Sweet Deceit (Privilege 4)

Kaitlynn ever so slowly raised her hand.

“What is it, tap number five?” Conrad snapped.

“Sorry, Brother Lear. But . . . what headstones?” Kaitlynn asked.

Ariana rolled her eyes at Kaitlynn’s audacity. Conrad had been just about to kick the girl out of the Tombs and now she was asking questions of the membership?

“Our ritual headstones,” April explained. “They have our Stone and Grave names on them. We use them at all official rituals.”

“Remember? From the woods?” Tahira said under her breath.

“Oh. Right,” Kaitlynn said. “So the Fellows took them?”

“You are to address us by our Stone and Grave names,” April admonished.

“Sorry, Sister Miss Temple,” Kaitlynn said, coloring slightly. “Brother Starbuck, did the Fellows take them?” she asked Palmer.

“Looks that way,” Palmer said, tipping the card. “Tsang does love his rhymes.”

“Brother Starbuck, is that a clue?” Jasper asked, lifting his chin and inching forward on his knees, as if he could possibly see it from his position on the floor.

“Yeah. And it’s a riddle, of course,” Palmer replied. He held the card up and read it aloud.

“Small and dark and cramped am I, though never you would know.

For only one may enter to my secret lair below.

All honored memories locked inside,

And now your precious gifts I hide.

Prostrate and apologize

Or perish your names in a fiery glow.”

He folded the card and looked around at the other Stone and Grave members as well as the taps. For a long moment, silence reigned inside the Tombs.

“Anyone know what that means?” Palmer asked.

Conrad, Rob, and Soomie all looked at one another blankly.

“Well, the end is pretty clear,” April said, reaching for the card. “Tsang wants us to bow down to him and apologize for the gum prank, or he’s going to destroy the headstones.”

“That asshole,” Rob said through his teeth.

“We need those headstones,” Palmer said. “They’re a huge part of Stone and Grave ritual. If anything happens to them, or worse, if they’re publicly revealed, our alumni will kill us. They may even shut down our chapter.”

Ariana glanced at Kaitlynn. Shut down the chapter?

“I can work on it,” April offered, tucking the riddle into her jeans pocket under her robe. “I’m pretty good at word play.”

“Good. Do that,” Palmer said. “You figure out that riddle, Miss Temple, and you’ll save Stone and Grave.”

Ariana’s heart fluttered and suddenly she knew what she had to do. She had to solve that riddle herself. If she did, she would be the one to save the APH chapter of Stone and Grave. And if she could do that, she was sure her task would no longer matter. Wouldn’t rescuing the entire chapter from ruin trump handing in a stupid photo of one of their own members fooling around with his secret girlfriend? It would have to.

Talk about killing two birds with one stone. Or, more accurately, saving two birds—her chapter and her relationship. Ariana smiled slowly, even as her leg muscles cramped in anguish, radiating fingers of pain up her back.

This time tomorrow, she was going to be a Stone and Grave superstar.