,” he finished.
I twisted around to poke at the lever for the bindings. My left foot popped free and I moved to my right. I jabbed at the lever and tugged.
My foot didn’t budge.
I pressed harder, but the binding didn’t loosen.
“Val, what’s wrong?”
“I can’t get my foot out.” I jerked my leg. “The binding is stuck.”
“Wait, hold on.” Kai stepped around me and took hold of my thigh. “Push while I pull.”
I jammed down with the poles while he yanked on me. We both groaned with the effort.
“Shit, you’re really in there.” Kai shifted and put his arm around my waist. He pressed me to his chest and then put my free leg between his while he got a firmer hold on the other.
“You two,” I heard the instructor call. “What’s the problem?”
“Ready?”
“Okay.”
“Now.”
One hard pull and I popped free. The poles shot out of my hands as the force knocked me off-balance.
“Ahhh!”
Kai and I collapsed to the ground in a shower of white powder. I fell on top of him, and from the groans, it was none too gently. Shouts went up around us as I pushed myself up on my elbows.
“Are you okay?” Kai’s body was a hard mass beneath me. I felt along his chest to check him. “Did I hurt you?”
“Moon,” he wheezed.
“Yes?”
“I’m definitely picking the movie tonight.”
“HERE YOU GO, KAI.” I leaned over the back of the couch and wiggled his plate in his face. “Cheese pizza with green onions and red pepper flakes.”
The guy took his eyes off the television to accept his prize. “Thank you.”
A snort pulled our eyes to the right. Zane and Sofia shared the same armchair. She sat securely in his lap while he whispered things in her ear that was making her turn red.
“You don’t have to wait on him, Val. You know he lied about you bruising his rib so he could get out of ski lessons.”
“Hey, man,” Kai cried. “Whose side are you on? We shared a womb.”
“It’s cool, Zane. I’m letting him have this one.” I patted Kai’s shoulder before straightening. “I’m going to the sauna. Muscles I didn’t know I had are sore.”
“Want me to come with you?” Sofia offered.
“No, it’s alright.” I winked at her. “You and Zane continue your talk.”
I went back to our room and changed into a simple cotton wrap provided by the resort. I was really starting to get used to the luxurious life my friends and boyfriends led. It’s been saunas, hot tubs, and imported cocoa by the fireplace every night I’d been here.
The resort sauna was a charming space—nothing like the claustrophobic cardboard boxes I had seen in the movies. Red and gold mosaic tiles covered the walls and there were three levels for people to steam on.
I stretched out and let my eyes flutter shut as the heat rolled over me. I lay there for so long, I had slipped into a doze when the sound of the door opening roused me.
“I’m sorry,” I said as I rubbed my eyes. “Do you want to be alone? I can head out.”
“No, I want to talk to you.”
I snatched my hands away but looking only confirmed it. Ezra stood fully dressed in front of the door.
“What are you doing in here?” I swung my legs onto the floor. “Markham will freak if she finds us in here together.”
He didn’t reply. Ezra’s expression was one I didn’t know. Obsidian eyes tracked me as I got to my feet and closed the distance between us.
“What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” Something flashed in his dark orbs. “You told me there was nothing going on with you and Thomas.”
I blinked. “There isn’t.”
“Then what’s this?”
Ezra lifted his phone. On the screen were two photos of me and Kai embracing as he grasped my legs, and then the other of me on top of him in the snow, laughing away. To anyone else, these pics told a guilty story.
“This is— This is nothing!” I snatched it out of his hand. “Who sent you this? Was it Ace? I can’t believe they—”
“It wasn’t Ace.” Ezra’s voice was hard. “It was Natalie.”
I heaved a groan. “Ugh, that bitch never quits. Why would you worry about anything that comes from her, Ezra? She spouts nothing but bullshit.”
“Doesn’t look like bullshit.” The heat was collecting on his forehead in beads of sweat. He breathed deeper from the mix of the room and the anger I felt bubbling within him. “What were you doing on top of him?”
I folded my arms. “My foot got stuck, he helped me get out, and then we fell over in the snow. That’s it. Kai and I are just friends, and you”—my hands flashed out and shoved him against the door—“have nothing to be jealous about.”
Ezra growled low in his throat as he gazed at me through narrowed eyes. He was breathing harder than ever. Sweat ran down his face, glistening in the soft light of the room. Ezra looked like he was a hair away from exploding... and it was turning me on like crazy.
“But”—a slow smirk spread across my lips—“the truth is I kind of like you jealous.”
He raised one perfect eyebrow. “Do you?”
“Oh yeah.” I pressed my body against him as I draped my arms around his shoulders. “You’re insanely sexy when you’re mad, Ezra Lennox.” I pressed a kiss to his jaw. “I see why you keep this side of you locked away.” Another kiss. Then another. “But not with me. Never hide from me.” My lips found his and the anger was unleashed.
Ezra gripped my ass hard as he lifted me. We fell on the wooden platform, already tearing at each other’s clothes like they burned.
