“There’s my girl.” Blair murmurs in my ear, brushing his lips against it as he speaks. A shiver runs down my neck and I draw in a deep breath. I hate that he has any kind of effect on me at all.
“I’m not your girl,” I tell him earnestly and try to pull away from him. He closes his hand tighter around my shoulder, stopping me.
“You are if I want you to be, and I want you to be, at least for tonight.” He laughs softly and nuzzles me again. I twist away from him and cross my arms over my chest.
“I want to win the lottery, but that’s not going to happen tonight either.” I smart off to him.
He chuckles and plants his hand flat on his chest. “Oh heartbreaker! We’ll just have to see what this night has in store for us.” There’s something almost sinister in his voice, and it makes my blood run a little hotter. Somehow I think he knows it, because he’s laughing as he watches me; so sure of himself, so cocky, so teasing and mysterious. I know exactly what he’s thinking, really thinking, and it leaves me wary about him.
“Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments. Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with remover to remove, oh no. It is an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken,” Astor recites Shakespeare’s sonnet perfectly as he walks toward me. There’s a smirk on his smug face, and I want to slap it off.
He stops in front of me and takes a long pull off of Victoria’s bottle. “Did you get your paper turned in on time?” he asks, taunting me coldly.
I narrow my eyes at him and remind myself that I need to be channeling Sadie, and not acting as myself. Teddy wants to shove him down onto the rocks. I have to find a healthy compromise that doesn’t crush my soul.
“Did you fill your daily quota of being a complete jerk?” I snap back at him. His eyes narrow and he presses his lips into a thin line.
“Just welcoming you to the school.” He shrugs indifferently. Then he raises his voice so that everyone in the group can hear. “In fact, I think we need to really make it official.” He laughs icily, and the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck rise.
Wills and Blair come to stand beside him.
“The lighthouse?” Wills asks with a chuckle.
“Oh yeah. Definitely the lighthouse,” Astor answers as he laughs and takes another swig of wine.
As if on cue, the old building swims into sight through the thick fog. Its light catches on the boys’ backs for a second, illuminating their silhouettes and leaving their faces cast in shadow.
If ever there were an omen, this is it.
The light passes, and I look back up at the tower in the distance. Whatever is about to happen, it isn’t going to be good.
Chapter 9
I’m too afraid to ask them what they have in store.
Astor, who obviously loves being the center of attention, is positively shining in the limelight. He continues to speak loud enough that everyone can hear him clearly.
“We’re all going, and when we get there, we’re going to have a little party. An … induction into Hawthorne Academy, b
y yours truly, no less.” Here, he turns to me. “Now, you should know that being inducted into the Hawthorne Academy by a genuine Hawthorne is an honor. You should be grateful.” He eyes me intensely.
“Oh, I’m so grateful.”
“You won’t be sarcastic for long.” He laughs again. “Shall we get going?”
He calls out to the group, and we all begin to head down past the beach and out onto the rocks along the lake. As we leave the lights of the school behind us, I look over my shoulder at the dorm room on the corner. The light is still on. I imagine Dana is up there reading and probably pining over Victoria. I wish that I was with her instead of down here about to get into some kind of inevitable trouble.
A long, cold walk later, and the group of us are standing a brief distance from the lighthouse. It stands sentry upon a rock overlooking the crashing water. From the way the water stirs here, sending white spray up over our shivering forms, it might as well be a sea.
On any other night, I would have thought that this was beautiful, but tonight there is nothing but dread in me. I have no idea what the group, or more specifically, Astor, is up to, and my instincts tell me I should not be here. I’m shivering and my teeth are nearly chattering as I hug myself to try to keep warm.
Astor walks up beside me and stands very close. He gazes down at me and that perfect wave of carefully combed hair ruffles in the sea wind.
“Here we are, Sadie. It’s your moment of truth. Are you going to meet the challenge? Or are you going to run and fall into the ranks of the lowly at the academy?”
It’s a bit melodramatic, but it doesn’t make it any less real. I know he means it.
Victoria practically appears at my side. “Oh, she’ll do it. She’s one of us,” she assures him, and then she looks directly into my eyes. “You’ll do it, won’t you?”