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“Maybe you should, uh, meet up later?” I suggest.

She gives me an exasperated look, and I know I’m not going to win this argument. I’m also not about to let her go wandering about the city on her own at night.

“Fine, but if I help you sneak out, then I’m coming with you,” I say to her.

She squeals. “Deal.”

I try to remember where the one tunnel was that led out to the garden. I remember Auggie showing it to me one night. It takes a few wrong turns, but eventually I find it, and we sneak along the side of the palace, nearly running into a guard. I don’t, however, know how to find a secret way out of the walled garden, so we make the obvious choice to scale the wall. By the time I hoist Ash over the wall, and she helps me, we are giggling like schoolgirls who just snuck out to a party.

“Where are we meeting him?” I ask as we walk along the pebble pathway toward the small village near the palace.

“He said he’d meet me by the church near the main square, and we could go to a pub that he knows,” she says as we walk down the poorly lit road.

A nagging feeling in my gut is telling me that we should go back to the palace, but I quash it. I’m being silly. I feel a little like the nursemaid in Romeo and Juliet, helping two star-crossed lovers see each other.

We slowly walk toward the old church. The square is quiet.

“Are you sure he said here?” I ask Ash, looking around at the creepy, dark, old buildings.

She nods. “Yes.”

I see movement by the church. There’s a single light on the perimeter. We are about ten feet away when a man steps under the light.

“Ash?” I hear his voice call out, and I freeze, it’s a familiar voice but I don’t know why.

“Oh, Will,” she says as she runs toward him. It’s as he steps into the light that my heart stops. Not Will, Bill. Bill James Farrington, Jared’s cousin.

“Ash!” I call out, but it’s too late. Will or Bill or whatever his name actually is, grabs Ash. I can see the confusion as he turns her around. I go to lunge at him, but a hand grabs my arm.

“Well, this is better than I could have planned,” says a voice from behind me. Fear clouds all my senses as I turn to face my worst nightmare, Jared. It’s my last thought before I feel a jab, and everything goes dark.

CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE

August

“Have you seen Kate?”President Bradford asks me as I walk down the hall toward her room.

I frown. Kate hasn’t answered a single text message from me in over an hour. I know she’s still pissed at me, but it’s unlike her.

“No.”

“If you see her…tell her to come find me,” he commands. I want to tell him to fuck off but decide that getting on the bad side of my girlfriend’s dad is probably unwise. Girlfriend…that word ricochets around my brain like a game of pinball. I let it go because I need to focus.

I nod and head off to look for Kate. I look everywhere. I’m beginning to get concerned when Anna bumps into me.

“Have you seen Kate or Ashlyn?”

“No. I was just looking for Kate,” I say to her.

Jessica walks over to us, a look of concern on her face as well. “You haven’t seen Ashlyn, have you?”

My frown deepens. “No. Have you seen Kate?”

Her brows furrow. “No,” she replies slowly.

“Where’s their security?” I ask her.

“Jackie and Bethany are debriefing in the conservatory,” she says.