LAYLA HANDS ME my cloak as she recaps what Ash overheard last night. “Apparently, Matteo only just returned from the outer perimeter, so Felix was telling Aarya he’s not sure Matteo even knows about Stefano yet,” Layla says. “Although I’m certain he figured something was wrong when he returned to his room and Stefano was missing.”
“Outer perimeter?” I ask. “What are you talking about?”
“Blackwood has been known to send students to the outer perimeter as part of their punishment,” Layla says. “The tasks vary, but it’s frustrating because you miss all your lessons.”
I try to keep the fear off my face that Matteo is back. He already punched me for no reason that I can tell; I really don’t want to find out what he will do if he actually believes I killed his friend. “How did Felix know Matteo was in the outer perimeter?” Only in a school as competitive as this would people be upset they missed their classes.
Layla shrugs. “Ash didn’t say. Maybe Felix spotted him coming back in and assumed, or maybe he overheard Matteo telling someone that was where he’d been. Felix also told Aarya that Charles spotted Ash out on the night of the murder. And if Aarya knows that, you can pretty much assume the entire school will know by lunchtime, leaving us vulnerable to possible sabotage by the other students who might have reason to further the idea that you or Ash was responsible.”
“Great,” I say with no enthusiasm as I slip my arms through my cloak. “Is it weird that Charles would tell Felix about seeing Ash? I didn’t get the sense they were friends.”
“They’re not. But the passing of information is about strategy, not friendships.” Layla opens the door and we make our way into the hall, cutting off our conversation.
As I walk alongside Layla, I instinctively look over my shoulder for Matteo, even though it’s unlikely he’d be in the girls’ dorm. I can’t help but be a little bothered that Ash didn’t tell me what he heard last night; he must have come to our room this morning to tell Layla and not included me. I know his sister is the obvious go-to, but I wonder if he’s lost a little faith in me for being so hesitant about hiding in Aarya’s room. And I can’t really blame him. In a situation where so much is at stake, I dropped the ball.
“If you keep looking over your shoulder, the entire school is going to know you’re afraid of Matteo, which only makes you look guilty,” Layla says under her breath as we walk through the downstairs foyer.
“If I don’t look over my shoulder and Matteo jumps on my head, I’ll be squished,” I mumble, trying to make light of my raging nerves.
We walk into the courtyard with the vines and stop. About seven students are already there.
“I’ll come get you before poisons class,” Layla says, and I can tell by the way her eyes dart to the side that even she is concerned about what Matteo’s return will mean.
I feel like I’ve been flipped into an alternate universe. Just a week ago I had nothing more on my mind than how to talk my way out of detention and the dress shopping Emily wanted to do for the winter formal. Now my thoughts are full of murder, deception, and classes that teach me how to poison people. I’ve never been so homesick.
“So are you going to the dance with Jack or what?” Emily asks as she turns her marshmallow over the fire pit on my back deck.
“Not sure,” I say, tucking in the blanket around my legs. I bite into my s’more.
“Not sure, nothing. I have no intention of babysitting you all night,” Emily says.
“Me? I’m the most social person you know,” I say, and push her hand a little closer to the flame so her marshmallow browns faster.
She gives me a look. “Oh, I’m not worried you’re going to get stuck against the wall all night. I’m worried that you’ll have too much time on your hands and decide to scale the building and parachute through the skylight with your dress over your head.”
I laugh. “And you think Jack is somehow going to dazzle me so hard that I won’t want to misbehave? The bigger problem is that if I do go with him, I’ll probably end up having to babysit him all night.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t get you. You think he’s cute.”
“He is cute. But he’s boring, you know?” I pause. “I’d way rather make out with him at parties and just call it a day.”
She laughs. “You’re the worst.”
“The worst, but not boring,” I say with a grin, and wipe chocolate off my lip.
The back door opens and we both look up.
“You know, you girls can roast marshmallows just as easily inside by the fireplace without freezing your butts off,” my dad says.
“That’s what I keep telling her,” Emily replies. “But you know what she’s like.”
“We have like ten blankets and it’s a balmy forty-eight,” I argue.
“Practically tropical,” Emily groans.
“Well, I’ll put the kettle on if you want some tea to warm up with,” he says.
“Thanks, Dad. We’ll be in soon.”
He starts to pull the door shut, then pauses. “I forgot to tell you. I’m headed over to Aunt Jo’s after work tomorrow. So I won’t be home for dinner.”
