Page 13 of Reign

Ahmar’s use of my full name brings me up short. He’s never, in all my years of knowing him, released my birth name like fire escaping his mouth.

“Mom went here, Ahmar!”

“That doesn’t mean she was killed because of it. Your momma photographed a lot of crime scenes, mainly gang related. We’ve looked into Briarcliff, and to put it simply, the evidence just isn’t as strong as possible gang retaliation.”

“What about my roommate being pushed off a cliff? Are you going to disregard that, too?”

“I’m not dismissing you, honey. I’m laying out the facts—”

“People are dying all around me!”

My yell causes the few Briarcliff students heading to exams this early to falter and look back at me.

“Everywhere I turn,” I continue, aiming for calm, “somebody I care about dies. You can’t pretend not to see that.”

“You are not the reason, honey.”

Instead of a comfort, the sweetness in his tone only angers me further. “Stop saying that like it’s true. I am the cause. It’s my bloodline that’s done this.”

“We are not in the stone ages. You can’t expect me to buy this descendent business like it’s a bona fide recipe for murder. Your momma was in a high-risk career. Your roommate was involved in multiple affairs and was knocked up by her sister’s boyfriend, thus becoming a victim to her sister’s rage and jealousy.”

“And Ivy?” My question is nothing but a tremble of sound. “What about her?”

“That, I don’t know. I haven’t heard anything. Baby, I’m sorry.”

He doesn’t believe me.

My voice comes out softer. Flatter. The Briarcliff forest dulls in my vision. “I understand. I’m on my own. If you won’t believe me now, then I have to gather more evidence. I’ll do just that.”

“Calla, don’t you dare hang up on m—”

The phone drops to my side.

I trudge the rest of the way to school with the same misery I carried when I found my mother, massacred on the floor.

5

Callie

I should be on a first-name basis with the Briarcliff prefects at this point, but to be honest, when I’m summoned by yet another one as soon as I enter the academy, her face doesn’t even look familiar.

Her expression, however, does.

Callie the troublemaker, drawing the attention of the headmaster. Again.

Shoulders hunched, I make a left into the faculty wing, not bothering to toss my things into my locker.

With each step, a viscous film grows around my heart, becoming thicker and slimier the more time that passes between Ivy’s last breaths and bringing her murderer to justice.

Like today, for example. Why is everyone still in school? Shouldn’t we be holding a memorial or an assembly for another tragic victim at Briarcliff?

I hate to think on the reason for the silence, but it’s obvious in the roots of this academy. Unexplainable events, secrets, lies, mysterious deaths … all of it grows in Briarcliff soil, yet everyone just steps over the weeds.

Marron’s door is open, leaving me exposed in his doorframe before I’m ready.

“Ah. Miss Ryan. Come on in.”

I jolt at my name. A quick scan of his office leads to further confusion.

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