Page 131 of Boys Who Taint

“I’ll help,” Ivy adds.

The dean marches right at me, stopping mere inches away from me to whisper, “Next time, you won’t survive.”

A cold shiver courses down my spine.

He shoves me aside to waltz straight for the body lying near the table.

“Fuck,” he mutters as he inspects the damage to the guy’s skull. “This one’s gone.”

“I’m gonna be sick,” Aspen mutters.

“Oops. Got a little too excited.” Apollo scratches the back of his head.

He’s not even sorry.

Guess I’m lucky to have him on my side.

Absolute psycho.

The dean pulls out his cell phone and makes a quick call in the corner of the room where none of us can hear what he says, but I bet it has something to do with the Serpent’s body. Not to mention all of the injured people here.

Their fucking fault because they decided to come here and smoke me out.

The tension between the group is palpable, and I don’t even move an inch because I’m sure one of those fuckers will try to jump me.

When the dean finally returns, he says, “It’s taken care of. Everyone with wounds, report to the clinic on campus. I’ll have the nurse stay extra hours to fix this.”

“Are the cops gonna come to campus now?” Max asks.

“That depends on the parents’ reaction,” the dean responds. “We’ll deal with it when it’s time. Until then, none of you talks about this. Not with anyone. Got it?”

Everyone remaining in the room nods.

Heath gulps. “Maybe coming here wasn’t such a smart idea.”

“We should’ve taken him the fuck out,” Silas says, still glaring at me. “At least then he wouldn’t have died for fucking nothing.”

“Fuck you,” I growl back.

Silas tries to get up and have at me for a second time, but Ivy blocks his way. “Enough, Silas.”

“Get out of my way.”

“No. I don’t want you to get into more trouble.”

“The trouble will end with him,” Silas grits.

“You can’t keep doing this,” she says.

“No fucking problem,” I say. “I’ll take myself out of the equation.”

“I will talk to you all later in my office.” The dean looks around the room at all the other Skull and Serpent members Silas brought with him. “None of you are off the hook.”

I march off before anyone can say anything else to frame me as the cause of this mess, and I shut the door behind me so I can let the fresh air into my lungs and replace the smell of death lingering in my nostrils.

I wasthisclose to exiting the stage.

Judging from the way people react to my presence, the sand in the hourglass of my life is slowly running out.