by Callie Rose
You have to get close to slip the knife in, Tal. This is good. It’s how it has to be.
The student lot was full, but the driver pulled around to the south side of Craydon Hall. “Here you go. Need help with your bags, or you got ’em?”
I didn’t answer. My gaze was locked on the large white building with the red tiled roof. Two other buildings ran perpendicular to it on either side, forming a rough U-shape. It was all so familiar, yet somehow foreign, as if I’d visited this place in an extremely vivid nightmare. As if the Talia Hildebrand who’d gone to school here last year wasn’t actually me, but someone else.
“Um, you good?”
My hand was still on the door handle, but I couldn’t move.
“Miss!” The driver sounded slightly concerned. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” My voice was thick, but I nodded on autopilot. “I’ll get my bags. Thank you.”
He nodded, shooting me a curious look as I finally pushed the door open and stepped out. The warm, hazy California air hit me again, and I let it bolster me as I dragged my bags from the trunk and pulled them up the stairs and into the building.
I went right to the registrar’s office to pick up my class schedule, ignoring the startled looks I got from the few students passing by. It was mid-afternoon, and eighth period was in session, so I didn’t see any of the Princes, Leah, or Adena and her crew, but my skin still prickled with every new gaze that landed on me. By the end of the day, I was sure everyone at Oak Park would know I was back.
The woman behind the desk handed me my schedule and room key, and I took them both and hustled across campus. Since I was late again this year, my dorm was in the Wastelands just like last time, but as far as I was concerned, that was perfect.
My uniforms were sitting in the closet in my bedroom, a perfect row of white dress shirts, red ties, navy jackets, and matching navy skirts with white bands around the bottoms. I unpacked the rest of my clothes in a hurry, then carefully pulled out the worn stack of papers from my backpack and slid them into the bottom desk drawer.
I left the black leather notebook where it was. It was small enough to fit in the side pocket of my backpack, and I wanted to keep it nearby at all times.
When I glanced up, my heart suddenly slammed against my ribs. Classes must’ve ended while I was unpacking, and now the Princes strode across campus, shoulder to shoulder, just like I remembered them. I could feel my pulse in every part of my body as twin desires to fight and flee raged through me, and I couldn’t tear my gaze away from them—not even when Mason’s head turned toward Prentice Hall, tilting slightly.
When they disappeared into their dorm, I let out a heavy breath. Then I snatched up my phone and called for another Uber.
I’d only been on campus for thirty minutes, and already, I was itching to leave.
The driver texted me twenty minutes later to let me know he’d arrived, and I grabbed my small purse and made a beeline for the door. I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go, so I just had him drop me off near a strip of shops in Roseland. Erin had been able to successfully argue with the judge that in addition to my tuition, I’d need a reasonably high disposable income given the cost of living in Roseland, so I had more money in the bank than I’d ever had in my life. And that was only a small portion of what the trust my mom had set up contained.
It made me curious to know where she’d gotten the money from. Had Jacqueline and Philip not cut her off financially when she’d left town? And if my mom had had so much money, why had she ended up in a dingy, blue-collar town like Sand Valley?
Erin hadn’t been able to answer either of those questions satisfactorily, and I wasn’t entirely sure whether it was because she didn’t know the answer or because she wasn’t allowed to share it.
I bought some new clothes, since I had left a lot of what I’d bought with Jacqueline’s credit card behind in the spring. And I bought a small, cheap laptop. I just needed to be able to access the internet with it, so I didn’t need anything extravagant.
As I was walking out of the store, a voice beside me made me jump.
“Talia?”
My head jerked to the side as my body tensed for a fight, but the boy with wavy dark hair and dark brown eyes held up his hands.
“Hey, sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you. I was just surprised to see you here. I thought you, uh, left town.”
He was from Oak Park—Oliver, I thought his name was—and we’d crossed paths a few times last year but never really spoken. He hadn’t been one of the ones to join in on bullying me, I was sure of that. Those faces were etched permanently in my mind.
“Yeah.” I cleared my throat, adjusting my bags in my arms. “I did. I just got back.”
“Oh!” His eyebrows lifted in surprise, but he grinned at me. “Well, welcome back. You back at Oak Park again? Senior year, woohoo, right?”
“Yeah.” I huffed a noise that was almost a laugh. “Woohoo.”
“You sound about as excited as I feel.” Oliver’s grin widened, then he shook his head like he’d suddenly remembered something. “Ah, fuck. Where are my manners? Can I help you carry anything?”
“Um, that’s okay.” I took a step back, readjusting my bags again. “I was just about to get an Uber back to campus.”
“Want a lift?” He jerked his thumb behind him. “I’m parked right around the corner.” When he noticed my hesitation, he held his hands up again. “I don’t bite. I promise.”
I debated for another solid minute, and he didn’t push me, just waited, that half-grin still on his face.
“Yeah, all right.” I finally shrugged. “If you’re sure you don’t mind.”
“Nah, not at all. Here, let me help.” He grabbed the large bag with my laptop in it and then pointed down the sidewalk behind him. “I’m this way.”
