Page 127 of A Taste of Torment
I peer down the hall. Nothing. No one in sight. Only the dull shadows of the hall, as usual.
It’s five p.m. now. No one told me what time the event would actually start. Is it soon? My heart picks up speed, and I close the door, but as I step back my foot slips over something. I look down to find a piece of paper on the floor.
No. Not a piece of paper. A card.
My stomach drops to my feet, even as adrenaline pumps through me.
A tarot card with the image of a jinn on it. The same card from my sister’s autopsy.
I’ve officially been invited to the Akrasia Games.
* * *
I closemy eyes and try not to flip out. Images flash through my mind. My sister’s limp bloody hand. The card dropped on the forest floor. The destroyed clearing.
Am I really going to do this? Join the same games that killed my sister? Yes, it’s in the name of revenge. No, I don’t intend to actually compete, but I know so little.
I need to know who’s behind this, other than Bea. It is possible she’s responsible for my sister’s involvement, but I don’t know for sure. If I could figure that out definitively, I could get my revenge now.
My heart races. My mind spins.
Jarron will flip out if he learns of any of this.
Assuming he still cares.
I shake my head. He cares. I believe he cares. He might be mad at me, but I know he’d protect me. And if I laid all of it out, how Bea manipulated me, tear her apart.
Which is also bad news because she is Trevor’s chosen. It would crush their family if Jarron were to kill her. I pace in Bea’s room, unsure what to do now.
I’m terrified of following the instructions that slipped through along with the card. That’s my key to getting through the gates where they’re being held. With trembling fingers, I examine the instructions.
Minor Hall. 7 p.m.
That’s why Minor Hall is closed. But how? How would anyone have access to shutting down an entire section of dorm rooms in this school without the administration getting suspicious?
Unless…
My knees give out, and I slump to the floor. If I was right about Mr. Vandozer, if he’s involved, all of it makes sense. Mr. Vandozer is the only one that would have access to Minor Hall, to adjust the spells to allow only certain powerful supernaturals in.
I bite my lip. It has to be him. He has to be the answer.
I work my jaw and flex my fingers, anger clearing my mind.
I’m ready to face them. Ready to kill them for what they did to her, and all of the other young, low-power supernaturals they’re getting ready to destroy right now. More parents desperate for answers, destined never to find them. More investigators to declare those young people are not important enough to fight for.
People of no consequence.
They chose me because I don’t matter.
Shadow Hills Prep is hosting the next Akrasia Games. Who else is inconsequential? Who else are they going to destroy?
You’ll see, I’ll be as important as you one day soon.
I shiver. Corrine? With her secret boyfriend? My stomach sinks.
Janet? She has a secret boyfriend too. Shit, maybe I should have put more energy into figuring that out. It’s so much like my sister’s story, but I didn’t pay enough attention because I was focused on myself. On Jarron. On Liz.
I spin to look at the clock. It’s five-thirty. I have an hour and a half until the event.