Ezra and I hadn’t had sex yet, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. At that moment, all I could think was that the wait was finally over. Then he loosened my wrap and I stopped thinking all together.
I hadn’t put on any underwear beneath my wrap. As I straddled him naked as the day I was born, our lips clashed in a fiery duel as I pulled his belt free and threw it over his shoulder. His zipper I ripped apart as I stuck my hand through the lining of his boxers.
“Oh, fuck.” Ezra’s head fell back, breaking our kiss. His eyes glazed over in the heat of pleasure and steam and it spurred me on. “Dammit, Val.”
“Do you have a condom?”
Ezra snapped his head up as his eyes cleared. He gave me a look that said it all.
It was like an icy bucket of water had doused us.
“I’ll— I’ll go get one.”
“Ezra, how could you not have a condom?” I asked as I pulled my hand out.
He threw his hands up. “I came here to confront you about Thomas. I didn’t think this was going to happen, did I?”
“We’re probably not going to get a chance like this again.” I clambered off of him and reached for my wrap. “No Markham. No Ace. No moms.”
“I’m sorry.” Oh boy, did he sound it. Ezra took my hand after I got dressed and pulled me back onto his lap. “It’ll happen.” He glanced around. “And when it does, it’ll be somewhere better than this.”
“I’m starting not to care where it is, I just want to be with you.” I leaned into his chest. “If I knew confessing to your mother would have such an effect on our sex life.”
He sighed. “Tell me about it.”
The two of us had gotten our weekend pass and went to see Ezra’s mom. Confessing the truth of what happened the night of t
he football game had been hard, but facing her reaction had been even harder. She alternated between yelling at me and yelling at Ezra for the spring break video that started it all. Then she started crying which was even worse.
I went back to school while Ezra stayed with his mom. When he came back, he told me she had settled on mad. It was difficult to punish him when he lived at the school, but she was doing a pretty good job by denying permission for every weekend pass he asked for, and with us having to be careful at school, we had no chance to be together.
“Any chance your mom will ease up?”
“Maybe after break.” Ezra ran his fingers through my growing hair. The act soothed my frustration until I was relaxed and warm once again. My Ezra was dark and possessive, but I always felt safe in his arms. “She’s bringing me to New Zealand so I think she’s thawing.”
“I can’t believe you’re all going away.”
“We’ll be back, and we’ll talk every day.” Ezra tugged on my short strands until I tilted my head back. He pressed his lips to my—
Bang!
I fell out of his arms and hit the ground with a thud.
“Hello? Who’s in here?”
I don’t think I ever moved so fast in my life. The two of us scrambled to fix ourselves as the footsteps grew louder. We burst out just as Markham reached the door.
She blinked at the sweaty out-of-breath pair we made. “What is this? What were you two doing in there?”
“I was just—”
“Nothing—”
“We were looking for—”
“Val lost her—”
“That’s right. I lost my—”
“And I was helping her look—”
Markham’s eyes ping-ponged between the two of us as we stammered out excuses. The wrinkles on her forehead became more pronounced as she crossed her arms. “Miss Moon lost her what exactly?”
“My— My earrings,” I blurted. “I lost them earlier and Ezra was helping me look.”
She lifted a brow. “You don’t wear earrings into a sauna.”
I forced a laugh. “I know that for next time.”
She harrumphed. “That’s enough of this foolishness. Mr. Lennox, get back to your room now.”
Ever the good boy in public, Ezra took off without argument. I tried to follow him.
“Miss Moon, a word.”
I stopped. “Yes, Professor?”
“Walk with me.”
She let Ezra go on ahead and then headed for the door at a slower pace. I fell in step beside her. Markham didn’t speak right away. She kept her eyes fixed ahead as we walked through the halls in the direction of the lobby.
“Professor,” I spoke up, finally breaking the silence. “Is something wrong?”
“You have done something unheard of, Miss Moon.”
I made a face. “What? Lost my earrings?”
She didn’t acknowledge that. She didn’t even turn to look at me. “You have gone against the traditions of this school and won.”
So it was this kind of conversation. I wrapped my arms around myself as we stepped out into the lobby. I was suddenly wishing I was wearing more than a thin piece of cotton.
“That was all I could do,” I replied. “I wasn’t leaving or backing down.”
I didn’t have to beat around the bush. The lobby was empty. The resort had gone to bed.
“I admire that; I do.”
I gave her a hard look. “Your admiration means very little. The last two years have been hell and I couldn’t rely on the people who were supposed to help me. Some of you were just as bad or worse.” Visions of Scarlett flashed through my mind.
She remained expressionless. “You have every right to be angry—”
“Damn right, I do.”
“—but it will change nothing,” she finished. “If you think that Evergreen will become a better place now; you’re mistaken. And if you think ‘searching for earrings’ with Mister Lennox means he won’t turn on you again...”
I flushed at the implication.
“...then you are mistaken about that as well.”
“That’s not going to happen. It’s over. The mark is lifted.”
“The Knights are not the ones who get to say when it’s over. They have their place and they were put there to uphold the traditions, not go against them. Quae sequenda traditio.”
