Page 138 of Endless Anger
Checking to make sure we’re still alone, she inches forward, shoving a photograph into my hand. It’s a full-color picture where rows of students in blazers pose in front of a quad statue where the Curator emblem is spray-painted.
Written on it in bold red marker, covering some familiar faces like Beckett and Tiernan, is a three-headed beast.
Muna points to a back corner of the picture, where a grainy couplestands staring at each other; they’re hard to see, but I’d recognize that red and black hair anywhere. Not to mentionmein front of her.
It’s us from not long ago, after we fought and made up in the admin building. The Curators had been in the quad taking their fall membership photo, and I’d had to practically drag Lucy from it to keep her from confronting Beckett.
Every person in the photo is marked out, except for Lucy.
I gnaw on the inside of my cheek, crimson rage spilling into my veins. “Where did you get this?”
“Well, that’s the thing,” she replies. “I found it in Beckett’s dorm. And with him being marked out, itlookslike he’s part of the threatened group, but why would it be in his dorm if that’s the case? A threat like this isn’t something you take lightly, especially a prominent Dupont kid. They’d be all over the news and school getting to the bottom of things.”
Staring hard at the photo, I wait for her to continue, piecing the puzzle slowly together myself.
“I think he’s trying to frame Death’s Teeth for something, which would make sense given all the markings around school—Death’s Teeth’s biggest known crime was basic vandalism until this semester, after all the weird shit started happening. Everything else has only ever been rumor, and after you showed up, it turned to blood and murder.”
“I thought they were a violent vigilante group? Wouldn’t blood betheircalling card?”
Muna shakes her head. “Nobody knows anything about them really. The school acknowledges them to make things seem legitimate, but no one’s ever seen them. All they have is an incomplete chapter application and their emblem.”
“The three-headed beast,” I say pointlessly, glancing at the photograph again. “So either Beckett is trying to frame Death’s Teethandmake it look like Lucy is involved, knowing I’ll leave if she does, or…”
“HeisDeath’s Teeth.”
40
LUCY
Willa and Elishare a silent look before they resume picking up debris from Lake Lerna’s bank. I groan when they shift their focus away from me, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Comeon, you two. It would be fun.”
I’m not used to begging people to go out with me, so their hesitance is making the anxiety ratchet up in my chest.
Willa laughs, pointing at me with her pickup stick. “Lies. Attending a Curator house party after what happened at the last one? I like being alive, thank you.”
Eli purses his lips. “Well, they said it was hazing, so…”
“Do you have any personal experience to back that up?” Willa asks. “You weren’t hazed, so how do you know how dangerous it may or may not have been? What if all those rumors are true about the forest parties and the rituals they do during them? Death’s Teeth isn’t the only group with a reputation, you know.”
“Are you…saying Tag was murdered? ByCurators?” Eli’s laugh is humorless, as much as we’ve ever gotten from him.
His dismissal makes me even more uneasy.
I know what I heard.
Willa cocks a pierced eyebrow. “Areyousuggesting we go and find out?”
“It’s not like you had other plans,” he says, shrugging and giving me a sheepish glance. “As long as you refrain from attempting to be initiated, I think you’ll be fine.”
“So…” I interject, tilting my head. “We’re going?”
“Thissoundslike a trap,” Willa replies, squinting at Eli. “How am I supposed to trust someone who defected from Visio Aternae in favor of the Curators? Aren’t you, like, on their payroll now or something?”
A small blush crawls up his face. “I didn’t defect. My dad suggested I broaden my horizons. You try arguing with the state’s top prosecutor.”
“Selling your soul is broadening your horizons?” she asks.
