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“Everything okay?” Jayden leans in and asks under his breath.

I give him a small nod, even though I’m not sure.

The masked man who brought us in moves to the far end of the table. “Now that everyone’s here, you all have a choice to make. You can choose not to take part in any of this. If you do, you’ll have to leave and you’ll never get another chance. No one from the society will ever reach out to you again. Or... you can go through with everything we ask of you and earn a real chance to become one of us, which means you’ll have connections that follow you for the rest of your lives. Chances that don’t exist for regular people. Help with getting jobs after college that other people would kill for. Money, protection, people in high places, and so on.”

I glance around the table, and everyone seems to be listening carefully, including Jayden, who’s now perfectly calm and still next to me. It’s kind of unsettling to see a bunch of people looking like they’re about to fall for a sales pitch from someone whose face they can’t even see. It’s a good pitch, though. Jobs and connections sound like a great thing to have.

“You were each chosen for a reason,” the man says. “Every one of you is a legacy, which means someone in your family was part of our society at some point.”

What? My eyebrows arch, my mouth falling open. Someone in my family? That makes zero sense. My parents didn’t even go to this college, and no one else I can think of did either. Not to mention we’re about as far from the secret-society type as a family can get. So who could it be? Is it a mistake?

Unless the society isn’t only here at this college. Maybe it includes other colleges and cities too, so some relative I’ve never even heard about got themselves tangled up with the society somewhere far away from here. I have no idea.

“We won’t tell you who it was right now,” the man says, as if he knows it’s exactly what we’re all wondering. “And you’re not allowed to ask around. You’ll find out only after you join us and when the time’s right.”

I press my lips together. Great. So now they want us to go along with their silliness just to find out who it was, and it could all be a lie.

“And you can’t say a word about any of this to anyone outside this room, not even to those closest to you. Never forget that, or there will be consequences. We have ways of finding things out.”

Yeah. I already got that part, thanks to the video, so I don’t need a reminder.

The man spreads his gloved hands over the table. “Before we go any further, we need to know if you can handle this. There’s more coming, and you’ll be asked to do things, answer things, and bare yourselves in front of people you don’t know. If you can’t get past a little embarrassment, you’re of no use to us, and there’s no point in going on. You can refuse anything you don’t want to do. But the moment you do that, you have to leave and never speak of the society again. It’s as simple as that.”

I glance at Jayden, whose gaze briefly meets mine. Should I leave? Maybe, but not yet.

The man places a small plastic spinner with a pointed arrow in the center of the table and flicks it. It whirs around and clicks to a stop, pointing at a guy across from me.

“Truth or dare?” the man asks.

“Um, truth.”

“What’s the worst lie you’ve ever told anyone?”

“Ahm... that I slept with Vanessa... Um, a girl from my school.” His voice trembles a little.

Someone laughs. The man flicks the spinner again, and it ends up pointing at a girl. She picks dare, and the man tells her to get up on the table and dance. She hesitates, but then she gets up on the table, swaying her hips. Some of the guys try to see under her dress, and I swallow hard as I watch her. This is all so silly, but I have a feeling it’s just the beginning, and it’s going to become much, much worse.

I mean, it can’t just be the game everyone played in school, right? That would be ridiculous, and we can totally lie if we choose truth, because how are they going to know? While the spinner goes around again, I watch everyone at the table. Maybe they’re really all legacies, and I could be too.

But who from my family could’ve been a member? My mom’s parents? My dad’s? I don’t remember anyone ever mentioning a fancy college, a secret club, or anything close. But what if there really was someone? Ugh! I wish I knew.

Across the table, one of the girls shakes her head and pushes her chair back. “I’m out,” she says. “This is too much.”

No one tries to talk her into staying. A figure I didn’t notice before steps forward from behind a column and opens the door for her. She hurries out without looking back. A guy gets up and goes right after her, muttering something under his breath about not signing up for this.

Maybe I should follow them. I already decided that I’m not joining anything, no matter what they promise, so why am I still here? No one stopped those two from leaving, so they wouldn’t do it to me either.

But who could’ve joined the society? How? What benefits, if any, did they get? If I leave, I’m never going to find out.

The arrow turns toward me, and my mouth goes dry.

Oh shit!

Chapter 14

VERONICA

THE ARROW IS STILL pointing right at me, and I forget how to breathe. Everyone at the table turns my way, and I want to shrink down into the chair until I disappear. I could still get up right now and leave.