“Pfft. I’ve had him before. Yes, he was big, and it hurt, but in areallygood way.” She sounds so proud of herself.
“You’d better know what you’re getting yourself into if you go in for seven minutes with him. I don’t think he’d play nice. He’d be all about winning.”
“Meh, I’ve got a secret weapon.”
Zoe leans forward with a sly glint that says she’s already bored with this conversation, but she wants to hear the lie anyway.
Hailey pauses dramatically, then drops her voice lower. “I used this special pheromone perfume in a red heart-shaped vial on Red Night, and I’mconvincedthat’s what brought us together. It was blessed by some coven as a love spell. He couldn’tstoppressing his nose wherever I’d dabbed it. I’ll smear that everywhere. And I meaneverywhere. He won’t last five seconds without begging to stay with me.”
“Isn’t the goal to get him toleave?”
Hailey’s little laugh sets my back teeth on edge. “Not mine.”
Without waiting to be dismissed appropriately, I rise from my seat and aim for the hall. In the main foyer, I climb the marble staircase to the junior floor. Everyone’s names are decorated on their placards outside their rooms. Hailey’s is easy enough to find. And unlocked...
Her space stinks of cheap florals and is decorated as if she’s stuck at age fourteen. On her desk is a picture of her with some girls I don’t recognize. Next to it is a tray of glass bottles.
Red and heart-shaped? Yep. Got it.
When I close the door, someone slips past me. I straighten, wide-eyed. Scout’s face looks shocked to find me there.
“I was, um, looking for something,” I blurt, like I’ve been caught by sorority surveillance.
“I don’t care. I’m going to study, not waste time at a meeting.” Her eyes flick to the bottle in my hand, and her face goes pale. “Th-that was a joke, I swear.”
My eyes narrow. “Yougave this to Hailey.”
“Well, she thinks I bought it from a coven, but yeah.”
I dangle it like a threat. “So what’s really in it?”
At first, I think she won’t tell me, but her gaze sizes me up. She crosses her arms and juts out her lower lip. “Ferret piss.”
No words pass through my mind for a beat. All I can do is blink.
“Are you going to tell her?” Scout asks, voice like a challenge with homework in it.
“Fuck no.” I soften only a fraction. “But I’m going to toss it.”
Her long brown braid thumps behind her shoulder in a lazy shrug. “Fair.”
I sidestep her and head for the bathroom, flip open a stall, unscrew the lid, and dump the bottle into the toilet. On my way out, I drop the empty in the bin.
Hailey thinks ascentwill claim him? Dumb cunt. I know the game he can’t walk away from… A green felt table. A deck of cards. And one devastating bet.
My plan’s been the same since the day I knew I was accepted to Northview University after stalking him online for years like a ghost that never learned to rest.
Make him jealous.
Get under his skin and rot there.
Push until he snaps and touches me like he hates himself for wanting to.
I don’t need him to fall in love.
I just need him tolose.
nine