RIOT HOUSE (Crooked Sinners #1) - Callie Hart Page 0,160
how fast you walk. I’m not going anywhere.”
“I really wish you would.”
“Elodie, come on, now. Please. You’re not being very fair.”
“FAIR?” I whip around, ready to take her head off. “You don’t get to pull the ‘you’re not being very fair’ card on me, Carina Mendoza. I thought you were my friend, and you’ve been hiding things and keeping secrets from me this entire time. You swore you were gonna take that journal to the cops. You didn’t even tell me anything about Mara in the first place. You said you weren’t gonna come here tonight. And, surprise surprise, what did you do?”
“You didn’t tell me you were seeing Wren,” she counters, her eyes hard as flint.
“Yeah. I know that was shitty, but I didn’t feel like I could tell you. There was no reason for you to keep me in the dark about Mara, though, was there?”
A loud whoop echoes amongst the trees, the sound half animal, half human. Both of us stop, peering into the pitch darkness, and the hairs prickle across the back of my neck. “Why would anyone run out there into the forest with no fucking lights,” I mutter. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
Carina sighs. “Cabin fever’s a very real thing, Elle. You’ve only been at the academy for a couple of months but try living here for a few years. You start to go a little stir crazy. You don’t get it. If you’re a student at Wolf Hall, the guys from Riot House are a big deal. They set the tone for the entire year. If you’re a guy, you wanna be them. If you’re a girl, you wanna date them. That’s the way it’s always been. So when they pull stupid shit like this, everyone’s always tripping over themselves to join in.”
“Is that what happened the night Mara disappeared? She was trying to join in whatever dumb game they were playing?”
Carina nods. “Yes.”
“So what? I’m supposed to just traipse right on in there and make a fool of myself like everyone else? Is that what they expect?”
“Pax and Dashiell, probably. Not Wren. I was talking to him before you showed up and he wanted you as far away from this thing as possible, Elle. It’s good that you’re going back to the academy, okay?”
Huh. Yeah, that’s right. Wren didn’t want me at the party. He wanted me as far away from this thing as humanly possible. Well, Wren’s going to have to learn that he isn’t always going to get what he wants with me. I set my jaw. “You know what, Carina? Maybe I will just join in this stupid game. That way there won’t be any more secrets. I’ll know if he sleeps with half the academy. I’ll know exactly what went on, and no one will be able to hide anything from me anymore!”
“Elodie! What the hell are you doi—wait! Elle, you can’t see anything!”
I’ve already stepped off the road, though. I’m already walking into the woods, towards the excited cries and shouts of the other members of Wolf Hall Academy. Far be it from me to let them have all of the fun.
Cursing loudly, Carina comes crashing through the undergrowth after me. “This is nuts. What’s the point in any of this? Who cares what Wren does or doesn’t do?”
“Me. I do. He made me fall in love with him and now I fucking care. It’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“Then just stop!” Carina cries, exasperated.
“Oh, yeah. Of course. Like you stopped loving Dashiell? It’s that simple, isn’t it? Just a flip of a switch? I saw how you looked at him outside the gazebo the other night.”
She swears some more. “Okay, okay. Slow down a little, will you? Thank god I wore flats. How the hell do you even know where you’re going?”
I point up at the clear night sky peeking through the tree branches overhead, refusing to give her the courtesy of actually looking at her. “I know how to read the stars. Good Ol’ Colonel Stillwater taught me, amongst soooooo many other things. Who knew that one would come in handy. We’re heading south-west. If I want to head back to the road, it’ll be easy. Now either keep quiet or head back to Wolf Hall. Either way, I’m done talking.”
We walk for an hour.
Carina screams at the top of her lungs every time a student comes tearing out of the dark clutching a wad of Wren’s red flags in their hands.