Chapter 16 Unlikely Alliance – Luna
The email arrives at eight in the morning. Terse and apologetic.
“Miss Queen, Dr. Moore has been called off-island for urgent family business. Your therapy appointment has been cancelled. We will reschedule upon her return. Apologies for the inconvenience.”
I stare at the message on my phone. Relief and suspicion war in my chest.
“That’s convenient,” Erik says from beside me. He’s reading over my shoulder. “Too convenient.”
“Maybe she really does have a family emergency.”
“Or maybe Selena realized sending you to therapy was tipping her hand. Making it too obvious she’s watching you.”
He’s probably right. Nothing at Shark Bay happens by coincidence. Every cancellation, every schedule change, every “family emergency” is calculated.
I forward the email to Belle and Max. Their response is immediate.
Belle: Don’t trust it.
Max: Agreed. Stay alert.
As if I could be anything else.
***
I spot Leyla in the library during lunch. She’s alone for once. No gaggle of friends. No cheerful chatter. She sits at a corner table, staring at her laptop without actually typing anything.
She looks exhausted. Dark circles under her eyes that no amount of concealer can hide. Her honey-blonde ponytail is messier than usual. Her uniform isn’t pressed with its usual precision.
Something has changed.
I glance at Erik. He nods once. We discussed this last night in whispered conversations under blankets. The risk versus the potential reward. Leyla has been following us for weeks. She knows something. The question is whether she’s an enemy or another victim.
There’s only one way to find out.
I cross the library and slide into the chair across from her. “Hey, Leyla.”
She jumps. Her hand flies to her chest. “Luna! You scared me.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.” I keep my voice casual. Friendly. “You looked like you could use some company.”
“Oh. I’m fine. Just working on an essay.” She gestures vaguely at her blank screen. “It’s not going well.”
“I know the feeling.” I lean back in my chair. “Hey, can I ask you something?”
“Sure.” But her smile is tight. Nervous.
“Why are you following us?”
The color drains from her face. “What? I’m not. I don’t know what you mean.”
“Leyla. Come on. You show up everywhere we go. Library study sessions. The dining hall. Walking paths. Coffee shops.” I keep my voice gentle. Not accusatory. “At first, I thought maybe you were just lonely. Looking for friends. But it’s more than that, isn’t it?”
She opens her mouth. Closes it. Her eyes dart around the library. Looking for witnesses. Or maybe looking for exits.
“I should go.” She starts gathering her things.
“Selena is blackmailing you.”
The words stop her cold. Her hands freeze on her laptop.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do. She has something on you. Or on your family. And she’s using it to make you spy on us. To report our movements. Our conversations. Our relationships.”
Tears well in Leyla’s brown eyes. “Please stop.”
“I will. After you tell me the truth.” I lean forward. “Leyla, I’m not trying to hurt you. I’m trying to help. But I need to know what we’re dealing with.”
“You can’t help me. No one can.” She swipes at her eyes. “You don’t understand. She owns me. She owns all of us.”
Erik appears beside our table. Leyla flinches.
“It’s okay,” I say quickly. “Erik won’t hurt you. We just want to talk.”
“Here?” Leyla looks around again. “Are you insane? She’s watching. She’s always watching.”
“Then let’s go somewhere she can’t hear us.” Erik’s voice is calm. Steady. “The old chapel. It’s abandoned. No cameras.”
“How do you know?”
“Because we’ve been meeting there. Planning.” I stand and offer her my hand. “Come with us. Please. Let us help you.”
Leyla stares at my outstretched hand for a long moment. Then she takes it.
***
The chapel looks even more decrepit in daylight. Ivy crawls through broken windows. Bird droppings cover the rotting pews. The roof sags dangerously in places.
But it’s private. And right now, that’s all that matters.
Leyla stands in the center of the nave, arms wrapped around herself. She looks small. Young. Nothing like the bubbly, cheerful girl who bounces through campus with her dolphin backpack.
“Tell us,” I say gently. “Start from the beginning.”
She’s quiet for so long, I think she won’t answer. Then she begins to speak.
“My father. He’s a banker in New Jersey. Very successful. Or so everyone thought.” Her voice is hollow. “Three years ago, he started embezzling from his clients. Small amounts at first. Then larger. He thought he could cover it up. Thought no one would notice.”
“But Selena noticed,” Erik says.
“Not Selena. Someone who works for her. They have people everywhere. Banks. Government offices. Law firms.” Leyla’s hands clench into fists. “They came to my father with evidence. Enough to destroy him. Enough to put him in prison for twenty years.”
