Pure Sin (Privilege 5)

Suddenly Ariana’s heart starte

d to race. What was wrong with Lexa?

“Sister Becky Sharp?” Palmer prompted her.

Lexa looked up at him, startled, as if she’d forgotten he was there—forgotten that any of them were there. Ariana wished she could pull her friend aside and talk to her. Was it the blood? Was she thinking about Kaitlynn’s death?

Then Lexa cleared her throat. She swung her hair back over her shoulders and smiled, taking a deep breath as if she was just gathering herself together.

Ariana let out a sigh of relied. That’s my girl, she thought.

“By adding your blood to our sacred vessel, you swear an oath to us,” Lexa said to Jasper. “Repeat after me. I, Jasper Montgomery, do hereby accept the name of Amory Blaine and forevermore pledge my life and soul to the brotherhood of Stone and Grave.”

After Jasper repeated the oath, Lexa, Palmer, and April moved to stand in front of Ariana. Conrad placed Jasper’s headstone in front of him for the first time.

“Sister,” Lexa said, shaking her hair back and looking Ariana in the eye. “Your name, from this moment on, will be Portia.”

A thrill of satisfaction went through Ariana, and she grinned up at Lexa. She adored Portia, the strong, beautiful heroine of The Merchant of Venice. If she’d been allowed to choose for herself, she couldn’t have picked better. Willingly, Ariana held out her hand above Lexa’s stone vessel. She could see the tiny pool of blood Jasper had left at the bottom of the bowl. Palmer reached out and pricked her finger. He squeezed out a few drops of her blood, adding it to Jasper’s in the bowl.

“By adding your blood to our sacred vessel, you swear an oath to us,” Lexa said. “Repeat after me. I, Briana Leigh Covington, do hereby accept the name of Portia and forevermore pledge my life and soul to the brotherhood of Stone and Grave.”

“I, Briana Leigh Covington, do hereby accept the name of Portia and forevermore pledge my life and soul to the brotherhood of Stone and Grave.”

Palmer smiled over Lexa’s shoulder, and Ariana felt a burst of pure joy. Soomie stepped forward and affixed her Stone and Grave pin to her robe, and then April placed her headstone in front of her. As the group moved on to Tahira, Ariana tilted the pin toward her.

She had done it. Finally, finally, she was an official member of one of the most influential secret societies in the country, which meant that the whole world was at her fingertips.

“I’m so glad you like your name,” Lexa said as she and Ariana walked toward the dining hall late on Sunday morning. They had been up most of the night, partying with the rest of the Stone and Grave members, and were barely going to make it to breakfast before the dining hall closed. “I struggled hardest with yours because I wanted to get it just right.”

“Really?” Ariana said, blushing. “Thanks for working so hard on it.”

Lexa grinned and took her arm. “What are best friends for?”

They had just reached the door of the dining hall when Maria and Landon came striding around the corner, their heads so close together they were practically kissing.

“Dude,” Landon said, shoving Maria away from him.

Ariana glanced at Lexa to see if she noticed anything odd, but Lexa merely smiled.

“Good morning. Are you two coming or going?” she asked them.

“Coming. I mean, uh, going,” Landon said, scratching the back of his neck. “We just, uh, ate.”

Maria rolled her eyes. “Excuse him. Someone’s still a little hung-over from last night.”

“Rock star can’t party like a rock star, huh?” Ariana joked.

Landon blushed, hanging his head as he glanced at Maria guiltily from under his bangs.

“I’m glad I bumped into you guys,” Maria said, without a trace of Landon’s awkwardness. She had her hand inside her bag and was rooting around for something. “Now I can give you these.”

She extracted three dark gray, oblong envelopes from her bag and handed one to each of them.

“What are they?” Ariana asked.

“Invitations,” Maria replied, glancing around. The campus was quiet, as it usually was on Sundays, with people either sleeping in or heading out for shopping sprees or to visit family. Except for a couple of joggers at the far end of the sunlit quad, there was no one in sight. “To the Stone and Grave Ball at the end of next week. My parents offered to host.”

“Cool,” Landon said.