Page 105 of Riot House
“Yeah, well, you’d just accused me of something pretty insane, and I didn’t want to say anything that might…” He blows out a frustrated breath.
“Implicate you?”I finish for him.
“No! Jesus Christ, Elodie, come on. I did not have anything to do with Mara’s disappearance. I didn’t fucking touch her, okay?”
“Then how do you explain the diary? Everything she wrote in it pointed to you. And the sweater she had in her hiding place? She had handfuls of feathers in a box, too. Feathers exactly like the one you gave to me.”
Wren grimaces, running his hands back through his hair. “What sweater?”
“The Wolf Hall sweater, with your initials on the label, Wren. God!”
He shakes his head. “I—I don’t know how she had that. I owned one of those things for five seconds last year, and then it was gone. I didn’t know what the fuck happened to it. And the feathers…fuck, I don’t know what to tell you, Elodie. She knew I collected them. Maybe she was saving them for me. I swear I didn’t leave her a single one, though, let alone handfuls of them. There’s so much you don’t know, okay? About Mara and what went on at the academy last year. I promise I’ll tell you. I’ll explain every single last sordid detail. But until we can sit down and talk about this properly, please, just…you have to believe me. I did not hurt her.”
He looks so wretched. My stomach turns over, nausea rolling through me in a wave. “How the hell am I supposed to believe a single thing you say? How am I going to listen to this story you’ve been keeping from me and accept that it’s the truth?”
A flat, distant look flashes over his handsome face. “Because I told you, Little E. No lies. Ever. IsworeI’d never lie to you.”
My throat constricts. I’m achingly miserable. I want to believe him. I want nothing more than to hear what he’s saying and trust him. But—
“WREN JACOBI! Where the fuck are you!”
A roar goes up out in the living room—a riotous yell that could only have come from Pax. Other voices begin shouting and cheering, growing louder and louder on the other side of the door.
What the hell is going on?
Wren presses his fingers into his eyes, huffing. “For fuck’s sake. I have to go, Elodie. If I don’t get out there, they’re gonna break down this door—”
“WREEEEEEEENNNNN! You’ve got three seconds, asshole! Show your ugly face!”
Those vivid green eyes meet mine, pleading and full of misery… “Just don’t leave, Little E. Promise that you’ll hear me out?”
Lord, what a fool I am. I waver, but only for a second. “Fine. I’ll hear what you have to say. But the moment I think you’re lying to me, that’s it. I’m walking away.”
He looks so relieved. It almost hurts me to see that kind of desperate expression on his face. He nods, grimacing deeply. “Good.” Turning, he lets himself out of the bathroom and walks straight into the chaos on the other side of the door. It’s madness out there, Wolf Hall students all jostling and shoving at one another, trying to get by one another. I can’t figure out where they’re all going until I slip out of the restroom and stand against the wall by the front door, watching as they all flock to the foot of the staircase.
Pax and Dashiell are already standing there on the steps. Wren climbs up to meet them, dragging his feet, wearing an expression so dark and stormy that he looks every inch a monster. Pax is dressed as Alex from A Clockwork Orange. Meanwhile, Dashiell’s dressed much like Wren, as himself, in his regular clothes—an expensive black shirt and immaculate grey pants that look like they cost a fortune. Both Pax and Dash cheer, slapping Wren on the shoulder and back as he turns to face the crowd.
“Students of Wolf Hall! The moment you’ve all been waiting for has arrived!” Dash calls out.
Pax follows right after him. “Ladies and gentlemen, may we present to you,the master of the hunt!”
A deafening furor breaks out as everyone in the foyer loses their goddamn minds.
42
ELODIE
I don’t cheer.I stand stiff as a statue, watching the insanity around me with stunned detachment. Fifteen feet to my right, Carina emerges from the living room, biting on her fingernails. She doesn’t seem as excited by what’s going on at the stairs like everyone else. She’s focused entirely on me.
“Elodie, can I speak to you outside for a moment?” she asks.
I look her up and down, recalling the way she’d sneered at Mercy when she’d told her that she wasn’t coming to this party. She’s lied to me more than once now, and I do not fucking like it. “No.”
“Elle, please—” She tries to take me by the hand, but I pull away.
Up on the stairs, Wren starts to speak. “You all know the deal. As master of the hunt, I call the shots tonight. And as always, we have a Riot House game that will either elevate your social standing for the rest of the academic year or leave you all in the gutter. Your fate rests entirely in your hands!” He sees me by the door and flinches. “Tonight’s game has been crafted to root out the smartest amongst you. In the forest surrounding Riot House, there are a series of red flags like this one.” He pulls a length of red material out of his back pocket, holding it up in the air. “There are a hundred of them hidden within a two-mile radius. Collect as many of them as you can and bring them back here to base. The person who manages to bring back the most flags wins a room in Riot House for the remainder of the school year, along with a fifty-thousand-dollar check with their name on it.”
A surprised gasp goes up amongst the crowd. The most surprising thing is the look on Dashiell and Pax’s faces. This was clearlynotthe prize they were expecting Wren to announce.
