Fiend (Briarcliff Secret Society Series Book 3)

by Ketley Allison

  It’s not her mother whose past has been broken open. Eden had never heard of Meredith Ryan before she was brutally murdered in her own bedroom.

  By the Virtues.

  “No,” I whisper, shaking my head. “It’s not true. It’s not real.”

  My paranoia’s taking over. My unfounded convictions are building in my throat, desperate to be torn out with one long, never-ending scream.

  I blink, and I’m in the psych ward, restrained and flailing in my hospital bed.

  I open my eyes, and my stepdad faces me, until he’s marched out of our home, his hands cuffed behind his back.

  I trip, my hands plowing into a mound of snow, and I’m blinded by the white noise of my actions, the wrongness of them swirling around my head and telling me to stay down.

  “I-I can’t,” I tremble out while resting on my haunches. My bare hands have immediately gone red and ache with cold. “I can’t be silenced this time.”

  I can’t be wrong.

  My phone bounced into a snowdrift nearby when I stumbled, and on a hitched sob, I reach back into the cold and grab it. I say into its speaker, “C-call Dad.”

  Lifting the phone to my ear, I wait for him to answer.

  And when a bubbly, audibly exhausted new father answers, the stone in my gut sinks deeper. “Cal, hey!”

  “H-hi.”

  His tone immediately changes. “Honey? You okay? You sound a little distant.”

  “I’m…” I breathe out, my exhale turning white against the darkness before dissipating. “I’m outside, walking back to the dorms. That’s all.”

  “Ah. Okay, good. Say, why don’t we FaceTime? I have someone who’d love to meet you.”

  I squeeze my eyes against the ache at the same time I say, “Dad, did you go to Briarcliff?”

  A few seconds pass. Something squeaks in the background, and though I’ve never heard a newborn before, my baser instincts tell me its Blair. “What’s that, hon?”

  I stumble out of the snowdrift. “You’re a graduate of Briarcliff Academy. Class of ’03.”

  “That’s—”

  “And so’s Lynda. And so was Mom.” My voice becomes pitchy, my steps uneven. “The three of you went to this school, and neither you nor Lynda told me you did before sending me here. Why?”

  “I didn’t want to skew your view of the academy by admitting your mother went there. You were hit so hard by her death, honey. We all were. But when Lynda said she could get you in—through no urging of mine—I couldn’t pass it up. It could open so many doors for you. It provided so many possibilities you weren’t getting—”

  “Like it did for Mom? We were hermits, Dad.” I bare my teeth despite the flickers of snowflakes coming at my face. “Before we met you, Mom was barely getting by. She had me dumpster diving for our dinner so she could work two jobs. I’d wait up for her every night until she came home because I wasn’t sure how safe she was. We had nobody, no one, to call a friend. Not until Ahmar. And then … you.”

  I hear Dad’s sharp inhale at the insinuation. “What are you getting at?”

  “Were you told to meet my mom? To seduce her and marry her?”

  “Oh, Jesus. Honey, don’t do this. Not again.”

  There’s terror in his voice, but I can’t contain myself. Not after I held in my hands the very reason my mother could’ve been killed. My voice crackles in the air, splits and divides into scattered explosions, and I don’t relent. “Did the Virtues tell you to find her, to make us feel safe, then for you to step aside while they killed her?”

  “Callie—”

  “And then assured you Lynda would be waiting for you on the other side, with her wealth and privilege and safe haven, so you could forget about the murder you helped commit—”

  “Calm down. Calm down this instant, Calla Lily!” Dad roars.

  “She’s dead because of them!” I shriek. “The Virtues! The Nobles! They killed her because of some rulebook!”

  “CALLA LILY RYAN!”

  I yank the phone from my ear, grimacing, crying, howling with the building wind.

  “That’s it,” his small voice says from the phone’s earpiece. “I’m coming over there and we’re packing you up early. You’re coming home, young lady. Briarcliff was a mistake.”

