thumb typed on his iPhone. He didn’t even look up as he asked the question.
“Patience!” Leah cooed. “All will be explained soon.”
Persey was relatively (positively) sure she’d watched this scene in an old movie: a group of strangers gathered for some reason, but none of them 100 percent sure what was going on. In the movies, this would end with a bunch of dead bodies….
A girl about Persey’s and Neela’s age stepped forward, meeting Leah’s bright, practiced smile with one of her own. She had flawless pale skin, deep brown eyes, and impossibly long lashes. “I’d really like to check into my hotel room first. To freshen up, change my clothes.” She leaned forward as if conspiring with their hostess. “I want to look my best for the press, you know?”
Persey didn’t know, but the girl’s outfit—skinny jeans tucked into buttery tan suede knee boots, a cream-colored one-shoulder tee, and an enormous turquoise cuff bracelet on her upper arm—hinted that this was a girl who didn’t leave the house without being camera-ready.
“There won’t be any press, Mackenzie,” Leah said with a shake of her head.
Mackenzie’s face fell. “No press? For the biggest All-Star competition ever? With a ten-million-dollar prize?”
“None.”
“Are you seriously telling me that no one’s going to interview me for the nightly news?” It was Sheryl Rohnor all over again.
“I’m afraid not.”
“You’re missing a built-in marketing opportunity,” the Black guy said, leaning back in his chair but still not looking up.
“Thank you, Shaun,” Leah began. “But our media team is more than capable of—”
“What he said,” Mackenzie interrupted. She arched a filled-in brow. “Especially considering what happened to your company last year, I’d think you could use all the positive media coverage you can get.”
Leah pursed her lips. The invocation of “last year” clearly irritated her. “I’m sure there will be plenty of media interest for whoever wins today’s competition.”
“Today?” An Asian girl in a T-shirt that read IT’S NOT A PARTY TILL I SLYTHERIN looked up from her phone. “So this is happening now? The competition has already started?”
Just for a moment, Slytherin’s eyes drifted to Persey, covering her from head to toe, sizing her up. She pursed her lips, looking wholly disappointed, then, without even waiting for Leah to answer, she dropped her head back to her phone.
What the hell was that all about?
Leah’s smile was fixed and bright. “I’ll explain everything in detail as soon as—”
“Wussup, bitches!”
Persey recognized the voice before she saw the head of mussed-up blond hair enter the room. Kevin looked almost exactly the same as the last time she’d seen him, down to the cargo shorts, having only exchanged his flip-flops for an old-school pair of checked Vans. He certainly hadn’t changed his wardrobe much for the competition.
“That’s incredibly offensive,” Slytherin said, staring daggers at him. “Misogynistic and antiquated.”
“Cool.” Kevin grinned, winking at Persey in a way that made her want to simultaneously laugh out loud and smack him across the face. “Offensive is what I do best.”
Meanwhile, Mackenzie didn’t miss a beat. “You two know each other?” she asked, looking back and forth between Persey and Kevin. “That sounds like collusion to me.”
“Do you even know what ‘collusion’ means?” Slytherin asked. She was taking nobody’s side.
“Do you know what ‘mind your own business’ means?” Mackenzie snapped.
Slytherin rolled her eyes. “Um, yeah. Cuz that’s literally a definition. Like you literally just defined the concept you were asking me about.”
“Whatever,” Mackenzie said. The last defense of someone who knows they’ve been bested.
“Okay, everyone,” Leah said, with a clap of her hands. She seemed ready to get down to business. “Now that we’re all here, I’d like to welcome you to the first annual Escape-Capades All-Star Competition!”
AS SOON AS LEAH MADE THE OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT, the lights in the library dimmed and a flat screen descended from the ceiling above the fireplace. When it clicked into place, a video began to play, the audio piped into the room from unseen speakers.
Persey recognized the Escape-Capades façade immediately. Not that it was difficult. There wasn’t exactly an overabundance of bright green five-story campuses in the middle of the high desert.
“Welcome to Escape-Capades World Headquarters.” The female voice-over was warm and friendly, and sounded a lot like Leah. “We are honored to host you for the first annual All-Star Competition.”
The image faded into a slide show of laughing, cheerful Escape-Capades employees going about their daily tasks, both at the headquarters building and at escape room installations across the world.
“Since coming under new management,” the voice-over continued, “after the