Page 151 of Ruthless Legacy

“Your room is the place you get that alone time. Not up here on a roof where anyone can see you and anything can happen to you.”

“Awe, Pax, are you afraid I’ll get drunk and fall off?”

“Hopeful. Then I can use your demise to my advantage. I’m sure mourning will keep me from being assigned a new companion for at least two years.” I crouch down, looking over the ledge. “Why are you up here?”

“Because it all seems so small. So insignificant from this perspective.”

Glancing over at her, I see remnants of pain, anger, and fear in her eyes. Her shoulders are hunched forward, like the weight she’s carrying is almost too much to bear.

It’s a look I’m tragically familiar with. It’s what I see when I look at my friends, and when I look in the mirror. We all have outlets for when we feel like the oppressive expectations of our names and our status are getting to be too much to handle.

I straighten and hold out my hand. “Let’s go.”

She looks at it before dragging her gaze up to my face. “Are you offering to help me over the side?”

“No, Nem. I’m fulfilling my promise about that bike ride. Off campus.”

“How?”

The league’s put restrictions on all the first year prospects for seven days. They’re only allowed off campus for league sanctioned events and have a curfew. They didn’t give a reason, and everyone on campus is snapping at each other like crabs in a barrel.

“Do you wanna go or not?”

She scrambles to her feet. “Yes. Yes, I want to go. Where are the guards and lookouts?”

“Excuse me?”

“We have to take them out so we can sneak off campus. Or the council will be on my ass like poison oak. I can’t afford to lose any more points.” She glares at me. “Oh, I get it. That’s the idea, right?” She moves back towards the ledge. “I’m good right here. Go find another newbie to haze.”

“Stop being melodramatic. If I wanted you to lose points, there are more creative ways to do it.” I move towards the door. “I’m giving you a genuine opportunity to stretch your wings. If you don’t want to, then stay up here.”

She hurries after me, muttering. “If you’re about to screw me over, I’ll be the one pretending to be in mourning.”

Once we’re on the ground and heading towards the dorm, she chuckles. “Youareplaying me, and I was stupid enough to think that for one second that you weren’t.”

“Damn, are you always so suspicious?”

“Yes.”

“We’re heading to the dorms for two reasons. One so everyone can see you going into the dormbeforeyour curfew, and two, we need to change.”

We enter the lobby of Vale Tower and I drag her to the lounge, making a big deal about being seen with her, then push her towards the elevator. When we reach our floor, I let her step into the hallway first, to make sure she doesn’t pull a runner, or try to attack me.

Pointing to her door, I say, “Put on somethingrebelliousand be ready to go in an hour.”

I take my time changing into black jeans and my boots, with a black V-neck T-shirt. Exactly an hour later, I step out of my room and knock on Thea’s door. She opens right away, staring up at me. There’s still a lot of distrust in her eyes, but she’s also curious about what I’m really up to.

I walk to the tapestry of the school crest that hangs on the wall between her room and Finn’s. Next to it is a plate with two switches on it . One controls the lights on this floor, the other doesn’t.

We’re all protective of the secret passages and tunnels around campus. Some of them are common knowledge, but the average student can’t access them. The sequence for getting them to open is only shared with league members. Then there are the ones only The Trium and council leaders know about.

I flick the button down, and the tapestry slides over, revealing the doors to the express elevator that goes to the sublevel of the building. I enter the code to disarm the security sensor and step inside. Once the Elevator doors close, I hear the click of the tapestry sliding back in place.

The trip to the bottom takes two minutes. The elevator brakes pump once and we slowly drift to a stop. The door opens and I lead her into the tunnel.

“All this time there’s been another elevator and nobody told me?”

“It’s not another elevator. It doesn’t stop on any floors other than ours, the first floor and this level.”

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