“She can eat at my place,” Emily volunteers. “No problem.”
“Glad to hear it,” he says, and closes the door.
“Your dad’s been going to Providence a lot. That’s the second time in two weeks, right?”
“Third,” I say. “He’s been helping her with some home repairs. I keep telling him he should go on a weekend so I can go with him.”
Dad went to see Aunt Jo three times in two weeks, which was unusual enough, but on top of that he always went on days I couldn’t go. And then right after all these unusual visits, her house got broken into. Which raises the question: Did Dad know something was going on even before the supposed break-in? I can’t believe I never picked up on this. And now that I’m painfully aware that I don’t know squat about my family, I am worried—worried about what’s really going on with them and that I have absolutely no way to get in touch and find out if everything’s okay. Damn this school’s archaic isolation.
Just then Matteo enters the courtyard and snaps me out of my thoughts. He doesn’t look puffy and red-eyed from crying the way I would be if I’d just lost my close friend. Instead he looks focused and…furious. Ines and Felix enter the courtyard right behind him.
On instinct, I check my distance from the two exits just in case I need to make a run for it. But Matteo has yet to look in my direction. Charles and Brendan, however, are staring right at me.
The professor smiles at me and places her hand on her chest. “Professor Basurto,” she says, and just like that the silent standoff among the six of us is broken. “You must be…”
“November,” I say.
“November. Right, of course. All you need to know is that I move quickly, I expect the best, and I encourage you to be creative.”
Basurto—a Spanish name, and one I’ve always loved because it means “the middle of the forest.”
“Sure. I love to climb,” I say, but it sounds less peppy than it normally would.
“Then we’ll get along just fine. Why be on the ground when you can be in a tree, no?” She winks and claps her hands together.
Matteo still hasn’t looked at me. I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing.
“Throughout the ages, trees have played an integral role in plotting and trickery,” Basurto says. “There is the Major Oak in Sherwood Forest, whose hollowed-out trunk supposedly served as the hideout for Robin Hood and his Merry Men. There’s the arrow that killed Ponce de León because it was tipped with poison from the sap of the manchineel tree. There are the weapons made from wood and the deadly codes written on paper, and then there’s my favorite use of trees—evasion. They are the perfect escape route because they offer unpredictable terrain, they provide coverage, and only the very skilled can move through them swiftly without falling to their death or suffering grave injury.”
I steal a glance at Matteo again, but it seems like his thoughts are a million miles away.
Basurto smiles and there’s a spring to her step as she paces through the grass. Her shirtsleeves are rolled up, revealing well-toned arms that she no doubt acquired from years of climbing. “So today we’re going to start off with a chase exercise. You must show me how uncatchable you are—or the opposite, as the case may be. For my first group I’ll take Charles, Matteo, Nyx, November, and Kiku.” Basurto points to each of us, ending on the girl Ash was with when he came into the parlor the other night. “Go ahead and form a line. The front person should start one vine ahead of the next person, and so on.”
I try to maneuver my way to the back of our group without making it obvious, but Matteo cuts me off and steps behind me, taking the last spot. My stomach drops so fast that I gulp. Charles looks back at me and smirks.
“When I say so, you’ll climb three-quarters of the way up your vines,” Basurto says. “And when I say go, you’ll move as fast as you can to the far end of the courtyard. The first person in each group to reach the other side wins. Those of you at the back of your lines can only advance if you catch the person in front of you. Being the first has its advantages but also means everyone is after you. Hence the chase. If you get tagged, you’re out. Likewise, if you fall to the ground, you’re out. We will do this more than once, changing the order each time we go.”
Kiku is in front of me, then Charles; Nyx is in the first position. Behind me, I hear Matteo crack his knuckles. I wipe my hands on my pants to make sure they’re dry and grab hold of the knobby vine. I can feel my pulse through my fingertips.
“You may start climbing,” Basurto says.
The second my feet lift off the ground I feel the familiar rush of excitement. Unfortunately, it’s coupled with my dread of having Matteo directly behind me. All I want to do is look over at him, but Layla’s warning about showing fear rings in my head.
“Go!” Basurto yells unexpectedly before we’re even halfway to the trees.
I book it up my vine to the first available branch and swing my legs up. Two branches away from me, Kiku is just getting a grip. I stabilize myself and jump to the next branch, but Kiku’s branch is too far to reach. I spot a vine and quickly sidestep to my left to grab it. Kiku has gotten her balance, but she’s still gauging her next move, and while she does, I swing over to her branch, keeping the vine in my hand for safety. She jumps as my feet make contact, but not before I graze her elbow with my fingertips. Gotcha.
