Page 9 of The New Girl

“Is she the reason you were crying in the library?”

I’d touched a nerve. He took a step back and his face closed. “Are you coming with me or not? I need clear unequivocal consent. If we’re doing this, we better do it. You have a curfew, don’t forget.”

I did forget. I completely forgot that bursary recipients had to be back in their rooms by midnight. Alexis wouldn’t cover for me in a million years.

“Fine. I’ll go with you. What happens now?”

“We play the game. For as long as we can stand it.”

Lysander took my hand and led me from the Masonic Hall without another word.

His hand was warm despite the cold night. He held mine until I gently disengaged to get my mittens out of my pockets and slipthem on. We walked along the breezeway toward the arch that led to the front of the college and the bell tower.

I was cold. Nerves or hunger—or maybe it was the way I was dressed.

“Were you at a costume party? It’s a little early for Halloween.” Lysander nodded at my thigh high tights and the strip of bare skin below the hem of my skirt.

I yanked it down. “I was out with a friend before I came to the meeting. It was her idea to dress me this way.”

“How much have you had to drink?”

“Nothing. I don’t have the budget to buy my own drinks and no one would buy them for me. I had soda water before I gave up and found the Adventurers.” I pulled out my phone. “Speaking of which, I have to call my friend and let her know where I am.”

Lysander stopped. “You can’t tell her about the Club or my identity. What are you going to say?”

“That I’m with you,” I replied, scrolling for Imogene’s number. “It’s non-negotiable, Lysander. Girls don’t have the privilege of not checking in with friends and family when we’re out for the evening. I’ll tell her I met up with you in the library and we’re going for coffee.”

He nodded and looked away, his breath coming out in small puffs as he walked on ahead of me.

Imogene was impressed when I told her who I was with. “Text me all about it the instant you get back to the dorm. Lysander Stark is a very rare bird, Jane. Tread carefully.”

I slipped my phone back in my pocket and looked up to find him staring at me like I was a lifeboat on a dark sea. He had stopped under a lamp in the quadrangle to wait. The night mist swirled around him and the trees shed their leaves like falling snow, but it was me who consumed his attention.

I didn’t understand why and seeing him staring at me with such fixed absorption frightened me a little.

But it also aroused me. A lot.

“Ready?”

The pulse at the base of my throat jumped. I nodded and he stepped out of the pool of light and into the dark.

I waited a few cold seconds and then I followed him, my breath coming out in white puffs as we cut across the quadrangle.

“Can I ask you a question?”

His hands were jammed inside his long wool overcoat. He wore a fedora on his dark head that shadowed his eyes, and a thick knotted tie.

“Sure.”

“Were you in love with her?”

“Who?”

“The girl who died.”

“I loved her but I was not in love with her. She was my step sister.”

My blood froze. “You were sleeping with your step sister...?”

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