“Tradition is everything.” I shook my head. “I don’t understand this tradition of driving people out by any means necessary. Why do this? How did it even start?”
“It’s been like this from the beginning.”
“But who started it? Why?” I stepped up to her. “Is this about the Spades? What do you know about them?”
Her expression changed. Markham’s face grew tight as her eyes narrowed to slits. “That is not a name you say out loud.”
“Why? I get why people are afraid of them. I know what they’ve done and tried to do to me, but I don’t understand how they started. Why are they allowed to run around doing this to people?”
“There is so much you still don’t know.”
“You’re right. I don’t understand why everyone doesn’t fight back? Find them. Stop them.”
She tossed her head. A frown marred her face, speaking to her agitation. “He used to say the same thing.”
“Who would?”
Markham didn’t seem to have heard me. “You can’t stop who you can’t see. Nora accepted that.”
“Nora?” The name tugged a memory loose. “Do you mean Nora Wheatly?”
Markham’s gaze sharpened. I suddenly had her full attention again. “How do you know that name?”
“I know she was marked, and that she was Walter McMillian’s girlfriend. Is he who you were talking about?”
She eyed me. “You are aware of more than I thought.”
“Yes, I am. Now tell me what you’re aware of. For once, the truth.”
“The truth will do nothing for you.” Watching her face as closely as I was, I saw a flicker of emotion light in her eyes for the barest second: pain. “The truth did nothing for them.”
“But, Prof—”
“Go to bed, Miss Moon.” Markham straightened. “And I better not catch you in a similar position again.”
I thought about arguing, but the look in her eyes told me that wouldn’t get me far. I turned away and left for my room. Sofia stirred when I stepped into the bedroom.
“Val?” She stared blearily at me over the covers. “What’s going on? Everything okay?”
I sighed as I climbed into my bed. “Every time I think I have things figured out; I discover how wrong I am.”
“What does that mean?”
A wave of exhaustion washed over me. At that moment all I wanted to do was sleep and forget about secret societies, plots, and unsolved murders. “I’ll tell you about it in the morning, okay.”
“Okay.”
I flicked out the lights and burrowed into the covers. Despite my feelings, all my worries followed me into my dreams.
“YOU’RE SAYING MARKHAM knew Walter?”
“Yes.” I picked up a plate and handed it to Sofia. We were the only ones on the buffet line which gave me a chance to talk to her. “Not just that, but she knew Nora as well. I’ve been thinking that they must have gone to school together.”
“You could be right. Markham is the right age. She would have been in her teens when everything went down with Walter.”
I kissed my teeth. “It’s impossible to look up anything about the Evergreen teachers—which is kind of disturbing. They have their official bios on the website and articles praising their accomplishments, but nothing about who they are or where they come from.”
I knew this very well from all the trouble Maverick, Alex, and I have had trying to hunt down information on Scarlett.
“Well, we can find out if she went to school there easy enough,” Sofia replied. She casually spooned scrambled eggs on her plate. “We just need a yearbook.”
I g
aped at her. My plate slipped through frozen fingers and clattered onto a pan of bacon.
“Val? What’s up?”
“I’m an idiot,” I whispered. “I am such a freaking idiot!”
She stared at me wide-eyed. “Um, okay. What are you talking—”
I grabbed her arms. “Yearbook, Sofia. Yearbook! Scarlett had a yearbook. She showed me Nora and Walter. She told me her father went to school here too.”
“Scarlett? You mean the old art teacher?”
Sense quickly returned, sounding a warning. Sofia didn’t know about Scarlett and it needed to stay that way. I pulled back. “Yes. She let me see the yearbook from that time, but I didn’t think to look at anyone else.”
“It’ll be gone now,” Sofia replied, confirming what I thought. “They cleaned out her class after she resigned.”
I snapped my fingers. “What about the library? I bet they have...” I trailed off at Sofia’s headshake.
“Other students had the same idea to look up Walter McMillian, the boy the Spades made an example of, but they don’t keep copies of the yearbooks in the library. You can’t find anything like that on campus.”
“But... that’s weird, isn’t it? Why wouldn’t they have copies?”
“I don’t know but leave it to me. I’ll find one.”
“How are you going to do that?”
She smiled as she picked up my plate. “Just trust me.”
We turned our attention back to the food as the doors opened behind us. I glanced over Sofia’s shoulder and barely stifled a groan.
Please, don’t start this early in the morning.
“Hey, Val.” Natalie grinned at me as she, Airi, and Isabella reached for their plates and forks. “Did you like my photos? I sent it to everyone so they could see you’re still open for business—slutting it up for the whole resort to see.”
“You sent it to everyone so you could look even stupider than you normally do. Kai was helping me and we fell over. That’s it. The real question is why you’re following me around with your camera out. Do you know how creepy that is?”
Natalie’s smirk didn’t fade. “Maybe I’m waiting for the right chance to get you like you got me.” She glanced up. “Nice hair, by the way.”
My eyes narrowed. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I surged forward. “Did you—”