She felt herself losing consciousness. Fighting back wasn’t an option, so she retreated, leaving the confines of her body as Alec took hold of her.
She was only vaguely aware of her own body, slumped uselessly against the back wall of the phone booth, Alec barring her exit, theirfaces inches apart. She felt like she was watching this happen to someone else.
Panic tore her mind farther from her body, and she felt herself fanning out—spreading thin across the campus. Racing across the lawn and through the brush. And then she found them, the rats that had scattered, gathered together in a shaking horde in the bushes a few yards out.
And an idea took form.
Lennon entered their minds, called them forth—a forceful coaxing—and then the horde began to run. There were shrieks and screams and yelps at the sight of the rat horde skittering across the campus, their little paws tramping across the sprawling green with surprising speed, until they found their mark.
The rats spilled into the phone booth and set upon Alec, clambering up his pants legs and ballooning through his shirt. He staggered back with a yell, foot catching on the bottom of the phone booth. He hit the ground, consumed by the writhing horde of rats. There were dozens of them, wriggling through his clothes and consuming his face. He gave a strangled cry.
Lennon lunged out of the phone booth and ran, her legs weak and leaden beneath her, half falling through the bushes as she struggled to drag herself across the Twenty-Fifth Square. But she was still so weak from the psychic suppression, and her pitiful attempts to firm up her knees were less and less successful. She was slowing down. If she kept pushing she knew she’d lose consciousness.
“Lennon!”Blaine stepped out onto the path ahead of her, waving her down. “This way!”
Lennon stopped dead.
When she still didn’t come, Blaine went to her, caught her by the arm, and dragged her along, keeping her on her feet. And it was agood thing that she did, because the moment Blaine’s arm encircled her, Lennon felt her legs go soft. It was Blaine who dragged her off the path and behind a live oak as several professors rounded the bend and advanced down the sidewalk Lennon had just been standing on.
“Why are you helping me?” said Lennon, panting and breathless.
“Because I’m finally brave enough to do what I should’ve done before,” Blaine whispered, and gripped her hands. “I’m sorry. I don’t deserve forgiveness, but I hope this is enough for you to know that it wasn’t all bullshit. That I do…regret not warning you sooner. I didn’t know anything for sure—I want you to know that. But I did know enough to suspect you were in danger. I just didn’t want to have to choose between losing you and losing my life at Drayton because I knew if it came down to it…” She couldn’t finish, just shook her head. “I hate myself.”
“It’s all right,” said Lennon. “It’s not your fault.”
But even as she said this, the betrayal stung anew. The reality that Blaine and Dante and almost everyone at Drayton she’d thought she could trust had participated in this cruel ruse, in one way or another. Were they all complicit? Because if Blaine had known, then who else? How many others? Eileen and Benedict were obvious answers, but what about Emerson, Sawyer—hell, even Nadine and Ian? Had they all been privy to this secret and iced her out? Her life the price of their admission to a world that they loved?
If she’d had to make the same decision, would she have done any different?
“Logos is crawling with faculty,” said Blaine. “They think you’ll go there first. So our best bet is getting you out through the gate in the faculty parking lot. I don’t think they’re expecting you there.” Blaine shifted Lennon’s arm tight across her shoulder, keeping her upright. They were moving slower than what was safe or prudent. But Lennon was too weak to go any faster. She was so relieved when shesaw the gates of Drayton emerging from the fog that her legs went limp beneath her, and Blaine had to drag her the rest of the way.
The gates didn’t open automatically the way they did when Dante’s car approached them, so Blaine had to pull them open, mostly alone despite Lennon’s best attempts to help her, teeth gritted, shaking hands wrapped white and bloodless around the rusty pickets. Blaine had them open almost wide enough for Lennon to pass through, when Lennon first caught sight of Alec approaching.
His face was a ruin of bleeding rat bites. His lips were so badly bitten that when he attempted to speak, he spat blood, and Lennon couldn’t even tell what exactly he was saying. Gregory twisted in her pocket as Lennon attempted to wedge herself through the gate, while Blaine pulled and struggled, panicking.
When Alec’s will came upon her, it felt like a heart attack. She immediately began to black out, would have if Blaine hadn’t offered an immediate counterattack, lashing out her will, intercepting the connection between Lennon and Alec, distracting him just long enough for Lennon to wedge herself into the break in the parted gate. But she was only half through when the gate closed suddenly, swinging shut on her chest, crushing Gregory deep into her stomach, the poor rat writhing and panicking as the metal tamped down on him. He gave a pained little shriek, wriggled free of her pocket, and fled for the bushes.
“Gregory!” It came out in a raw gasp, the gate crushing against her sternum making it almost impossible to speak or even breathe.
Lennon’s vision went. Her bones shrieked agony. For a moment, she was certain she was going to die in the maw of that iron gate. But with the last of her strength, and a strangled scream, Lennon managed to drag herself free, landing firmly back on the Drayton side. Alec had advanced considerably, and he had Blaine on her knees now,bleeding from the ears with the effort of holding him back. She twisted to look at Lennon, helpless, in pain.
And that was when Lennon heard a shout from across the campus. She craned her head to see Sawyer, Kieran, Emerson, and the rest of her housemates from Logos charging for Alec. They attacked him as one, brought him to his knees, severing his hold on Blaine.
Sawyer, bleeding from the nose with the effort of containing Alec, turned to Lennon and yelled: “What are you standing there for?Run!”
Lennon turned and broke for the trees, ran until her legs gave out beneath her. She dropped to her hands and knees, panting in the dirt. In the distance she could see the chapel and she started toward it, hoping to hide there for a little while and catch her breath, maybe regain the strength she needed to call an elevator.
“There you are.” She looked up to see Nadine emerging from the trees. “The whole campus is looking for you.”
“Nadine, I can explain—”
“Why did you kill Ian?” she asked, so softly that Lennon barely heard her speak. It was then that she saw it, a bit of metal clenched in Nadine’s left hand. A knife.
“It was an accident.”
“Anaccident?” Nadine’s eyes flashed bright in the dark. “Lennon, you tore him apart. They wouldn’t even let me see what was left of him. They had to send ashes back to his family because what was left to bury was so gruesome they were worried what would happen if they gave them anything more. And you stand here telling me that was an accident?”
“Listen—”