Page 59 of Wicked Waters

“And me. You’re not leaving me out of this.” Aria appeared in front of us, her arms folded across her chest. “Don’t even think about it.”

Tristan rolled his eyes but tipped his head towards the door, and the three of us made our way out of the hall, closely followed by Knox and Elena. He led us in the opposite direction to where I’d come from, to the double doors that led outside. There were a few groups of students milling around on the gravel, but he kept walking, heading around the side of the building and coming to a stop in a shadowy corner.

Leaning back against the wall, he looked down at me, that uncharacteristically serious expression still on his face. “Talk. What’s going on?”

“First of all, what happened to Roman?” My panic wasn’t going to go away until I knew he was okay.

Tristan exchanged glances with Knox and then shrugged. “We don’t know. We were taking selfies, and he pulled out his phone. There were, uh, a lot of notifications on it. When he saw, it was like—not to be a cliché—but it was like he’d seen a ghost. He ran out of the ball before we could ask him what the fuck was going on, and we haven’t seen him since. We’ve both tried calling and texting him, but nothing. I didn’t think it was that serious until you came running into the ball with the same expression on your face. What happened, Quinn?”

As quickly as I could, I gave them a rundown of everything Freya had told me. As I spoke, the tension grew until I could physically feel it, thick and suffocating in the night air.

“That fucking bitch,” Aria growled. “I’m going to kill her. I’m actually going to commit murder.”

“Calm down, little scorpion.” Tristan gave her shoulder a condescending pat. She stamped her spike heel on his loafer, and he screeched, yanking his foot out of her reach. “Fuck you!”

“Gladly.” She gave him the middle finger.

“Can you two give it a rest for five fucking minutes?” Knox ground out. “We need to get to the bottom of whatever’s going on. I guarantee that whatever those notifications on Roman’s phone were about, they were to do with what’s happening with you. It’s all been to do with you, hasn’t it?” There was accusation in his tone, and I couldn’t blame him.

“Yes. I think so. I think…if it has something to do with the plagiarism accusations, then maybe it is about me and not about him. But what about the boat and the lighthouse? Penelope wouldn’t have anything to do with that, surely? That can’t be connected.”

“It can’t be.” Tristan shook his head. “I don’t…I mean, fuck. We’ve all known her for years. I’ve been working with her all year, doing all the head boy and girl shit and all that. And our work on the ball committee… She doesn’t seem like someone who would do all this, does she?”

Before tonight, before Freya had shown me the evidence, I would’ve thought the same. But now… Now, I didn’t trust anyone. Anyone who wasn’t a part of this small group of people in front of me. Even so, I couldn’t even imagine how or why she’d have been involved in that incident.

“Maybe…” I thought as I was speaking. “Maybe you guys should look for Roman, and I’ll look for Pen. I need to get to the bottom of this. We need answers.”

“There’s no way you’re confronting her on your own,” Elena said, and next to her, Aria gave me a hard look.

“Don’t even think about it,” Knox added. “And you—” His next comment was directed towards his girlfriend. “—aren’t going anywhere near her, either. I won’t let you put yourself in danger.”

Elena laughed without humour. “Knox, do you remember what I told you about the place I used to live? And, oh, remember how my mum basically tried to have your dad killed? And my uncle is in prison? I’m quite capable of dealing with some rich bitch on a power trip or whatever she’s doing.”

“What?” I said faintly, staring at her with wide eyes. She blinked, seeming to remember the rest of us were there, and gave me a wry smile.

“Um. I guess there are a few things I forgot to mention. I’ll tell you later, after we get through tonight.”

Knox was staring at his girlfriend like he wanted to rip her clothes off there and then, and I’d had enough of us getting derailed from the only thing that mattered. Turning on my heel, I marched back towards the doors. “I’m going to find Penelope. Please, find Roman, and let him know what’s going on, okay?” I threw over my shoulder. From behind me came the sound of various people swearing, followed by the scrape of shoes on gravel, and my mouth curved into a grim smile.

It was time to locate Penelope and find out the truth.

By any means necessary.

A hand wrapping around my wrist stopped me in my tracks.

“Quinn. Look.”

The urgency in Tristan’s voice had me spinning around.

He held up his phone.

“Roman sent me this. We need to make a plan. Now.”

32

ROMAN

“This makes no fucking sense.” I clenched and unclenched my fist, my other hand clasping my phone so tightly I could feel the metal straining beneath my grip. “Who would replace Quinn with Penelope? Yeah, she’s the head girl, but it’s just a fucking ball. Why would the teachers interfere with the voting?”

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