As we walked toward his car, he tugged another bag from my hands. We stuffed everything in the back of his Lambo, and I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes at his car. He seemed less snobby than the Princes—he reminded me of Dan a little in that way, actually—but of course he still drove an expensive car.
He glanced over at me as he navigated us back toward campus. “Hey, sorry about all that shit that happened to you last year. The Princes are fucking dicks.”
“No argument.”
He laughed, but then his face went serious again. “Seriously. Those guys are the fucking worst. It wasn’t cool what they did to you, playing that video and stuff. You should be allowed to be who you are without people judging you for it. Everyone knows it was those four assholes who did it too—it’s like an open secret on campus. But the admins haven’t really done shit. I’m sure Elijah got his fucking dad to pull some strings and make sure none of them got punished.”
My blood had frozen in my veins when he mentioned the video, and now it moved like sludge through my body, too slow and thick to do me any good. Oliver had been there that night—he must’ve been. The way he talked about the video, it didn’t sound like second-hand information. He knew all about it because he’d seen it.
“He did?” I asked thickly.
“Yeah, I’m sure he did. It’s not the first time Mr. Prescott has used his money and influence on the admins to keep Elijah or his buddies from getting in trouble. It’s fucking bullshit.”
There was bitterness in his voice, and I could relate to it a little. Elijah was already so powerful at Oak Park. He and the other three Princes basically ran the school. Add in the extra backup of having a parent who was one of the biggest donors to the academy, and it made him basically untouchable.
I was about to go up against the Princes as a one-woman army, and they had not only each other, but the weight of their rich, powerful parents.
It’s okay, Talia. Don’t freak out. It’ll be okay.
Oliver kept up a mostly one-sided conversation all the way back to Oak Park, but I was glad for it. He was earnest and enthusiastic, gesturing with his hands often before quickly grabbing the wheel again. And despite not
liking the Princes, he was a football fanatic and a huge supporter of the Oak Park team. He rattled off some facts and figures about the team’s standing that left me totally behind, but I let the rise and fall of his voice soothe me.
When he pulled into the student lot, he glanced over at me again. “Hey, I’m not doing anything right now, if you wanna go grab a bite or something.”
“No,” I said quickly, before adding, “thanks.”
My stomach had been slowly knotting up again as we drove. The sun was just beginning to set, casting the sky in shades of pink, purple, and orange. And every minute that ticked by was one minute closer to my inevitable confrontation with the Princes.
I felt like I might barf. And I definitely couldn’t eat right now.
“That’s cool.” Oliver flashed another laid-back grin. “Another time, maybe.”
He opened his door and went to the trunk, and by the time I joined him, he’d gotten all my bags out.
“You need a hand back to your dorm?” he asked, a slightly hopeful note to his voice.
“Um, no, that’s okay. Thanks.”
“Okay.” He nodded, glancing down then back up to meet my gaze. “Well, I’m glad I ran into you. I always wanted to get to know you better last year, and then after the end of the semester, I was really bummed I hadn’t. I’m glad you’re back.”
“Thanks,” I repeated on autopilot.
I picked up my bags and walked quickly across campus toward Prentice Hall, trying not to make it obvious that I was scanning my surroundings for threats like I was in a fucking war zone.
It only occurred to me when I was halfway to my dorm that Oliver might’ve been trying to flirt with me. I’d been so distracted, so out of it, that I hadn’t really registered half of what he’d said.
He was cute, in a sort of gangly way. He was tall and lanky, although still muscled, and his face was expressive and sharp. His eyebrows moved around almost as much as his hands when he talked.
I shook my head. I wasn’t used to guys expressing interest in me. For an entire semester last year, I’d been a social leper, and then the Princes had enfolded me into their fucked up little enclave. I’d never really had a chance to even think about dating a regular guy.
And that was just what Oliver seemed like—a regular guy.
I glanced back toward the parking lot, but he’d already left his car, and I couldn’t spot him anywhere on the quad.
Ah, well. I wasn’t in a good mental state to go out with anyone at the moment anyway. I really did think I might barf if I tried to eat anything. But I’d make a point to talk to him next time I saw him. I needed to prove to the Princes—and myself—that they couldn’t keep me from having a normal life.
Feeling a little better, I slipped my key card into the entry door of Prentice Hall and stepped inside. Several people were gathered in the downstairs common room, but their voices died out as the door clicked shut behind me.
I glanced up to see three painfully familiar faces—Leah, Maggie, and Dan.
“Oh! Hey, Talia.” Maggie half rose from her seat on the couch, then glanced at Leah and sat back down. “I heard you were back… but I wasn’t sure if it was true.”
“It’s true.”
“Yeah, I see that. You, um, just get in?”
“Yeah.”
My skin crawled with discomfort, and even though I was talking to Maggie, my gaze kept flicking to Leah.
Leah, who’d been my best friend on campus until the Princes crept into my life and overtook it. She’d blamed me for falling in with them, and I could only imagine how fucking vindicated she must’ve felt when they’d aired that video of me at the award ceremony in the spring. It made me hate her a little, just for being right. For knowing what would happen and letting me get sucked into their orbit anyway.
But wasn’t it my fault, really? She hadn’t forced me into the Princes’ arms. I’d walked that fucking plank all by myself.
