A pair of strong hands came down on her shoulders suddenly and turned her around. She could feel someone moving next to her and assumed Jasper was being directed in the same way. When the bags were removed from their heads, would they be facing the brethren? Would this all be over soon? Ariana hoped that Palmer would be right in front of her so she could see him. So she could be looking at him when they performed the rite that would make them members.
Then, out of nowhere, someone grabbed Ariana’s hands and wrenched them behind her back. This, too, was new. Her wrists were tied together with some kind of thick cord that, when pulled tight, sent a stabbing pain into her upper arms. The black sacks were ripped off, and Ariana’s heart hit her throat. She wasn’t looking into the warm, loving eyes of her boyfriend. Instead, she was looking down at a plain wooden coffin. Actually there were three coffins, set down in deep ditches in the dirt, which had been exposed thanks to a huge hole in the cement floor. She was in a room she had never seen before. More like a cavern, really. The walls were curved like a dome and made of jagged black rock. The room was circular, but the hole in the floor was a perfect rectangle. Low candles flickered all around the hole, but otherwise there was no light in the cavern, and no sign of life.
Where was Palmer? Where were the rest of the Stone and Grave members? The brothers that had brought them here? Ariana looked at Jasper, alarmed.
“What the—” He was cut off when someone shoved him from behind. He fell into the coffin in front of them with a thud. Terror seized Ariana, but she didn’t have time to react. A foot hit her in the small of the back, and suddenly she was free-falling, face-first, with no way to stop herself. She landed right on top of Jasper, clunking heads with him. Stars burst in front of her eyes, almost blacking out her vision.
“That’s gonna leave a mark,” Jasper said, wincing.
“How can you joke at a time like this?” Ariana hissed. She flipped over onto her back as best she could in the small space, stabbing Jasper’s ribs with her elbow before crushing both arms beneath her. She looked up to see the coffin lid being lowered over them.
“No!” she screamed, and heard Tahira shout out as well, her voice muffled. “Stop!”
“Silence!” someone growled.
And then, all was dark.
“Well,” Jasper whispered, his lips grazing her earlobe. “This just got interesting.”
Trapped. I’m trapped. I’m trapped inside a coffin in the ground in a cellar, and no one knows I’m here.
The bottom of the coffin was hard and cold against her shoulder, and pain radiated up her spine, into the base of her skull. All she could hear was her pulse rushing in her ears, and the steady sound of Jasper’s breathing.
Don’t be stupid, Ariana. Tons of people know you’re here. Palmer, Lexa, Maria, Soomie, Conrad, April, Rob, Hunter . . . and certainly Jasper, every inch of whose body is touching yours. He couldn’t exactly miss you, could he?
Ariana tried to take a deep breath, but the air in the coffin was thick with humidity and the choking scents of mold and dirt. She turned her head toward the ceiling and coughed, struggling for air.
But no one knows I’m here. Me. Ariana Osgood. No one knows where I am. I could die here and no one would know. Not my mother or my father or—
They already think you’re dead, you idiot! Shut up and stop heaving! You’re going to use up all the oxygen!
“Ana?”
Ariana flinched at the sound of Jasper’s voice. She slammed her head into the lid of the coffin, reinjuring the exact spot where she’d hit Jasper. The pain exploded all over again.
“What?” she said through her teeth.
“Are you okay?” Jasper asked. “You do know there are air holes in this thing, right? We have enough oxygen.”
“Are you sure?” Ariana asked, sounding irritatingly pathetic.
“I promise,” Jasper assured her calmly.
Ariana’s right arm was screaming from bearing all her weight. She tried to squirm into a new position and rest more squarely on her back, but she succeeded only in pressing her shoulder blades together so tightly that she pulled a muscle—and flattened Jasper against the wall.
“Ow. Okay, there is someone else in here with you, you know,” Jasper said.
“Sorry,” Ariana went back to her former position. “And speaking of which, weren’t there three coffins in the ground?”
“So?” Jasper said.
“So? Do the math. There are five of us. Which one of us got a coffin all to themselves?” Ariana whispered. “My best friend is the president, and my boyfriend is second in line. Where the hell are my perks?”
Jasper laughed. “Perhaps you’re not as significant as you think you are.”
Ariana’s face burned at the insult, and for the first time she was grateful for the pitch darkness.
“Besides,” he added, his tone more placating. “Think about it. Would you really want to be in here alone?”