“I don’t know if I’d say that,” I told him.
“Don’t lie. I know,” Schmidt said, waving his hand at me dismissively before taking a sip of his whiskey. After clearing his throat, he spoke again. “I can’t control the Kings. Not at the moment, anyway.”
I continued to stare at him, waiting for the ball to drop. He wouldn’t have asked me in here unless he wanted some sort of action or information out of me. Unfortunately for him, I didn’t have much to share with him.
“I still don’t understand why I’m here,” I replied, feeling my heart rate speed up. I just knew that this wasn’t going to be good.
“I need you to go on as normal. Be around them. Talk to them,” Schmidt told me as he joined his hands together on the surface of the table, leaning toward me. “But I want you to keep me informed about their activities. I need to be one step ahead of them to keep some control of this school.”
“You basically want me to be your spy,” I said, narrowing my eyes slightly. What did that do for me? It put me in a tight spot, and I didn’t even want to think about what would happen if Zephyr or Arvo found out that I had been reporting their actions to the Dean. Maybe Sol was right, and they would kill me.
“I’ll reward you handsomely,” Schmidt said as he lifted his eyebrows at me. A bribe. “It won’t be a waste of your time.”
I lowered my eyes for a moment. I didn’t know what amount of dollars he was referring to, but the school certainly had a good cash flow. When it came to money, I wasn’t a shallow person, but maybe having a big emergency stash would be good for me. If I faced a dire situation in which I had to flee for my life, the money could help save me and put me somewhere safe.
It could be my back up plan for when things went wrong. Again. With all of the insanity going on around here, it wasn’t a bad idea to have a safety net. I had to look out for myself because who would in the end? Theo was gone. I didn’t know if I could fully trust Sol. Zephyr could turn against me. And Arvo was… Arvo. It was down to me.
But was spying on the Kings for Dean Schmidt the right choice?
“I don’t know,” I said with a sigh, shaking my head in confusion. No path seemed like the obvious one. There were consequences for both, but there were possible rewards for both too. “But I’ll think about it.”
Schmidt nodded as he rested back in his seat. He didn’t look all that pleased, but at least I hadn’t fully turned him down.
“Do you need anything else?” I asked him.
“You’re free to go,” he said, going back to drinking his whiskey.
I rose to my feet and headed out of his office, listening to the light thump of my black boots against the hard flooring of the hallway. There was no point in going back to class, and I felt wary about leaving the school to wander around. I decided to just go to the library for the time being to clear my head.
I took a right to head down the hallway that led to the library, but a noise behind me made me halt. I glanced back the way I came, seeing the heel of someone’s shoe disappear around the corner at the end of the hallway. An uneasy feeling seeped into my stomach.
I didn’t like the feeling of being watched, but I felt it all the time.
CHAPTER 4
BIBA
The rest of the week felt like it dragged by. Getting through classes and properly paying attention was agonizing, especially after Dean Schmidt asked his favor of me. I still hadn’t made a decision, and I honestly tried not to think about it so much, especially when I was around Zephyr.
Zephyr walked at my side, his hand resting on my back as we headed to his room. He said that he had something to show me, so I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t bother to ask.
“Things are still tense around here since Amelia’s death,” he told me.
I didn’t have to be informed about that. I could feel the tension in the hallways, but it didn’t all have to do with Amelia’s death. So many things had happened here, and so many things were still going on, whether out in the open or in secret. It was impossible for the tension to only come from one place.
“There’s a murderer on the loose,” I commented. And no one knew who it was. I didn’t like living within the pages of a horror novel, but I could only control so much of my own story. That was what drove me crazy.