Page 41 of The Honor Society

So I should definitely leave out that I slept next to him all night, right? I pull my hair back into a ponytail nervously tying it behind my head. “Well when you put it like that it sounds worse.”

“No shit, it sounds worse and don’t move.” He grabs my elbow and jerks me forward his eyes zero in on my neck, where The Proctor bit, where he marked me. “You broke up with Axel.”

“Y-yes.”

“So who gave you that and don’t you dare give me some bullshit about one-night stands, the angle has an incisor cutting into you like a mark, it means you bled, it wasn’t for pleasure it was for⁠—”

He stumbles back. I hold out my hands. “I had no choice. He marked me.”

“Who?” Lilah grabs me and stares at my neck. “Who kidnapped you?”

“Someone bad.” I say. “I don’t know, and then The Proctor killed them, and then he did this to me and he said, he said I was his, nobody else’s, and told me to break up with Axel and then he creepily stayed the entire night.”

“In this apartment?” Jude holds his hands out wide.

I nod.

“In the living room?”

I shake my head no.

“Your room?”

I nod.

He gulps and pinches the bridge of his nose. “In a chair? Holding up a wall? Fully clothed and armored?”

“In my bed. With a mask on.”

“Oh well, he had a mask on.” Lilah says in a light voice, with her teeth clenched, staring at Jude daring him to stay calm when I can tell by the look on his face he’s ready to tie me up for my own good.

“Let’s just stay calm.” I’m not calm, not by a long shot, because Jude’s actually scary as hell and he’s pale as a ghost right now. “Tell me what you know, about Sterling and Famine.”

Jude stares at me, then at the coffee. “Yeah, that’s not strong enough.” He walks past the coffee to the vodka in the freezer, takes two gulps of it, sits down and goes. “The Dean’s List is only part of a larger ledger that holds secrets of people higher up. The Ledger itself holds debts owed, and secrets of the higher ups. They make up The Honor Society, four families, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, a chancellor who governs them and one proctor—the one who marked you—who answers to no one.”

“That sounds incredibly healthy.” Lilah says in a not so convincing voice. “At least it’s governed?”

Jude glares. “Sure, it’s very…how should I say, organized and controlled.” He takes another swig. “Mind you my dad was very drunk when I finally got him to confess even a fraction of this the other night which is also why Lilah's pissed but that’s another story.”

“See? Gangster.” I nudge Lilah.

She shakes her head at Jude.

“Anyways,” Jude shifts in his seat. “The Convocation is coming up. That’s when seats are challenged, debts are called, bloodlines are contested. You want to replace The Chancellor? Take control of The Society? You need The Horsemen.” “So four votes?” Lilah frowns at me then him. “Right?”

“Nope. Not exactly.” Jude takes another long swig. “Because it doesn’t mean shit without The Proctor.”

My neck pulses where he bit me, where he marked me. Why? Why me? “Why?”

“Because,” Jude shrugs. “The Proctor decides which claims are legitimate.” His eyes flicker to where I’m covering my mark. He leans in on his knees. “Charlie, I don’t think he marked you because he wants you.”

“Ouch.” I narrow my eyes, it shouldn’t sting as much as it does but I did just dump my boyfriend for a psychopath the least I could ask for is that he’s mildly attracted to the woman he bit, apparently not. “Thanks.”

“No, I mean," Jude reaches in and cups my neck, his hands graze over the tender flesh. “I think The Proctor just told the entire Honor Society that Famine, belongs to him.”

Sterling. Famine. The girl in the picture. It’s me.

I gasp. So he’s trying to pull me to his side before someone else does?