Defiant Princess (Boys of Oak Park Prep #2) - Callie Rose Page 0,70

card. I pulled on a jacket over my t-shirt and stuffed the key card in the pocket, then slipped out the door.

The campus was even quieter than it’d been when Finn walked me back to the Wastelands earlier. I hadn’t even checked my phone for the time, but it was probably close to one a.m.

It was not the right time to be doing this, and I wasn’t even sure exactly what I was going to do. All I knew was that I couldn’t keep sitting on the information Finn had given me, letting it bounce around in my head like a ricocheting bullet.

The key card still worked in the front door of Clarendon Hall. The main common room was dim, with only a few lights left on overnight, and I took the stairs to the top floor quietly.

My heart pounded harder as I ascended the last flight, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the conversation I’d had with Philip the first time he had agreed to meet with me—the heartbreak in his expression when he’d talked about my mom and the way her personality had flipped.

The Princes had already shown themselves to be completely capable of lying to me. And Jacqueline was obviously still holding a grudge against her daughter. But Philip? He’d loved Charlotte. It was clear in the way he talked about her. He had no reason to lie, to go out of his way to paint a damning picture of her.

And even he admitted that toward the end, her behavior had been cruel and erratic.

Maybe my mom had hurt her friends somehow, had pushed Mason’s mom to the breaking point.

But was it fair for kids to be held responsible for their parents’ demons?

I passed by Elijah’s room, then Cole’s and Finn’s, and came to a stop in front of Mason’s door. My skin prickled with electric energy as I reached up and rapped my knuckles against it.

No answer.

Just go, Talia. Go back to your room and forget all about this.

But even as I had the thought, my fist was striking the door again, harder this time.

The sound of movement on the other side made me stand up straighter, dropping my hand, and then Mason pulled the door open.

I’d woken him up.

He was shirtless and a little disheveled, a pair of gym shorts slung low on his waist, showcasing the V at his hips and the sculpted terrain of his chest. His brilliant green eyes were foggy with sleep, and a small piece of hair was sticking up on the right side of his head.

He looked so… so real in that moment that it knocked me for a loop.

There was a part of me that still didn’t consider Mason a mortal, that thought of him more like some escaped god of the underworld, someone incapable of the same fears and weaknesses as the rest of us.

But right now, his eyes were open and vulnerable—not in the falsely warm way they appeared when he was about to unleash some new cruelty, but in a way that let me see more of what was behind them than I ever had before.

Then his sleepy gaze registered who was standing outside his door, and I watched the bright green of his irises harden as if they were real gemstones.

“What are you doing here, little dancer?”

“Is it true?”

He shook his head, annoyance and confusion making his brow wrinkle. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“About your mom. Is it true?”

His expression changed as soon as the words left my mouth, his features smoothing over as a mask of anger fell across his face. He stepped back, moving to close the door, but I couldn’t let him.

Without thinking, I threw my arm out, grabbing the edge of the door. Mason let out a muffled curse, pulling back on the handle at the last second. Instead of crushing my hand against the frame, the door hit with lighter force, bruising bones instead of breaking them. I hissed in pain, and Mason cursed again, opening the door wider and reaching out to haul me inside.

He slammed it shut behind us and pulled me into the kitchen, turning on the tap to the coldest setting and sticking my hand under the flowing water.

Then he left me standing there while he turned and yanked open the freezer. “What the fuck were you thinking? You trying to get your hand broken?”

“No. I…”

The water was so cold it made my bruised skin ache, and my heart drummed hard in my