she didn’t answer after a minute, I had to brave the morning light and peel back my eyelids. I was so damned tired it wasn’t even funny.
Cal and Adrian decided to go on a long ass nighttime run to someplace far enough away that it made my bones physically ache in the night. The absence of them made me groggy, and my mind a heap of chaotic, dumbed-down thought.
“They asked me a favor, and I couldn’t say no. It was just a small favor. I didn’t know what they were planning, and I mean, if it were me, I’d be excited, but it’s not me, it’s you, so—”
“You’re rambling,” I interrupted, glaring at her from my shield of blankets. “Just spit it out.”
She pursed her lips and handed me the envelope from behind her back. It was a thick ivory card stock material with a broken wax seal that had a marking like a flower. A rose? The rest of the envelope was blank, but inside was a thick note card, embossed in gold edging, with fine calligraphic writing down the middle.
You are cordially invited to celebrate
The eighteenth birthday of Miss Harper Hawkins.
Saturday, June 8th, at Rosewood Abbey.
I sat bolt upright, blinking away any remaining traces of sleep from my eyes. I clutched the little piece of paper between my fingers, not believing what I was seeing. What the hell was this? I hadn’t told Martin I wanted to have the party.
And I wasn’t planning to. I didn’t want to have some big swanky event. I just wanted to maybe eat some cake with my guys and my best friend. That would have been more than enough.
I cringed. “Please tell me you’re the only one who has one of these?”
Bianca bit her bottom lip, flinching. “No. I’m pretty sure they were sent out to everyone, actually…”
Oh shit.
“No. No, no, no.” I jumped up to pace the small patch of clear floor between us. Bianca recoiled back to give me more space. “Did you do this?” I asked her, shaking the little slip of paper in front of her face. “Did you?”
Her eyes widened, and she stepped back even further. “No,” she said hastily. “Well, I mean, I didn’t know why they wanted me to send the note to Martin. They didn’t say. They just asked me if I could.”
Those bastards! “They did what?”
I was near shouting now, and unable to help myself. Already, I was tugging on yesterday’s skirt, and throwing my hair up into a quick bun. I was going to kill them.
“Would you calm down?” Bianca said, standing in my way when I went to leave. “It’s just a party. You act like they were arranging your funeral or something.”
They might as well have been!
“They’ve just invited everyone in an academy full of students who hate me to come to my house to celebrate my birthday, B. How idiotic is that?”
And then a little wave of relief washed over me. I was right. No one in this school save for B, and maybe Marcus liked me at all. Who would even come? I didn’t know if the thought of having no one show up was worse or better than the thought of filling my house with people who thought I was a co-conspirator to murder.
Ugh. This had to be one of the levels of hell.
“I guess you have a point,” Bianca said and stepped out of my way, calling after me, “Go easy on them!” as I tore from the room and raced down the hall.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve—” I started, bursting into the tool shed without knocking. A hissing sound and the absence of light made me choke on whatever else I was going to say.
“Shut. The. Door.”
I knew that voice.
“Harper!” Adrian came up behind me and pushed me into the shed, Cal shoving his way inside behind him, and then in the blink of an eye the door was shut, and the light was turned on. Blinking rapidly, I tried to make sense of what I was seeing.
Cowering in the back corner of the room was Draven, though now that the door was closed, not letting in any more sunlight, he was recovering back to his full height. He glared at me from the corner of his eye.
“Draven got here last night,” Cal explained.
“Yes, but you were sleeping soundly, and I didn’t want to wake you,” Draven added.
Sleeping soundly? Had I been? It certainly felt like I’d had an awful sleep. But I was