Chapter 32 Jasper
THIRTY-TWO
JASPER
I’m crawling out of my fucking skin. It’s been five days since I’ve had Mara in my hands. She slipped out before sunrise after the night at the safehouse and every hour since has felt like punishment.
When she isn’t locked up behind Daddy’s guards, she’s being escorted around campus by Milo or his other two officers, Kade and Valen. I can’t be too pissed—they’re trying to keep her safe from whatever murder spree is going on around campus, but I would feel much safer if she were here. With me.
Her name pings on the screen on my phone.
Mara:
Milo’s dragging me to the library later. Will y’all be there?
Dredyn:
Try and stop me.
Talon:
I’ll “study” you instead
Me:
Already warming a seat for you.
Three dots pulse from her like she’s thinking too long, then—
Mara:
Don’t make it obvious. He will be watching.
Talon fires off a gif of someone blowing a kiss across a crowded room.
Dredyn just sends a skull emoji.
I don’t even know how to respond so I just open up Instagram instead. My feed is flooded from last night’s Psi Theta alumni party. I swipe, knowing it’s going to piss me off, and there it is—
Chase Harrington plastered against Mara.
She’s in a tight black dress, shoulders tense, her smile paper thin. His arm is cinched around her waist like he owns her, fingers splayed across her skin.
I freeze on the next slide—another angle, flash catching his crooked grin. Golden boy. Senator’s son.
Fuck him
I shoot Talon a message
Me:
Get your ass in here.
Then, I shove off the bed and drop into the chair at my desk, firing up my desktop. Fingers twitch across the keys before I can think better of it. Search bar. Chase Harrington. Psi Theta. Evangeline Steele.
The results start stacking up. Yearbook archives. Old forum threads. Grainy party photos. My pulse hammers as images flicker across the screen.
Talon slips in, flopping onto my mattress with his usual smirk. But when I angle the monitor toward him, the grin fades. “Mornin’,” he mutters, eyes narrowing at the screen. “I’ve already seen all of these photos. Trying to piss me off again?”
I don’t look away from the screen. “There’s something off about him.”
Talon leans forward, scanning. “You really think you’re gonna find anything? Jasper, you’re digging through gossip forums like it’s gospel.”
“Maybe, but I’ve seen this before. Evie hung around him, right before… you know.”
Then he swears under his breath.
“Why Chase? Why Mara? And why the fuck does this happen two weeks before her father’s election? What does Harrington have that Mara’s father wants?”
Talon watches as tabs multiply across the screen.
News articles are dry, but forums are full of speculation—nothing solid yet.
Then, I land on the Psi Theta alumni site—pictures of the gala I remember.
Black-tie event, kids sipping punch in a ballroom.
My eyes catch a small figure in the background of one shot.
I zoom in. A girl in a long black dress stands by the punch table.
My blood goes cold when I recognize her—long blonde hair trailing in the water, eyes already filled with sadness before she even sees the camera. That’s Evangeline. My sister.
I fixate on the image. It’s Chase, arm casually slung around Evie’s waist. She’s smiling politely for the camera, staring into nothing, looking anxious. Chase’s grin is wide, practiced. Something about it makes my stomach drop.
“Evie?”
Talon shrugs, still scrolling. “Could be nothing. They were both invited, maybe just friends or something.”
“Friends?” The more I stare, the more questions burn in my mind. “And that’s how she ended up dead down in the catacombs.”
Footsteps at the doorway make both of us look up to find Dredyn standing in the frame, eating a donut. He enters, dropping the box on the desk beside us. He looks from my face to the screen, then to Talon.
“What’s with the grave vibes?”
“Chase Harrington. I think he had something going on with my sister before she was murdered.”
Dredyn’s grin dies. “Evie?”
“So, maybe Harrington dates everything in a skirt. Do we really think he had something to do with her drowning?” Talon says.
I ignore him and keep searching, even as Talon leans in to read over my shoulder.
A thread on the student forum catches my eye:
Chase Harrington + Evangeline Thorne. Coincidence?
The photos are grainy, but I can see Chase holding Evie’s hand at a Psi Theta mixer. Evie’s friends are tagging her with laughing emojis. “Poor Evie,” one comment says, “all alone with #Harrington.”
“There’s something here.”
Dredyn folds his arms. “Be careful. You’re poking a bear that’s got a fat political paw on its back and our girl in his clutches.”
Talon stretches, snagging his phone off my desk. “Well, I’m going to go see our girl at the library.”
I shrug, eyes still glued to the screen. “Tell her I’ll call later. I need to make a few… calls of my own.”
They both leave me alone to scroll endlessly on servers to try and find some sort of reason behind this connection. Then, a photo of my sister makes me freeze again. Posted the same night she texted me.
With Chase’s arm slung around her waist.
Evie:
Jas. I fucked up. I found something I shouldn’t have. I can’t get a hold of Dad. Please help.
I read the text half a dozen times before I go get Talon and Dredyn from down in the living room of my house. My parents are out to dinner—not answering their phones.
Evie’s phone goes straight to voicemail as I throw on my hoodie and the three of us pile into the car, speeding toward Ashen Grove.
Her dorm in Cromwell hall is empty, her window thrown open, curtains flapping. Talon’s phone rings and he puts it on speaker.
“Hello? Evie?”
“Is Jasper with you? I can’t… I can’t find the way out—”
“Where are you?”
“Catacombs”
“Let’s fucking go!” I yell.
We used the only entrance that we knew of thanks to our fathers—beside the library. We climbed the stone steps down until we were underneath the university, the darkness swallowing us whole.
“Evie!” My voice ricochets down the passage. No answer, just the low hum of something ahead.
Then, her scream. “HELP! Get off me!”
We sprint. Dredyn barrels forward, Talon right behind. My lungs are on fire, but I push harder. The sound yanks me onward.
We burst into the reservoir chamber, and my heart stops.
Evie thrashes in the black water, a man’s arm pinning her chest, shoving her under. Her dress floats around her like a shroud.
“Fuck!” Dredyn doesn’t hesitate. He dives in, water exploding around him. Talon rips off his jacket and throws himself toward the edge.
The shadow holding her down vanishes into the dark the second we close in, leaving only her body half-submerged, tangled on something below.
“Get her loose!” Talon shouts.
My hands close on her wrist. Dredyn’s got her other arm, pulling hard. She kicks, bubbles erupting around her mouth, but her leg is caught—wire, grate, I don’t know. She shakes her head, frantic.
We pull, both of us, but she jerks once, then slackens.
“No! No, no, no!” My scream drowns in the cavern.
We haul her onto the concrete. I drop to my knees, hammering her chest with both palms. Her ribs give under the force. I give her mouth-to-mouth, her lips icy, water seeping out of the corner.
Nothing.
Again. Harder. “Come back. Please. Come back.” I slam my fists against her sternum like I can beat her heart alive.
She can’t leave me.
Talon paces behind me, fists in his hair, muttering, “She’s gone, man, she’s gone,” while Dredyn kneels silently, blood running down his knuckles from tearing at the grate.
But I don’t stop—I can’t stop—until finally, her skin goes stone-cold under my palms, and I know.
There’s nothing left to save.