Chapter Thirty-One #2
The next day, I have to wait until lunch to get into the archives. Once Ms. Dimitriou closes the door behind us, I walk the perimeter of the room.
“What are you doing?” Allegra asks.
“Checking for cameras. I looked the last time, but I need to be more careful now.”
“There are no cameras, Liliana. The administration considers the societies the very adorable games of the rich and famous.”
I still finish my sweep. Then I walk to the back row, where the Mercurys and Apollos have their cabinets.
I feel uncomfortable going into the records of Theo’s society, even if he insisted he was fine with it.
He’s Dux, and if anyone discovers his girlfriend accessed Apollo records, it will not look good.
As I examine the lock on the Mercury cabinet, Allegra says, “Please tell me you’re planning to break into that.”
“You mean please tell you I’m not planning it.”
“If you think that would be my reaction, you don’t know me at all.” She moves closer. “Can you do it?”
“Not with you breathing down my neck. Would you stand by the door? Warn me if any footsteps stop outside it.”
“Ms. Dimitriou wouldn’t care if you broke into those. She’d probably be amused.”
Still, Allegra goes to the door. I pop the lock with surprising ease, probably because it’s a very simple mechanism.
“Do you suspect someone in the Mercury Society is behind Isolde’s attack?” Allegra says, appearing at my shoulder again.
“No, they’re just the first one I’m checking.”
“So you think a society is behind this?” She frowns as if thinking it through. “I would start with Hephaestus myself. They have reason to hate the Liliths.”
When I glance over at her, she shrugs. “They may have had a contender for the Optima race before you arrived. I may have ended that.”
I pause, and when I speak, I keep my voice calm, conversational. “Why? You’re not running. The Liliths didn’t even have a contender until I arrived.”
I hold my breath, waiting for a reaction. For her to realize she’s given something away.
“It wasn’t about who I want to win,” she says. “It was about who I didn’t want to win. There was an issue with Polly that made me decide their contender was unworthy. Also, it may seem as if the Liliths didn’t have a horse in the race before you, but Theo has always been a friend of the Liliths.”
There’s no trace of a lie, not in her eyes or her voice, and when I think about it, if Allegra was secretly running, she wouldn’t “slip up” by mentioning that she knocked out an early contender.
Or she has no compunction about mentioning it because she thinks she’s gotten away with it.
The problem is that I can spin all the dark theories I want, but when I’m with Allegra, I find it hard to believe she’d go through all this effort to be Optima. Avoiding effort is Allegra’s specialty.
“Okay,” I say. “If I can open the Hephaestus cabinet, you can look through it.”
“I’ll need to know what I’m looking for.”
“Past incidents where an Optima contender may have been…convinced to leave the race.”
Her brow furrows. “Like what I did to Hephaestus? That happens a lot, Liliana. It’s part of the competition.”
“I’m talking about things like Jayden pushing me down the stairs. Or like Isolde being injured to force Theo out.”
She stares at me in what looks like genuine shock. “Theo was forced out?”
“Does that count as a secret?”
She ignores me and continues, “I know Isolde very temporarily identified him, but surely that…” She trails off and then peers at me. “You believe the attack was about Theo.”
“There’s also a scholarship student from the past who was the front-runner and died in a suspicious car accident. I’m not saying this is a conspiracy. It might very well be like what happened with Jayden—individual contenders or their allies hurting people.”
“There’s a difference between what happened to you and murder, Liliana.
Yes, I know Jayden could have killed you, but from everything I’ve heard, he just didn’t think it through.
Isolde really could have died, and now you’re saying a contender did die in the past?
” She looks over at me sharply. “Jenna Moreno. You’re also thinking—”
“I don’t know what I’m thinking. But please pull anything about a car accident in 2005 involving a girl named Annette Donleavy.
And anything about Jenna Moreno. And anything about ‘accidents’ that were serious or fatal.
Oh, and pull everything from spring 1956.
” I pull a page from my pocket. “Also, if you see this anywhere, let me know.”
It’s a hand-drawn representation of the scorpion symbol. When she frowns at the drawing, I say, “You’ve seen it?”
“It looks familiar, but I don’t know from where. What is it?”
“I don’t know, but it’s come up a few times. The double head suggests it’s connected to the Janus Society.”
She peers at me like I’m losing it. “There is no Janus Society, Liliana.”
I throw up my hands. “I know. But I found that symbol in a room that seemed to belong to something called the Janus Society.”
“What room?”
“It’s a secret. And if you also want that one—to add to my tally—you need to get me something first.”
Her eyes narrow. “That’s my line.”
“Not this time. Happy hunting.”