Page 49
“But he’s definitely a student?”
“He’s supposed to be. The society has always been run by students, and once they graduate, they move into the positions outside the college that actually do things for the members.”
“Right.” Her mouth twists. “So they terrorize people while they’re here, and afterward, it’s all jobs and introductions and getting each other into places.”
“Pretty much. Plenty of them stick with it for exactly that.”
“I thought the whole thing ran on blackmail.”
I shrug. “Not everyone needs to be blackmailed. A lot of them sign up for the perks and never need convincing at all, and they’d sell out their own sibling for a good word from the right person after graduation. It’s the difficult ones who get the other treatment.”
“So I’m a difficult one.” She lets out a short breath. “Then why bother with me? There’s a whole campus of people who’d probably say yes in a heartbeat.”
“Because they don’t want people who agree with everything and nod along,” I say. “It’s some weird society thing they all believe in. The fighters are supposed to be more useful and get further in life, and maybe they’ve got a point, since the ones who never argued with anyone are the ones still doing errands.”
She taps her fingers against the table. “So how long has Supreme been in charge?”
“No idea exactly, but he was already in charge when I joined, so he’s on his way out.”
“Then he was here when your friend was.”
“Probably, but he wasn’t running anything back then, since he only got to the top when I joined, as far as I can tell.” I press my lips together. “But he was in the society while it happened, and he’s run the whole thing since, so there’s no way he doesn’t know. Someone would’ve told him or he would’ve asked, since the whole campus was talking about Elsie and she was a member.”
Veronica lifts her chin. “Then we need to find out who he is. If we know that, we’ve got something on him, and I don’t see another way of getting out of this mess.”
I sigh. “I tried.”
“And?”
“And nothing. He never slips.” I shake my head. “No one knows his name or anything about him. I bet he’s not very talkative when it comes to revealing personal info. Maybe that’s why they picked him as the leader.”
“Did you ever try to provoke him? Say something that would make him react?”
“No.” I let out a breath. “Although... I didn’t try that hard. Every time I got close to something on him, I backed off, because if he’d caught me digging into him, I’d have been out of the society, and then there’d be no files and no answers about Elsie. So I was cautious about it, which got me exactly nowhere, and that’s hilarious now that I’m out anyway.”
“Perfect,” she says.
I furrow my brow. “How is any of it perfect?”
“You can’t go anywhere near him, but I can.” A smile pulls at the corner of her mouth, and I don’t like it at all. “I’ll say I want to meet with him to talk about my membership, since he’s the one who decides, right? He’ll want to hear me out.”
My hands curl into fists on the table. “But they’re the ones who come to you, and you’ve never had a way of reaching them, so how would you even ask for it? If you go straight to the tunnels on your own—”
“Braxton.”
Absolutely fucking not.
“He’s the one they sent after me next,” she says, “and he’s been waiting for me to join or whatever. If I say something to him, he’ll do it, because it’s what he’s supposed to do.”
“He’s using you to get whatever he wants and probably lying too, even if it seems like he’s telling the truth.”
“Obviously.” She tilts her head. “But at least he’s not trying to convince me he’s a good person first.”
Ouch. I earned it, but fuck.
“And what will you even say to him?” I ask.
“That I’m tired and that I’ve had enough of all of it and I can’t do this on my own anymore, and if they still want me, I’d like to hear it from whoever actually decides. He’s probably been waiting for it since he introduced himself to me.”