  “It was,” I sob, then crumble to the ground, my knees sinking into the snow. “It’s shown me too much. I didn’t want to know my mom went here. I want the mom I knew. I want my mom…”

  My sentences fade away, taken by the winter air, and my head bows, tears trickling down the tip of my nose and splashing into the snow.

  “Give me the phone, Pete.”

  An argument sounds out on the other end, Lynda jumping in with indecipherable sentences, until the phone shuffles between them and she becomes clearer.

  “Pete may be afraid, but I’m not anymore, honey.”

  My head lifts. “W-what?”

  “You are not crazy, okay? I don’t think you’re having a break down. I don’t believe you need any medical intervention.” Her voice is soft, soothing.

  Until Dad argues something I can’t catch.

  “Enough of this, Pete. I’m tired. You’re exhausted. We have a new baby. I’m not playing this game anymore. Are you still with us, Callie?”

  I wipe my sleeve across my nose, my breathing coming out in faster puffs. “I’m here.”

  “You mentioned the Virtues. You know they exist.”

  I swallow through the swollen, aching emotion in my throat. “Yes.”

  “Then I’ll tell you what you don’t know.” Lynda’s tone, so matter-of-fact, sets me on a bated edge. “Your father lost his job a few weeks ago when he did nothing wrong. There was no warning, no list of circumstances offered as to why he was being let go. All he understood was the subtle crest of the raven imprinted on one of his boss’s office photos.”

  I think back to when Chase was punished for my breaking into the temple. I thought it ended there. What a fool I was. “The Nobles fired him?”

  “I’m convinced it was under the Virtues’ direction. Honey, I’m a Virtue, too. And I knew your mom.”

  Though I’m not surprised, my face still falls. “You never said a word.”

  “For your protection. I figured out, pretty early, Sabine’s hatred for Meredith—your mom. At that time, I couldn’t do much about it. We were just freshmen. Powerless. And Sabine, while a freshman, had the ear of the queen of the Virtues. Her grandmother. For reasons I don’t quite understand, Sabine was able to convince her grandmother to make Meredith’s initiation difficult, almost impossible, to pass. Meredith and I weren’t close, and I was never a witness to her initiation rituals, but I … I saw her fading away. Bit by bit, as the days passed, and the hazing didn’t stop. It’s hard to explain, but I saw Sabine grow healthier, glowing, enjoying every moment of your mom’s torture.”

  My lips tremble, and it takes everything I have left to hold them closed. I imagine my mother, forcing herself to continue the ritual because of the promise of being a Virtue. The possibilities. The prospects.

  The forced sexual favors.

  “Did she … was part of her initiation being involved in a sex ring?”

  For a moment, all Lynda does is breathe. “Honey, I wish I could explain what really happened, but your mom didn’t tell a soul. When she passed the trials and became a Virtue, she never spoke about her initiation. But she—it’s so hard to be an outsider for this, and I’m so sorry I didn’t do more at the time. Meredith left abruptly during our senior year and finished her schooling through distance learning. I was never sure why. Not until I received a phone call, a few months ago, to transfer you into Briarcliff Academy.”

  I scrub my eyes. I still can’t see straight. “Why didn’t you go to the police? If the Virtues threatened your family, why didn’t you tell Ahmar? Or me? Or someone, that this was going on?”

  “You and I both know that I couldn’t.”

  Blair cries out. Dad’s quiet shushing follows.


  I say what Lynda doesn’t. “You didn’t want to say anything because you were making a family. They threatened you when you were pregnant.”

  “You are part of this family, Callie. We did this to keep you safe. Please believe me. If I didn’t do as they said, if I ignored their orders…”

  “They would’ve done to me what was done to my mother.” I stare off into the white-washed forest, a strange dullness taking over my body.

  “Not all of them, honey,” Lynda says quietly. “You have allies.”

  None of her assurances hit where they’re supposed to. “Was Sabine responsible for this? For getting me here, watching me, and making sure I didn’t solve my mom’s murder?”

  “I assume your presence there is related to your mother, but I can’t tell you if Sabine is responsible for your mother’s death.”

  Though I’m so stiff with cold, I push to a stand. “So, what do you know? What were you and Dad planning behind my back?”

