62
When I come to, I’m in the lighthouse.
The freaking lighthouse.
The same one I saw beckoning from the skiff the night I arrived.
Except now that I’m inside, I realize it’s a lighthouse only from the outside.
Inside, it’s remarkably plush, decorated with piles of velvet cushions and soft faux fur blankets. The only light source comes from the flickering candelabras scattered about.
They’re either planning on a night of serious debauchery, or about to conduct a séance.
And either way, I want out.
I sit up so abruptly, my head starts to spin. As I fight to catch my breath and will the constellation of stars swirling before my eyes to vanish, I realize that in addition to Elodie and Jago, Finn, Song, and Oliver have also come along—all of them looking at me with varying degrees of apprehension. Elodie is the only one who doesn’t appear the least bit frightened.
“What the hell, Elodie?” I start to scramble to my feet, but I move too quickly, and frantically reach for the wall to steady myself.
“Oh, for the love of— Would you just sit down?” Elodie says, her voice bored but firm.
And as much as I hate to obey her, I dutifully sink back onto my cushion and spend the next few seconds tenderly examining my head, sure that she must’ve whacked me out there. How else could I have passed out?
“No one hit you.” Elodie laughs. “You hyperventilated, which caused you to faint, which gave us no choice but to carry you up a bazillion flights of stairs. Which, again, was made extra difficult by the way you kicked the shit out of my shin.”
She pushes up the leg of her Gray Wolf logo sweatpants to show me the lump. Through the flicker of candlelight, I can make out the swell of what is on its way to becoming a sizable knot, with a nasty bruise to go with it.
If nothing else, I take consolation in that.
To her, I say, “Maybe if you hadn’t decided to abduct me in the first place, then—”
“Stop being so dramatic. No one’s abducting anyone.” Elodie rolls her eyes.
With my vision finally adjusted, I look to Song, Oliver, Finn, Jago, and say, “What’s going on here? Is this some sort of hazing?”
In reply, every single one of them looks away.
Oliver moves closer to Finn and lays his head on his shoulder, confirming what I already guessed, the two of them are a couple.
Song huddles deeper into her puffy coat until she’s just barely visible.
Jago, glorious Jago, lounges against a pile of velvet cushions and conducts a thorough inspection of his cuticles.
Which only goes to prove that this is all Elodie’s doing.
“I’m out.” This time when I stand, the room no longer sways. “Oh, and for your information, putting a bag over someone’s head, binding their wrists, and throwing them into the back seat of a car, without their consent, is the definition of an abduction.” I make for the exit as Elodie continues to lean against the wall, watching me through a flinty-eyed gaze.
“And just where the hell do you think you’re going?” she says.
“Back.” I reach for the doorknob.
“Oh, you’re going back, all right.”
A hard turn of the knob reveals the door is locked. And, since I don’t have the key, and I’m not exactly desperate enough to jump from a window and risk plunging to my death on the rocks far below, there will be no immediate exit for me.
I stand before them, trying to appear more confident than I feel. “Is this because of Braxton?” I ask, watching as Elodie turns on me, every hair perfectly in place, but her face is a jeer.
“Yes, Nat. This is all about Brax. Because boys are clearly the biggest prize that someone could ever possibly hope for.”