“And they offered him a deal.”
“Send me here. To Shark Bay. Agree to be available for future favors. And they’d make the evidence disappear.” She laughs bitterly. “He thought he was protecting me. Thought a prestigious boarding school was a small price to pay for keeping his freedom.”
“But it wasn’t just about school,” I say.
“No. After I arrived, Selena called me to her office. She knew everything. About my father’s crimes. About our family. She said I had a choice. I could help her, or she could help herself to ruining both our lives.”
“What did she want?”
“Information. About other students. Their behaviors. Their relationships. Who they talk to. What they talk about.” Leyla wipes her eyes. “At first, it seemed harmless. Just gossip. But then you four came back. And suddenly she was asking different questions. More specific. More urgent.”
“What kind of questions?” Erik asks.
“About your moods. Your conversations. Whether you seemed suspicious of anything. Whether you tried to leave campus.” She looks at me. “After your meeting with Selena, she asked me to watch you even more closely. Said you were ‘showing signs of instability.’“
The interrogation. Of course Selena would want Leyla monitoring me after that.
“Has she asked you to do anything else? Besides watch us?”
Leyla hesitates. Then nods. “She wanted me to plant something in Belle’s room. A small device. I think it was a listening bug or something. But I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t. So I lied to her that Belle caught me trying and got suspicious.”
“When was this?”
“Yesterday.”
Around the same time Belle found Austin’s thumb drive. Maybe Selena was trying to monitor Belle’s room more closely. Maybe she tried to re-establish surveillance in her room after Max and Belle dismantled it.
“Leyla.” I crouch down to meet her eyes. “I know you’re scared. I know it feels like Selena has all the power. But she doesn’t. We’re gathering evidence against her. Against the entire network. And when we expose them, everyone they’re blackmailing goes free. Including your father.”
“You can’t take down Selena. She’s too powerful. She has too many people working for her.”
“We’ve taken down powerful people before. Luna’s parents. Belle’s parents. We know how to do this.” Erik’s voice is firm. “But we need help. We need inside information.”
“Like what?”
“Like why Dr. Moore suddenly had to leave the island,” I say. “Like what Selena is planning. She’s watching us. She knows we’re hiding something. What’s her next move?”
Leyla is quiet for a long moment. I can see her weighing options. Calculating risks.
“There’s something happening,” she finally says. “In three weeks. Selena’s been preparing for it. She calls it The Harvest.”
The word sends ice through my veins. “What is it?”
“A gathering. Powerful people from the network come to the island. They meet with the students. Especially the seniors about to graduate.” She swallows hard. “It’s like a recruiting event. Except the students don’t know that’s what it is. They think it’s just a fancy alumni dinner.”
“But it’s not,” Erik says.
“No. The network members are there to select new assets. People they can use. People they can control.” Leyla’s voice drops to a whisper. “Some students get job offers. Positions at powerful companies. Internships with politicians. All with strings attached.”
“And the others?” I ask, though I already know the answer.
“The others disappear. Quietly. Their families are told they had breakdowns. That they needed intensive treatment. But they don’t go to hospitals. They go to private facilities owned by the network.”
My stomach churns. “How do you know this?”
“Because it happened to my roommate last year. Louise Menendez. Brilliant student. Perfect grades. Then, after The Harvest, she was gone. Selena said she had a mental health crisis. But I saw her the night before. She was fine. She was happy.” Leyla’s voice breaks.
“Two days later, she was just gone. And when I tried to contact her family, they wouldn’t talk to me. ”
Subject 112. Unsuitable. Removed.
How many students have been “removed” over the years? How many families have been told their children needed treatment when really they were being silenced?
“This Harvest,” I say. “It’s in three weeks?”
“Yes. Right after midterms. The network members start arriving a few days before. Selena hosts dinners. Tours of the campus. Then the main event is on Saturday night.”
“And this happens every year?”
“Twice a year. Once in fall, once in spring. To coincide with graduations.” Leyla hugs herself tighter. “When students graduate, they leave, so the network needs to bring new people in. New victims. New workers. They call them students, but really they’re just more cogs in the machine.”
“That’s why she brought us back,” Erik says slowly. “Not just to control us. But to present us at The Harvest. To show what well-trained assets we’d make.”
The realization hits like a punch to the gut. Selena didn’t save us. She collected us. Four children of network families who’ve already proven themselves useful. Who already know how the system works. Who could be reprogrammed and deployed.