“All semester, Alex, I’ve been trying to let you know that I’m a friend. I’m your ally, here.”
Even as she says it, things start to fall into place.
Of course, something like this couldn’t happen entirely on accident.
I wonder what else she’s had her hand in.
“But even I can only do so much,” Dean Robin says, sighing a moment as she looks me over. “That was quite the fight you got yourself into last night,”
I fall back against the pillows, and for just a moment, I close my eyes. But when I do, I see little flashes of last night—of the bulging veins in Jasper’s neck as his hand closed around me, of the burst of pain when his fists collided with me, the horror on his face as my true nature dawned on him—and I snap them back open again.
Dean Robin is looking at me closely again.
“It was …” I just shake my head. I was going to say it was my fault, that I goaded Jasper into it. But the ache in my body makes the words stall on my lips. Even if it was my fault that Jasper got angry, it didn’t give him the right to do what he did to me.
What he was going to do, before he realized who I was.
“Last night, I told the dean that you said you didn’t want to press charges against Jasper.”
“I what?” I almost shout as I sit up suddenly, but I start coughing halfway through.
“It was either that or you lose your spot here. I assumed you didn’t want that. Did I assume wrong?”
I settle back down onto the pillows, but I keep a close eye on the woman seated in front of me.
“No,” I croak, after a moment.
She nods. “Okay, good. I did ask you, you know. That should go on the record.”
I let out a cough again, but this time it comes out mixed with a strangled laugh. “As if anything about me is really going on record,” I say. “If I were to leave Bleakwood, I bet there’d be no proof I was ever even here.”
“Not Alex Trevellian, the girl. Not right away, anyway. Not if you left now.”
I nod, lost in thought for a moment. “Then I guess I owe you my thanks,” I say, a bit reluctantly.
“You’re welcome,” she says, “but you should know, I didn’t do it out of altruism. I need you, Alex. I want you to do something for me in return for me both keeping your secret and saving your education.”
I should’ve known there was a catch. There always is.
“What do you need?” I ask. “I don’t know how I can help you with anything.”
Not when I can barely help myself.
She leans forward to give me an intense look. “I want to take this school down from the inside. Change it. They’re already suspicious of me. Dean Withers is doing everything he can to make sure that I have my hands tied, but if I have someone here I can trust …”
I think I understand her meaning.
“You want me to be … what, some kind of spy for you?”
“Call it what you like, there’s info I need,” she says eagerly. “I’ve kept your secret, Alex. Now’s the time to pay up. Bleakwood needs to change. You’ve been here for almost half a year, you should know that. Just look at that stupid Brotherhood tradition they have!”
She fixes me with a look. “You of all people should want this school to change, Alex. And this change, it could all start with you.”
She takes my hand, a gesture that makes me want to flinch away, but she only holds on tighter. “You could make sure that The Brotherhood never bullies another student here. You could make sure that Bleakwood stops turning a blind eye to the horrors taking place in these halls.”
I don’t answer. I turn away and stare up at the ceiling, confused. I start shaking. My throat burns.
This last semester here at Bleakwood has been challenging to say the least, and Dean Robin isn’t wrong. Most of that angst, that hardship, the humiliation and pain … it’s been thanks to The Brotherhood and the leeway that the administration gives them.