Dan’s head was swiveling back and forth between the two girls next to him and me. Leah still hadn’t spoken, but her lips were pressed into a thin line as she stared at me. Her auburn bob was different, cut at a steeper angle—short in the back and long in the front.
“So you’re stuck in Prentice again, huh?” Maggie tried again to smooth over the awkwardness with conversation, even though it wasn’t helping. “Yeah, me too. And Dan’s next door.”
“Yup.” Dan opened his mouth like he might say something else, then shut it again.
For a moment, we all stared at each other in awkward silence. Then I lifted the bags slightly. “I… better go up.”
“Yeah! Yeah.” Maggie nodded enthusiastically, relief coloring her features. “See you around.”
I gave a stilted nod and started toward the stairs. As I walked down the hall toward my room, a weight settled on my chest.
Not only did I have four enemies at Oak Park, I’d managed to lose just about every friend I’d once had here too.
Chapter 4
When the alarm on my phone chimed at seven a.m., I pressed the button to turn it off immediately. I’d been up since four, just pretending to sleep, trying to convince myself adrenaline wasn’t flooding my veins. I threw off the covers and headed for the shower, enjoying the fresh, non-mildewed scent.
Leah had called the Prentice Hall dorms shitty when she’d shown me around on my first day. But I’d never been able to see it. They were big, and they were clean, and that was a lot more than could be said for the other places I’d lived.
After slipping on my uniform, I blow-dried my hair and straightened it, then applied a little eyeliner, mascara, and blush. I didn’t usually wear much makeup, and I wasn’t quite sure why it felt important to do so today. Maybe it was just because I didn’t want the Princes to know they’d beaten me down—didn’t want them to see any of the past three months on my face. Or maybe I was just stalling, looking for more excuses to linger in my dorm.
But either way, I couldn’t hide out forever. At 7:45, I shouldered my backpack and walked out of Prentice Hall, keeping my back straight and my eyes fixed straight ahead.
As I neared Craydon Hall, I could feel gazes on me again, could hear whispers springing up in my wake, but I ignored them all, focusing on the large doors of the main school building. I stepped quickly up the broad stairs leading to the entrance and marched inside.
Several heads turned to look in my direction, and as if pulled by the wave of motion, Elijah, who stood several yards down the hall, looked toward me too.
His whole body jerked when he saw me, and for a moment, I wondered if word of my return hadn’t actually reached the Princes. Had he not known I was here? But that would be impossible.
Whether he’d known I was coming or not, the sight of me had definitely knocked him off balance, and I felt a little thrill of vindication as something like shame worked its way across his face.
He had frozen in place when he’d seen me, but I’d made a point to keep moving, to not let my feet stick to the floor. So we were only a few feet apart when he murmured, “Talia.”
It was hardly more than a breath, and I wasn’t even sure he knew he’d spoken out loud, but I heard it. Then his hazel gaze flicked to something behind me, and he stiffened.
I did too. I couldn’t help it.
The other three Princes closed ranks around us, and I felt them before I even saw them, as if their presence altered the very air around them.
I kept my shoulders squared, standing taller despite the heavy weight of my backpack, as I turned in a slow circle.
All four of them were here, the other three completing a box that Elijah now formed one side of, with me in the middle.
When my gaze met Mason’s, I stopped. My heart pounded against my ribs in an angry, desperate rhythm as his soft green eyes studied me. It’d been weeks, months, since I’d punched him, but I could still remember the red mark below his eye from where my knuckles had collided with his face. I wanted to put a new one there, wanted to hit him over an
d over until the fucking mask he wore—the one that looked like a handsome, aristocratic, human young man—cracked, and everyone could see the monster that lived underneath.
But I knew it wouldn’t be enough. I’d probably only get one or two punches in before someone pulled me away, and whatever marks I left would fade just like the last one had.
I needed to hit him somewhere the mark wouldn’t fade, somewhere he couldn’t recover from.
And like he’d once told me, that required playing the long game.
So I didn’t do anything, just stared right back into his too-warm emerald eyes.
“Idaho.” His voice was a deadly purr, anger and sardonic humor mixing into one. “What the fuck are you doing back here? I thought we already took out the trash.”
I shrugged. “I’m paying my own way now. So if you’re looking to get rid of me again, guess you’re gonna have to do the dirty work yourself this time instead of getting an old woman to do it for you.”
His lip curled, his eyes hardening. “That sounds like a dare.”
“Nope.” I shook my head, clenching my fists at my sides. “Just the truth.”
Something rippled across his face, an emotion there and gone so fast I couldn’t register it. Then his jaw tightened. “Is that so?”
A crowd was gathering around us. The students who’d been covertly glancing at me as I walked across campus were openly staring at the five of us now. I probably wasn’t the only one who’d been anticipating this meeting—although I might’ve been the only one who was dreading it.
But instead of making me feel smaller, the attention of the gathered crowd made me feel bolder.
The Princes ruled this school through fear and favor. They rewarded those who fell in line and punished those who didn’t. But I didn’t want their favor, and I had no intention of falling in line no matter what they did to me. No matter how scared I was.
