Page 40 of Spearcrest Queen

I wouldn’t have to stress about money. I wouldn’t have to scrape together rent for the summer.

I wouldn’t have to be alone.

It’s a slippery slope, this line of thinking, but I let myself slip willingly, my mind painting easy pictures. Waking up inEvan’s apartment, wrapped in his soft cotton sheets, his arm slung over my waist. Commuting to the KMG offices together, pretending it’s just work, just routine—then slipping away in the evenings, tangled in bed, his voice low and rough against my skin. Going to sleep without having to dread him leaving the next day.

My cursor trembles over the Apply button.

A single click, and this could all be mine.

What would that make me, though? A girl who couldn’t make it on her own, who let herself be saved by her rich boyfriend. It wouldn’t even matter if no one knew about me and Evan.Iwould know.

And that’s enough to make me slam my laptop shut, pushing it away like it’s burnt me.

Spring break ends withoutme noticing, campus slowly filling up once more underneath a cool spring sun. The trees are in full bloom, drifts of petals catching on doorways and bike racks and benches. Everyone returns well-fed and tanned and hungover; classes resume, the last stretch.

The week before the gala, Alice Liu startles me by taking a seat across from me in the archives library while I’m annotating a case. Her glassy skin has a subtle tan to it, more dusky than golden, accentuating her black hair and inky eyes. She’s dressed in an oyster-grey fitted dress, white gold Cartier bracelets stacked on her graceful arms.

I raise an eyebrow, realising she’s not getting her things out of her bag but just sitting with her arms crossed, watching me.

“Yes?” I ask pointedly, keeping my voice low to avoid drawing the ire of the final-year students.

“What time shall I pick you up on Friday?”

My stomach churns. I’ve been avoiding even thinking about it. I don’t even know what I’m going to wear.

“You’re the one giving me a lift, so I’ll set off when you do,” I say. “Just tell me when you want to leave.”

She nods, clearly pleased with this answer. She tilts her head. “Am I picking you up from Huntington Hall?”

The name Charity Hall hangs unspoken between us.

“Yes.”

She taps impeccable pink nails against her arm. “You went to Spearcrest, right?”

I catch a sharp breath. “You already asked me that. Yes, I went there. On ascholarship.”

“I see,” she says.

I narrow my eyes at her and sit back in my chair, crossing my arms. “Shall I make my own way to New York, then?”

Her lips twist into the smallest smile I’ve ever seen. “Why would you?”

“Because I might not be one of you, Alice, but I know how you all work, how you all think. And since neither of us are stupid, let’s not waste time. I’ll make my own way to New York.”

“You’re not stupid, you’re right,” she says. She looks me up and down, a shrewd look, like a jeweller appraising the value of a gemstone. “But you’re wrong: you don’t know how I work or how I think. So you don’t need to make your own way to New York, and actually, you should come get a drink with me at Nadine’s beforehand.”

She stands up, straightening her dress with glacial elegance.

“But Idoappreciate that you didn’t waste my time, Sophie, so let me give you some advice, free of charge.” I sit back, suppressing a scoff that’s a mixture of surprise and amusement. “You’re not some charity case or some weak little victim, so stoppretending you are. Nobody’s buying the poor innocent lamb act. You’re a wolf, and I think you quite like the taste of blood.That’swhy I chose you.”

She gives me a pouty smile that looks like a rose but feels like a hundred thorns.

“Five o’clock Friday, at Nadine’s. See you there.”

She strides away in a silvery tinkle of bracelets, leaving me in stunned silence. I’m still processing her words several hours later when I finally make my way back to Huntington Hall, and I almost miss the parcel waiting for me at reception.

Alone in my room, I open the parcel, hands trembling when I notice the stamps telling me the parcel came from the UK. Inside, a garment bag is carefully folded and secured with ribbons. I pull it up and carefully unzip it.

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