Macy.
My feet were glued to the floor. The entire cafeteria was a blur of faces, all of them turned toward me. The whispers were a rising tide, a hundred different voices murmuring the same name. Nathan Cassian.
My hand trembled as I reached for the envelope. The paper was thick and cold, like a stone. I snatched it off the table, shoved it into my backpack, and grabbed my tray.
I didn't run, but it was close. I walked, head down, through the maze of tables. I could feel his departure in the air, the way the tension in the room was slowly starting to leak away, but the eyes stayed on me. The girl who the king had singled out.
I dumped my uneaten lunch and pushed through the doors into the hallway, my breath coming in short, panicked gasps. I needed to be alone. I needed to think.
“Macy! Wait up!”
I groaned internally. Chloe was jogging to catch up, her blonde ponytail bouncing. Her face was a mixture of fear and morbid curiosity.
“Are you okay?” she asked, her voice a little breathless.
“I’m fine,” I said, not slowing down.
“Fine? Macy, Nathan Cassian sat at your table. He gave you something. That is not a ‘fine’ situation. That is a category five hurricane of a situation.”
I stopped and turned to her, leaning against the cold lockers. “Look, I don’t know what it was about. I’ve never spoken to him in my life.”
“Nobody has,” she said, her eyes wide. “Unless they want to end up in the infirmary. Or worse. What’s in the envelope?”
“I haven’t looked.” It wasn't a lie, but it felt like one.
“Well, are you going to?” she pressed, glancing around the hallway as if the Vipers might materialize from the shadows.
“Yes, later,” I said, trying to sound casual. “When I’m not in the middle of a crowded hall.”
“Is it a threat?”
“I don’t know, Chloe.” My voice was sharper than I intended.
She took a small step back. “Okay. Sorry. It’s just… you should be careful. My cousin was a student here a few years ago. She said the Vipers are involved in things. Real things. Not just high school pranks.”
“What kind of things?” I asked, even though I already knew. I had seen it.
“She wouldn’t say. She just told me to stay away from them. To never, ever get their attention.” Chloe looked at me with genuine pity. “Looks like it’s too late for that.”
“Thanks,” I said dryly. “I have to get to my dorm.”
“Okay. Just… be safe, Macy.”
I walked away, her worried gaze following me. The weight of the envelope in my bag seemed to grow heavier with every step. Back in my room, I locked the door and slid the deadbolt. It didn’t feel like enough. I wedged the armchair under the knob again.
My hands were shaking as I pulled the envelope out. My name was a swirl of silver ink on the black paper. It looked like an invitation to a funeral. My funeral.
I tore it open. Inside, there were two pieces of cardstock.
The first was an official-looking invitation. The paper was so thick it was almost a board. At the top, a logo was embossed in silver foil: a snake coiled around a dagger. Below it, the text was printed in the same elegant script.
‘The Vipers cordially invite you to demonstrate your potential. Trials begin tonight. Midnight. The east entrance to the catacombs.’
The catacombs? What kind of school had catacombs? It was absurd. It was terrifying.
Then I saw the second, smaller card. It was a simple, plain white note, with only three words written in sharp, angry handwriting. A man’s handwriting.
‘Join or vanish.’
I dropped the cards on my bed as if they had burned me. Vanish. The word echoed in the silent room. It wasn’t a threat. It was a promise. The same promise he had made with his eyes at the boathouse.
This wasn’t about a social club. This was about what I saw. He wasn’t inviting me to join. He was leashing me. Pulling me into the darkness with him so he could make sure I never spoke a word of what I witnessed.
My first instinct was primal. Run.
I grabbed my phone, my thumb hovering over my mom’s contact. I could call her. I could tell her I made a mistake. That this school was a nightmare. I could beg her to let me come home.
But what was home? A small, dingy apartment where the locks were never strong enough to keep my stepfather out. A place where my mom looked over her shoulder every time a car backfired. A dead end of gambling debts and broken promises.
He would find me. Stephen always found a way when he needed money. And running from St. Augustine’s meant giving up my scholarship. My one and only ticket out of that life. I would be trapped, right back where I started.
My thumb pressed the screen. The phone began to ring.
One ring. Two rings. My heart hammered against my ribs.
“Macy? Honey, is everything okay?” My mom’s voice was thin, already stretched with worry.
I opened my mouth to speak, to tell her everything, to cry and beg for an escape that didn’t exist. But the words wouldn’t come out.
“Macy, are you there?”
“Hi, Mom,” I managed to choke out. “I’m here.”
“You sound strange. What’s wrong? Is it the school? Are the other kids being mean to you?”
“No, nothing like that,” I lied, sinking onto the edge of my bed. “Everyone’s fine. The school is beautiful.”
“Oh, good,” she said, relief flooding her voice. “I was so worried. It’s a big change for you.” There was a pause. “It’s not him, is it? Stephen hasn’t tried to contact you?”
The question was a bucket of ice water. Her first fear wasn’t that I was homesick or struggling with classes. It was him. It was always him.
“No, Mom. Of course not. He doesn’t even know exactly where I am.”
“Keep it that way,” she said, her voice dropping to a harsh whisper. “He was here last night, Macy. Pounding on the door. Asking for money again. He knows you got that scholarship grant money.”
My blood ran cold. He knew.
“Don’t worry about me,” she said, trying to sound brave. “You just focus on your studies. This is your chance to get away from all this. You’re safe there. Don’t you ever forget that.”
Safe. The word was a joke. A cruel, bitter joke.
“I won’t,” I said, my voice hollow.
“I have to go, sweetie. My break is almost over. Call me this weekend, okay? I love you.”
“I love you too, Mom.”
I ended the call and let the phone drop from my hand. It hit the carpet with a soft thud. My mom’s words sealed my fate. There was no going back. The fire I’d escaped was still burning, waiting for me.
Stuck. I was well and truly stuck.
In front of me was Nathan Cassian, a monster who drowned people for sport and issued ultimatums in silver ink. Behind me was my stepfather, a different kind of monster, one who would bleed me and my mother dry without a second thought.
I looked at the black invitation lying on my comforter. The snake and the dagger seemed to mock me.
‘Join or vanish.’
It wasn't a choice between good and evil. It was a choice between two different dungeons.
I picked up the card. The sharp edges dug into my palm. At least in this dungeon, I might learn how to fight back.
Midnight. The catacombs. My new life was beginning, whether I wanted it to or not.
