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We need to figure out a way that whoever we start asking questions of, they won’t talk.
“The Secret File.”
“Huh?” Leo asks.
“The Secret File.”
“What about it?”
“We use it as leverage. Once we start asking questions, we have to ensure that they don’t talk, right? We—”
“Excuse me for interrupting, but what in the bloody hell is a secret file?”
“No, it’s The Secret File,” I explain to Oliver. “When the Knights of Arcadia started, each pledge had a partner to go through the Trials with. Before you became a Knight, you had to tell them your deepest, darkest secret. It promoted loyalty.”
“Then my grandfather,” Leo takes over, “implemented the idea of The Secret File. Everyone who becomes a full-fledged Knight writes down their secret. It’s all put in a file and never looked at again. Unless…” he chuckles darkly. “Unless, of course, you piss the Knights off. It’s kind of genius, actually, in a sick and twisted way.”
“But isn’t that risky?” Oliver asks.
“It’s part of the game,” I explain. “It’s the whole ‘we help you, you’re sworn to us’ mentality. Nothing will ever happen as long as your loyalty lies with the Knights.”
“Again…I thought Britain had fucked-up rituals, but you guys are out of your heads. How do we get the file?”
“It’s not actually a file,” Leo and I say at the same time.
“Because of course The Secret File wouldn’t really be a physical file.”
I crack a smile, but Leo charges forward. “It’s a locked box. Each pledge year has one. They’re hidden. There are only a few people who know where they are, and one of them is my grandfather…and me.”
Eden’s head slips off me, and she makes the cutest grunt, then rolls toward Oliver and snuggles into his chest. At least I can see his face now. I turn toward Leo. “You know where they are?”
“I’ve accessed one before,” he says. “As an assignment for my grandfather. He’s one of the ones that can use the secrets if he needs.”
“He trusted you to get it?”
“It was back before I’d disappointed him.” Leo’s scowl deepens, highlighted by the flickering flames. “I remember thinking how unfair it was that Grandfather could know all these things about someone at the drop of a hat, using it against them. He’d said the guy deserved it, but I don’t actually know what it is he supposedly did. He didn’t tell me that part. All I know is that I never saw him at my grandfather’s house again.”
“Where is it?” I ask. “Are they all together?” The tension in my chest seeps to my voice. These secrets are a big deal. We’re prepped and hyped up before we write them. We’re told that the more honest we are, the more we deserve to be a Knight. I was under the impression that no one ever looked at them again unless you were found untrustworthy. Their location is kept a secret for this very reason. Whoever had access to the secrets would have the utmost power. Until right now, that has always been Franklin Jarvis.
“They’re at the castle.”
My jaw clenches. “You’re kidding me.”
“Nope. They’re at the castle, in a sub-subbasement under lock and key and every other security measure you can imagine.”
It makes sense. They wouldn’t keep something like that on campus. It’s just like them to use the ambience of a castle to hide their members’ deepest, darkest secrets.
I roll back, staring at the ceiling again. That’ll be hard to get, but imagine if we could. We’d have all the ammunition we’d need.
“Too bad Grandfather is so old that none of his secrets will be buried there.”
He’s got a point. “Who was his pairing with?”
Leo makes a rumbling sound in his chest that’s half amusement and half a roaring tornado. “Only one very famous almost-president.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Ruining his bid for presidency is one of the greatest accomplishments of my grandfather’s life.”