Gant
The abandoned greenhouse slices through the stray rays of sunlight that manage to creep through the trees’ canopies.
Aria and I slip through the cracked door and into the grimy glass haven filled with thousands of lit candles.
There’s a shadow lurking in the pitched ceiling, too tall to catch any stray light. It’s too big to be one of the spiders creeping along the rafters, but it’s nesting with them, right at home.
I have to give it to the slight girl waiting for us patiently on the sacrificial table I’d slaughtered and devoured my little dove on.
She seems unbothered as her dark eyes scan the laptop perched on her thighs that’s bathing her in a flickering glow as if she’s watching videos.
It’s only when Aria's and my heavier footsteps join that of scurrying creatures does she look up at us, her large, doe eyes growing even larger. Like those blinking dolls with the eyeballs ready to pop out of the socket.
“What’s he doing here?” Enaj gasps, her voice heavy and thick with betrayal as she gawks at me.
“He’s cool,” Aria says boredly. “He’s my bestie.”
“He’s also Zedd’s bestie, ” Enaj mutters, shutting her laptop with an audible snap.
“Relax,” I drawl. “I won’t tell Zedd about our little meeting.”
“Good,” Enaj says, standing up and dusting dried leaves off her jeans. “Because I don’t have anything to say to you or any other horseman.”
“I do,” I say as Aria slides onto the table Enaj just vacated, and I join her, leaning against it. “I have a lot I can say. Like, how you’re so good at tech, and yet you’re not at Ennox Prep for technology like your parents wanted you to be.”
She swallows, and her eyes dart for the door like she’s contemplating a quick exit. Like she can actually outrun the truth she thought was secret.
“In fact, they only agreed to let you into Beaulieu because you won that acting scholarship, right?”
She turns to me so sharply, her long thick ponytail slaps her in the face.
“How did you know that?”
“I know a lot of things,” I smile. “Like how much of a good actress you are.”
“I think you should sit down,” Aria says, patting the spot between us.
Enaj obliges, albeit at a snail’s pace, as she wedges herself in between Aria’s thigh and my forearm. Her shoulders creep up to her ears, and her spine hunches like she’s carrying that awful overstuffed rucksack she always hunches around with.
“I knew you looked familiar,” I say when she’s nice and uncomfortable as if she has the nerve to be. “Not because of last summer when your parents pushed you on Zedd. No, it was because I’d seen you around campus but not in class. In fact, I’ve never seen you in class, but I have seen you in the male dorms.”
I let the words linger in the air as she swallows thickly, and Aria grins like the Cheshire cat.
“I-I wasn’t looking for Zedd,” she protests, her voice barely a whisper.
“Oh, I know. You were looking for briefs and t-shirts after dance and his pillows that smell like his long luxurious locks you want to sink your fingers into. You’re a filthy little stalker.”
She shakes her head, her bronze skin reddening to a deep maroon. “It’s not like that.”
“What’s it like, crotch sniffer?”
“That was one time.”
Aria’s uncontrollable laughter rings around the glasshouse, and I swear it rattles the filthy pains.
Enaj narrows her eyes. “ You, ” her voice cuts through the laughter like a knife. “You only befriended me to help him, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” Aria says bluntly and without hesitation. “But I genuinely like you, Enaj. You’re crazy, and we’re all a little fucked. It’s too bad Zedd hates you; you’d fit right in.”
“I don’t want anything to do with Zedd or his horsemen,” she says glaring at me through slits. “So, what do you want?”
“I need to see the footage for myself. Your stalking abilities may make you good at surveillance, but maybe there’s something you missed.”
Her shoulders stiffen. “I already told Aria that this person, whoever they are, is good. Too damn good. They avoided all the major cameras, and the one that did catch them caught the back of their hooded coat. This person knows what they’re doing because they’ve done it before. Multiple times.”
“Like how you never get caught despite being new on campus?”
She swallows again before clearing her throat. “It’s not me.”
I never thought that it was her. She’s too caught up in stalking him.
Aria leans forward, her curly braids falling over her shoulders. “, wait…if it’s someone used to creeping around, you don’t think?”
“I know it’s Beaussip,” I say, reading her thoughts. “I’m almost positive of it. Now, let me see the video.”
Enaj relents opening her laptop loaded with explicit stalking tabs before she pans over to the right one.
We watch as the grainy video flickers across the screen. There are no identifying features. No wisps of hair escaping the coat. The outfit is androgynous. It could be a short man or a medium-height woman. Too tall to be Enaj or Aria, though that’s no surprise.
“How do we know it’s not a minion?” Aria asks tentatively. “Beaussip has dozens of them. Rin to start.”
I shake my head. “Beaussip wouldn’t risk a snitch later. No, he or she got those shoes themselves.”
“But how?” Aria furrows her brows. “How would they have known I had the shoes? And why would they be following me specifically that night? Besides, they were in a box. Ballet students toss out old pointe shoes all the time. They’re dozens of them in that rubbish bin right now, I’d bet.”
“Beaussip is everywhere,” I say as the video restarts a third time. “And nowhere.”
Aria shakes her head in disbelief.
“Track her,” I say to Enaj.
“ What? Why me?”
“You’re hovering over the surveillance footage at all times anyway, so you can get off. Track her. It’s nearly winter. Look for that coat on campus. Look for anyone snooping around.”
Enaj pouts. “That’s less time for me to snoop around, though.”
“You have a problem that I’m helping you break. Be grateful.”
“But I — ’’
“Do you want him to find out what you’re up to?” I say, giving Aria my arm as she slips from the table onto her feet.
I’d deal with the consequences of touching her later.
“No!” she throws her hands up, waving them at me and nearly causing her laptop to tumble to the mossy floor. She catches it in time, and if she were pale, I’m sure her knuckles would be ghostly white. “You can’t tell him. He’ll think I’m crazy.”
“You are crazy,” Aria says. “But we like it. We’ll be great friends.” She links her arm through mine before slipping her hand into her coat pocket.
“Do I have a choice?” Enaj mutters, her voice thick with sarcasm and misery.
“No,” Aria and I say simply as we leave the greenhouse and head for the campus.
“Hurry up!” Aria calls over her shoulder. “The inauguration is about to start, and everyone has to be there. The king ordained it.”