  “Oh, honey.” Lynda sighs, the saddened vibration tickling my ears. “We were at a loss on what to do. Pete was terrified. When it came to the Briarcliff societies, we couldn’t escape. And a part of him—a part of me—hoped you were just as much protected as you were monitored at that school. Not all Virtues are cruel. Not all Nobles allow the rules to bend until they’re non-existent. I know, because I’m one of those members.”

  I hold my breath, then blow it out, the sifting cloud of my exhale dissipating in the frosty air. “What about Dad?”

  “Pete’s not one of them, honey. I had to explain the existence of Briarcliff secret societies when we received that phone call over the summer.”

  I close my eyes and massage my forehead, but it feels like being soothed by frozen ice-pops on my skin.

  “Meredith died eighteen years after high school, honey. I had no contact with her after she left Briarcliff. And your father and I, we recognized each other at the banquet as alumnus from Briarcliff. It’s how we struck up a conversation. Pete and I getting together had nothing to do with my or your mother’s involvement with the Virtues.”

  My boots crunch into the packed snow as I resume a shaking, unsteady walk. I believe Lynda when she says she had no ulterior motives when meeting my stepdad. She’s sweet, open, kind. And so far, she’s the sole Virtue, who, when pressed, has told me everything she could.

  I can’t disregard that.

  I also can’t ignore the niggling in the back of my mind. “That banquet you and Dad attended at the Met. Was Sabine there, too?”

  I sense more than hear Lynda’s hesitation. Blair whimpers in the background. “Yes. Yes, she was.”

  My eyes fall shut. “How sure are you that your reunion with Dad was a coincidence?”

  “I … oh, no.” Lynda trails off, her voice trembling.

  “It’s okay.” I look up at the lights of Thorne House, growing closer with each step. “Go back to Blair and Dad.”

  “Honey—”

  “It’s almost the holidays. I’ll see you then. I love you.”

  “Are you safe? Why don’t you come home?”

  “Not yet.” My breathing grows steadier, my strides longer, as I hit the entryway to Thorne House.

  I don’t leave room for more argument, or for my dad to come on the line and order I come home. They put me here.

  And now it’s up to me to figure out how to best utilize my ticking time at Briarcliff Academy.

  34

  What feels like a thousand texts to Chase go unanswered.

  He won’t pick up his phone, either. I chew on my thumbnail as I stare at my screen, waiting for the elevator to open onto my floor.

  I wish he were here. I ache for his reassuring weight against my side, or the way he tucks my head under his chin, squeezing me close.

  I’m empty without him. There’s no one to receive my worries or help figure out just how the Virtues got to my mother.

  As if called upon, logic sifts through my frantic thoughts, asking, Whose side would he take?

  Chase has never once proclaimed his separation from the Nobles. He wants to stay a member and become their leader. He’s sure of his ability to turn them around.

  Would my belief that the Virtues killed her ruin his plans to preserve the Nobles?

  Yes.

  That singular conclusion leaves me standing in an elevator, bleak and alone.

  Providing exam answers and manipulating college acceptances is one thing. But murder? If proven right, I could never keep that from Ahmar. I’d happily expose the secret societies in order to avenge my mother.

  I stare down at my phone.

  Chase must’ve figured that out, which is why he isn’t answering.

  I unlock my door and scan for Emma. If Chase can’t take my side, maybe she can.

  “Emma?”

  No answer.

  I hang up my damp winter coat, melted snowflakes landing silently on the floorboards.

  Scraping back my hair, I finish my brief search of the central area and her room, both empty. Phone still in my hand, I walk to my side of the apartment, as I begin a text.

  Me: Emma, where are you? I need to

  When I glance up to enter my bedroom, I stop mid-sentence.

  There, on my bedspread, sits a perfect white rose with a note attached.

  I don’t want to know is my first thought, but I quench it as quickly as I drop my phone beside the flower. After the revelation of my mother, I must keep up the pretense and play to Sabine in hopes I’ll find something more concrete to hand over to Ahmar or Detective Haskins.

