A Rose to Keep (The Society 1)

“It doesn’t work that way,” Dante said.

She lifted her gaze, and I stared into her eyes, wondering what the hell had happened to her.

“No choice. Got it.” She stood up. “I’ll have my things packed by the end of the day.”

Sian went to move, and I reached out to grab her wrist. She jerked out of my hold as if I had scared her.

“Don’t touch me,” she said. “You won. Accept that, just, no touching.”

She spun on her heel and walked away. I watched her go, frowning as I observed her.

The rose lay on the table. She’d stripped it of thorns like we had done with our rose, which explained the Band-Aids on her fingers.

I picked up the rose, and I happened to notice a single black dot marring the perfect beauty of the flower.

“Anyone else a little freaked out right now?” William asked.

“Gideon, what did they do?” Dante asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Well, someone did something to her, Gideon, and I’ve got to say, I don’t like it.”

This time, I turned to Mateo, who’d spoken.

I was in agreement, but what could I say? There was no way to make this better.

“I’ll meet you all back at the dorms,” I said, getting to my feet and leaving the cafeteria. I dumped the rose into a trash can. We didn’t need it.

The rose was supposed to be for the girl to wear on the day of being given it to show to all she’d been chosen. Instead, that rose had been destroyed.

Crossing the grounds, I made my way over to where Sian’s dorm was. I didn’t bother knocking. I was given the codes to her dorm as part of the selection process. I went to her room and knocked on the door.

“It’s open,” Sian said.

I expected Heather to be helping. A couple of boxes and some suitcases lined the floor of the small dorm. She had been given quite a luxury place, but I knew that as this selection was known to the faculty before the start of the term.

“Have you come to rub it in?” she asked.

“No. I came to see what’s going on.”

“You know what is going on.”

“No, I don’t.”

She put some books into a box with her back to me. “You know, I don’t get it.” She whirled around. “Why me?”

“Why not you?”

She grabbed a book and threw it across the room. I stepped out of its way as it hit the wall.

“Do not do that. Do not play dumb now. Not after everything that’s going on. I’m not stupid. I’ve been at this school for three fucking years and we never spoke a single word to one another. I always thought the selection process was a joke. Some sick rumor. I never saw it happen. Then lo and behold senior year, it happens. The four Saintly Devils of All Saints Academy make their choice, and it’s me. A girl they don’t fucking know! A girl who is nothing like them. Tell me what the hell is wrong with that picture.”

I had nothing to say.

“This is supposed to be high school, Gideon. The wealthy version of a damn boarding school, but I went there, and they don’t have parents who threaten other people’s lives if you don’t conform.”

“You were threatened?”

“Heather was. If I don’t fall in line and become your damn slave, she’s gone. All her choices are wiped out. She doesn’t deserve that.” She walked right past me, grabbing the book from the floor. “I know there’s something more to this whole thing. I will find out.”

“You’re imagining things.”

Sian stared at me as if I was a disappointment. I probably was. The lies were mounting up. I couldn’t tell her this wasn’t our choice. We were told who to pick. What we had to do. How we had to do it.

The truth was we only knew so much. This was how the game was played. There were so many different players, but the moment we achieved what they wanted, we would win and our lives would be the better for it.

“You’re lying to me.” She walked toward me. The limp seeming a little more pronounced. “It’s okay. I don’t mind. It seems I have a history of being lied to. I will warn you, Gideon, I will play this game my way. You want me, you’re all going to get me, but there will be consequences for this. You’re not going to like it.” She didn’t touch me, but close like this, I wanted to grab her, to haul her against me, to fucking take her. Her gaze had lost that sparkle, but I saw the fire.

In the cafeteria, it had been dull, but now, I saw the burning embers shooting up once more.

Sian had been cracked, not broken. She was strong.

“I’m not your enemy.”

“You’re not on my side, and anyone who tries to make me do something I don’t want to do, they’re my enemy.”