But still, snooping around and trying to find incriminating evidence for Dean Robin to use against this place … it seems wrong somehow. Despite all Bleakwood’s faults, it really is a good school. It will open doors for me that no other school could.
“I don’t know if I can do that,” I say, after a moment.
But apparently, it’s not really a choice.
“You either help me,” she says seriously, “or I reveal your secret, and you get expelled.”
I shut my eyes tight. My parents won’t be able to pay for my college, I know that. With Bleakwood on my resume, I’m basically guaranteed a full ride anywhere. That’s what sent me here in the first place, after all.
I’ve been masquerading as a guy this whole time. Might as well get something good out of it. And it feels good to know my secret is relatively safe with someone.
“Okay,” I sigh. “I’ll do it.”
Dean Robin grins and seizes my hand. “You won’t regret this. It’s good to have you on the team.” She stands up and walks off before I can ask what team she means.
There’s three of us at least now. Dean Robin. The nurse, Cynthia Weber. Myself.
Four, if you count Rafael … though I doubt he’d be as enthusiastic about helping me if he knew what I was up to now.
But even with these keepers of my secrets, I still find myself alone.
Nurse Weber doesn’t come back into the infirmary right away. I lay in my paper-thin hospital gown beneath the thin infirmary sheets and stare up at the white ceiling.
What in the world did I just agree to?
And what am I supposed to do now?
The semester might be over, but a new one is about to begin. I might have arrived here at Bleakwood naively not knowing what to expect, but I know now. I’ve been to hell and back already in these few short months.
I think back to when I first arrived here at Bleakwood and
remember Beck’s warning about wolves. He was right … just not about which wolves I needed to look out for.
Jasper might know my greatest secret, but now I know his. I know his violence. I know what he is capable of.
And I am bitter.