  Your death won’t go unnoticed anymore, Mom. I swear it.

  Grimly, I pick up the letter and unfold it at the single crease.

  You are hereby summoned to the temple post haste.

  My cheeks puff out with an exhale, and I throw the note back on the bed. Sabine wants me on her turf? Fine.

  I spin to my closet.

  This time, I refuse to face her unprepared.

  After pressing my finger on the hidden panel, the back wall of the library opens to the Virtue’s Temple.

  It’s incredibly well-lit compared to the darkness of the closed library, and I squint at the unexpected brightness, costing me precious seconds.

  I step through, my gaze adjusting and landing on three figures in the center, one taller than the rest.

  I tread faster, the figures snapping into focus—

  “That’s far enough, my dear.”

  Sabine’s liquid voice soaks into the air, and my feet follow the order before my mind has a chance to catch up to the scene. When it does…

  I shake my head as if to dislodge a hazy dream clinging to me as I wake. Yet, ice water shock floods my system, proving my wishes wrong.

  Sabine smiles coyly as she lays her hands on the heads of Chase and Ivy. Both on their knees. Both with their arms tied behind them.

  I meet Chase’s eyes first, so intense, so level, and filled with the promise of impending fury. His rebellious will soaks into my bones the longer I hold the connection, and I pull on that strength and hold it close. It hurts to drag my gaze away from him, but I have to see if Ivy’s okay.

  She is, but her stance isn’t nearly as defiant. Her entire body shakes, and her eyes turn wet at the sight of me.

  Both Ivy and Chase’s mouths are unbound, yet neither say a word.

  I meet Sabine’s stare last. “What is this?”

  “My sweet Virtues tell me you’ve learned a secret.”

  I don’t let the surprise show on my face, but my thoughts tick back in time frantically, wondering where, how, Sabine could have heard.

  Eden? Would Eden have said something?

  “Where’s my sister?” Chase growls.

  Sabine takes her time looking down at him, but her warning is imprinted in every subtle, cruel line on her face. “One more word, little prince, and I’ll show her to you.”

  That isn’t a reassurance. Chase’s expression grows dark, black caverns forming under his eyes, but he tears
his attention from Sabine and turns to me. “Let her do whatever she wants to me, Callie. Just save my sister.”

  I nod, my face numbed with terror, but I force my voice strong when I say to Sabine, “What’s to stop me from calling the Nobles? You can’t treat their prince this way. Not without consequence. And your own princess? What are you doing, Sabine?”

  “Ah yes,” Sabine says, her voice tranquil and light. “We societies do have our rules, don’t we? We follow them rigorously. To the letter. At least, my counterparts do. As for me? I prefer to do whatever it takes to stay in power. Look around, Calla Lily.”

  I do, noticing the empty balcony above. The closed temple door behind me.

  “This is not for my society to witness, nor is it for the Nobles to take part in. The Virtues have claimed independence with my rule, and what can the Nobles do about it? We have the highest positions in the country. We have the longest reaching influence. And if the Nobles want to continue, they’ll curtsy to my commands.”

  “You have committed murder!” My voice ricochets off the walls, echoing my vitriol.

  “My, my, you’ve been busy.”

  “You killed my mother.” I’m not as steady now, but I call upon Chase’s fury and absorb it into mine.

  Ivy gasps, but one look from Sabine, and she droops, hiding her face in her hair. She’s so afraid, so desperate to save her family, she’ll fall to her knees and allow her queen to tie her up despite everything Sabine’s done to her. Oh, Ivy…

  “You put your girls up as prostitutes,” I continue, fueled and hungry for hate. “Emma had to disfigure herself to get away from it.”

  Chase goes white, a marble statue carved in rage. He didn’t know hits me between the eyes, but I barrel forward.

  “Your own daughter turned against you and helped Emma. Then you locked Emma in a fire in case she talked, but you failed, because she survived. Your other daughter will rot in prison for the rest of her life. What kind of leader does this make you? No wonder my mother wanted nothing to do with you. No wonder she was willing to give up her natural-born right to the Virtues and escape the filth your family created—”