Page 72 of An Academy for Liars

Lennon became aware, now, of the attention on her. Everyone in the room had fallen silent, listening in on her conversation with Emerson.

“Could we just go outside for a minute?”

Emerson arched an eyebrow but got up, shoving back her chair soforcefully it very nearly toppled. The girl who’d been squeezing her shoulders stumbled away as she and Lennon stepped out into the empty hall.

“What the hell happened between Dante and Claude?” Lennon whispered.

“Claude burst into his office—drunk—and it went about as well as anything goes when Claude is drunk and belligerent. Dante responded in turn.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean Claude got himself expelled. He was breaking things. Saying things—”

“Like what?”

Here Emerson paused, suddenly reluctant to answer. “Why don’t you just ask Dante yourself? You two are so close now—”

“Close?”

“Oh, fuck off, Lennon. Everyone knows you’re slated to be his apprentice. It’s only a matter of time.”

“That’s not…What? No. You’re the shoo-in.”

“Please,” said Emerson, rolling her eyes. “You don’t have to pretend not to know to spare my ego. I could give a damn, but it is annoying the way you act like you don’t know.”

“That I don’t know what?”

“That you’re the favorite,” she snapped. “That ever since you stepped foot on this campus Dante has been pulling strings to protect you, which is exactly why Claude was expelled.”

“What the hell do I have to do with Claude’s expulsion?” Lennon demanded, shocked that Emerson would even suggest such a thing.

“The night Claude burst into Dante’s office, he was saying things about you and that last lesson you had with Benedict before everything went south.”

Lennon’s heart dropped into her stomach. “What kind of things?”

“I don’t know,” said Emerson. “I heard Claude say your name—loudly, a couple of times—and then he was cut short. When he emerged from Dante’s office he was totally subdued, no doubt Dante persuaded him. The next day I got word from the admin that he’d been expelled. So, if you want to know what Claude said, your best bet is to ask Dante.”

Drayton’s professors keptprivate apartments on school grounds. At the distant edge of campus there was a block of townhomes, off-limits to students, where the faculty spent their nights. It wasn’t hard to locate Dante’s residence, because each of these narrow row houses bore a plaque on the front, designating their ownership. Dante’s was a dark brick, half-covered in crawling ivy. Its windows glowed warm in the chill autumn night.

Lennon knocked.

After a long beat, Dante answered. He didn’t look surprised to see her on his stoop. “You can’t just show up to my private residence in the middle of the night.”

“You showed up at my parents’ home, uninvited, onChristmas.”

“That was different.”

“How so?”

“For one, you wanted me to come—”

“That’s—”

“Don’t deny it, Lennon. Second, there was little to no risk ofanything when I showed up at your parents’. The same can’t be said for you being here. It doesn’t look right, me with my advisee on my doorstep in the middle of the night. What if someone saw us?”

“Then I guess you better get me inside before someone does.”

His gaze hardened. “We have an agreement, Lennon.”

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