Devils' Day Party: A High School Bully Romance - C.M. Stunich Page 0,151

Rose to your Jack.”

My heart stutters and I stand up quickly, clutching the mask against my heart.

“This one,” Pearl says, looking up at me from behind the façade of a beast. “I want this one.”

By the time we get to the Devils' Day party, it's in full swing.

The gatekeeper grins at us from behind a red imp's mask and takes our phones, ushering us through with a bow, his shirtless chest covered in dark glitter.

We park next to Raz's Shelby Cobra, and I find that I can't resist running my fingers over the hood as we pass. He fucked me on this hood, and he doesn't even remember. The thought is sobering, but I make myself smile anyway, my arm hooked through Pearl's as we head to the party. My plan is to stay up all night and watch her, make sure she makes it to sunrise. After that … I don't know.

One step at a time.

I'm wearing the gown I made, the one that Pearl stole from the clothesline that I haven't seen since the day before the original Devils' Day. It's a floor-length gown, made entirely of black lace. Underneath, I'm wearing a black bikini that just barely shows through, giving little hints of skin elsewhere.

As soon as Barron glances over his shoulder and sees me in the butterfly mask, something strange happens in his face. He's sitting around the campfire with Calix, sucking on a honey-colored lollipop with a tiny scorpion inside of it.

Everything goes on Devils' Day, I guess.

“Have you seen Luke?” I ask, pausing next to the Knight Crew's small fire. The bonfire rages behind us, surrounded by the sweaty, gyrating bodies of students wearing masks of all sorts. They look wild tonight, wanton, the very opposite of everything their families wish they could be. To the left of the bonfire, Cami Alhambra is sitting in a circle of other girls, white candles lit between each of them, and a spell book open on the forest floor in front of her.

I turn back to find Calix looking at me like he'd rather wring my neck with his black-gloved hands than answer my question.

Then I remember that today, I didn't make nice with a single one of the Knight Crew boys.

Fuck.

“Grab her,” Calix says casually, and Barron rises to his feet, several of the diaphanous-gowned, demon-mask girls swarming to do their master's bidding.

“Not tonight,” Pearl says, stepping in front of me. The girls titter in confusion as Barron stares at me over her shoulder.

I better come up with something and fast or else I may very well end up locked in the Devils’ Den—I can see the rusted key hanging around Barron's neck—or in the cabin where Calix and I first had sex.

“Barron, your notebook is filled with drawings of me,” I say, and even over the screams of the band on the makeshift stage, I know he can hear me. His dual-colored eyes narrow in suspicion. “Please don't hurt me tonight.” My voice is even, almost deadpan. That little hiccup at the end really gets me though. “I will kick you in the nuts if I have to, but I'd rather not.”

The sound of a gun going off draws my attention, and my stomach roils with nausea.

“What is that?” Pearl asks, cocking her head to one side as Calix stands up, dressed in what looks almost like a butler's uniform, but with snazzy cufflinks in the shape of crescent moons, his jacket open and his chest bare. A new outfit every single night. I can't figure what I'm supposed to make of that, especially since so much of this day runs on a script without my interference.

“Raz brought some guns to do some target practice with,” Barron says absently, and I can't decide if he's saying that to freak me out or because something about my mask or what I said about his sketchbook is throwing him off.

“Where?” I ask, fear filling me as I lift my lacy skirts and prepare to run. I have to find Raz before something bad happens.

“Near the cabins,” Barron suggests as Calix steps forward, dark eyes shining with righteous anger.

“Something you said this morning pissed him off. If I were you, I wouldn't go over there,” Calix purrs. “And don't think I've forgotten what you did to my fucking car.”

I ignore him, taking off in the direction of the cabins, past the mouth of Devils’ Den, past the train car, and into the woods. Candles flicker randomly in the