She gives me a death stare.
I glance back to find that Matteo is only one branch away and my heart starts pounding. If I hesitate, he’ll catch me for sure.
Still holding the vine, I yank it more firmly toward me and hook it securely around a nub on the trunk, effectively pulling it out of Matteo’s reach. That should buy me some time. Then I start to climb, looking for Charles as I maneuver through the branches. When I spy him, he and Nyx are about six feet above me in the trees and heading for the middle of the courtyard, where the branches are thinner. I watch as Nyx makes a daring leap, just managing to stabilize herself as she lands. Charles isn’t far behind.
All the time they’ve spent chasing each other up into the canopy has slowed their progress, which means I have a shot at catching up. I balance myself on a big solid branch and snag a new vine, holding it as I race along, only stopping when I’m under them.
I hear boots on bark and the sound is too close for comfort. I look left, discovering that Matteo has just stepped onto my branch and there’s only about twenty feet between us. I whip my vine at him, hoping it will slow him down, but he leans out of the way and it goes sailing past him. Knowing Matteo is mere seconds behind me, I scramble onto a higher branch so fast that I give myself bark burn. Just as I get my balance, Nyx jumps from a branch above my head and I instinctively duck. But Charles is only a beat behind her, and as he lands I reach up and tap his ankle. The look of horror on his face is rather satisfying.
He snaps a twig above my head, sending down wood and leaves into my face.
I sidestep and grab a higher branch. Only, before I can get a good hold, a big hand wraps around my calf. I look down, and as we make eye contact, instead of letting go of me, Matteo yanks on my leg. My hands scrape against the bark and my stomach slams onto the branch I was standing on just moments ago. My legs flail and I desperately try to steady myself, but my momentum is too great and I tumble past Matteo, frantically grabbing on to his ankle to keep from dropping.
For a split second we stay frozen like that—me dangling from his boot and him looking down at me—before I manage to hook my legs around a vine and let go of him.
I’m so mad I want to scream, but Matteo’s already moved on, chasing after Nyx.
I steady myself with the vine, shaking from anger and exertion, and climb my way back down to the ground. If I weren’t so used to falling in trees, Matteo could have killed me back there. He probably meant to.
“Beautiful first go,” Basurto says as I land in the soft grass—only, I barely hear her compliment because I’m moving toward the end of the courtyard where Matteo will land any minute now.
I pace back and forth in the grass.
“Why is it that so many people seem to want to hurt you?” Brendan says, his voice like silk. “It must be your shining personality.”
Charles joins us and smirks.
“Whatever,” I say. I don’t get mad often, but when I do, I want to tear the world apart at the seams. I look at the burning scrapes all over my arms. Spots of blood stain my white shirt.
As I examine my cuts, Matteo drops down from a vine, and the moment he lands I shove him with both hands, sending him back a step.
“You could have killed me,” I growl. “Basurto said tag, not yank the person you catch down to their death. What the hell is your problem? And don’t try to tell me it’s because of Stefano, because you know I wouldn’t kill someone in my own Family to get back at you for a punch!” I’m taking a chance, but I hope my indignation over Family rings true to him. I need to undermine whoever is trying to pit us against each other.
“Hey, now!” Basurto yells from the middle of the courtyard as she starts to march toward us. “This is not how we use our energy in my class.”
Matteo stares me down, breathing hard from the climb, daring me to hit him. “Save it for someone who cares. Your words don’t mean anything to me.” His voice is calm but his eyes are anything but.
Basurto steps between us. “I see you two have a flair for the dramatic today. I saw your little maneuver up in the trees, Matteo. It was bad form, I’ll grant you that. But if he really wanted to kill you, November, he could have shaken you off his boot before you could reach for a vine. But go ahead and continue. Fight it out. Throw yourselves on the ground like children if you need to.”
Matteo and I stare at each other for a long moment before I eventually look away. He did have the opportunity to kill me, I realize, and he chose to let me get my grip. But that doesn’t prove that he doesn’t want me dead—only that he wasn’t willing to kill me in front of everyone.
“No takers? Well, I’m going to get back to this beautiful day, then,” Basurto says.
The entire class watches us, with Brendan and Charles looking particularly interested in the exchange. I’m left feeling oddly exposed.