Page 21

Levi

Head down, I sort through the foils, ready for my next fencing lesson.

A bang sounds from the next room, and I lift my head, angling it toward the closed door. No one should be in the wellness center this afternoon.

“ Hello !”

Silence.

I wait a couple of seconds, then return to my task.

A burst of female laughter and a door slamming make me drop my basket, and I curse as I scatter neatly organized foils all over the mat.

“For fuck’s sake,” I grumble.

Leaving the mess to deal with whatever girls are playing hide and fucking seek, I walk out of the fitness center. Della Jackson was the menace in Haven Academy. It looks like she inspired others to pick up where she left off.

The entrance to the wellness center is silent—no sign of Ms. Huffman or any student. A door slams, and more female laughter drifts from the sauna.

“I don’t have time for this shit,” I mutter.

In the sauna, there are wooden seats, a pit in the center with coals, a bucket of water, and a large wooden ladle.

I spot the body face down in the corner.

I bolt across the room, grab the body, and flip it to start CPR.

“The fuck…”

Bang .

I drop the towels stuffed into a hoodie and sweatpants and whip around.

Someone shut the door.

I rush across the room, but I suspect I know what I’ll find. Cursing under my breath, I shove at the door to get it open, but it won’t budge.

“If someone is playing a joke, this is not the time or the place!” I shout.

The temperature rises as another door slams shut, farther away, and I get the sense I walked into a trap.

Wiping the sweat from my forehead with the back of one hand, I pull my phone out of my pocket and curse when there’s no signal.

I call Xavier anyway, just in case.

My phone beeps but doesn’t dial or connect.

I tap a quick text and hit send as the screen on my phone sweats. There’s a low probability that he will receive that text with no signal, but it's possible.

Then I return my phone to my pocket and scan my surroundings for a way out.

I’m calm.

I’ve gone through things I never thought I would escape from.

“This is nothing,” I mutter.

An hour later, I’ve stripped off my sweatpants, sneakers, and T-shirt, but I’m still cooking. This room wasn’t designed for a person to stay in for hours, and I feel every bit of moisture in me leaking out in the form of buckets of sweat.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve rammed the door, but I do it again. My shoulder slides off it, and I crash to the floor, cracking my head on the wooden bench. I try to get up but my legs are jelly.

“Two minutes,” I murmur.

Two minutes to rest up and then you get your ass up.

I ponder the banging, the woman’s laughter, and I wonder why someone would draw me into this death trap.

Did I see something I shouldn’t have?

The heat squeezes every bit of air from the room. I fight for each breath, and it burns my lungs.

It’s hitting me that I’ve been down for much longer than two minutes.

“Up, Levi,” I gasp as I suck in more hot, steamy air.

This level of heat is unreal.

There was a time in my life when I never believed I would ever be warm.

Back then, it was freezing cold showers whenever I couldn’t sneak into school to use the gym showers.

No power. Nothing clean to wear. Handwashing clothes in the sink. Tearing off the green, moldy bits from slices of bread to make a peanut butter sandwich to take to school.

All the while, I subtly sniff myself, hoping no teacher will figure out that I’m living alone with no parent or guardian. In short, no one to give a shit whether I live or die.

I thought the cold would kill me.

I laugh bitterly.

Look at me now, cooking from the inside out.

From far away, something bangs. I drag air into my lungs, cough so hard and for so long that I black out.

Slap .

Someone shakes me.

“ Hey !”

Another light slap hits my cheek, and a familiar voice penetrates.

“Levi, come on, man.”

Xavier.

I peel my eyelids open.

He’s crouched beside me, his brow furrowed.

I’m no longer roasting in the sauna. I’m flat on my back outside it.

“What happened?” His phone vibrates. He pulls it out of his pocket and lets out a laugh, flipping the phone to show me my message.

Out of the steam room, my message just hit his phone.

“Someone tried to kill me.” I sit up, hunching over as I cough until my lungs burn.

Sitting up helps. The door to the hallway Xavier left open helps even more, letting a waft of cool, fresh air into the humid space.

Then it hits me what this means, and I start laughing.

Xavier studies me with a raised brow. “Is this a heat stroke? Should I be throwing you over my shoulder and running to the nurse?”

“Why else would someone want me dead unless I found out something they don’t want me to know?” My grin widens. “It means that we’re right where we need to be. Finally .”

I was starting to believe we were chasing a ghost.

This changes things.

He cocks his head, his expression thoughtful. “You think we’re onto them?”

“I think we’ve spooked them. Give me a hand.” I hold my palm out, and he helps me to my feet. “How’d you know something was wrong?”

“Tried calling you, but your phone rang out. Then I found something wedged in that door when I went looking for you. Didn’t expect to trip over you when I opened the door.”

If he hadn’t shown up when he did, I’d be dead.

He peers into the corner of the steam room and frowns. “What the fuck is that?”

“Bait.”

We drag out the sweat pants and hoodie stuffed with towels that someone tossed in to lure me into a deadly trap. This time, I keep one eye firmly on the door so no one can come along and slam it shut again.

I keep a change of clothes in the wellness center, which Xavier grabs for me. I’m lightheaded when I pull on the dry sweatpants and a black sweatshirt, but every minute I’m out of that sauna, I feel stronger.

“You should get yourself checked out,” Xavier suggests.

I shake my head. “I’m good. Don’t trust the nurse here.”

I don’t trust anyone here.

I’m stepping out of the wellness center when I spot Ms. Arkwright stalking toward me, and subtly cough.

Xavier drops back out of sight.

“Mr. Tomaz.” She frowns at me, lips pursed. “Why are you so disheveled?”

“Just had a hard workout.”

Her eyes narrow with suspicion. “A word in my office.”

“About?”

“In my office.” She spins around and walks back the way she came.

I glance back at Xavier, who shrugs. He doesn’t know what this is about and neither do I.

“We’ll talk later,” he mouths.

I follow Ms. Arkwright through the school grounds, drawing cool air into my lungs as my strength slowly returns.

I’m feeling stronger and more myself when I take the seat opposite the head of school.

“I’m terminating your contract with immediate effect,” she says.

Someone tries to kill me, and I get fired right after. I’d laugh if I wasn’t fighting to control my mounting rage. One step closer to Aly’s killer, and it’s another two fucking steps back.

“Why?”

She rearranges a pile of papers on her desk. “I can’t, in good conscience, disclose that. After you’ve gathered your things, security will escort you off campus.”

What the fuck is going on?

I sit up in my seat. “Is this to do with my personal leave the other day?”

She smiles tightly. “Security will escort you off the campus as soon as you’ve collected your belongings.”

I study her for a beat. She’s tight-lipped, and I’m too exhausted to push for answers.

All I can think is that whoever tried to kill me decided on a two-pronged attack to get rid of me. Death by sauna didn’t work, so they went to Ms. Arkwright.

An accusation.

Someone went to her and made an accusation.

“Fine.” I push myself to my feet. “I’ll collect my belongings.”

I need to talk to Xavier before I leave.

She smiles. “I’ll have your last paycheck forwarded to you.” Turning to the door, she calls out loudly, “ Gerard !”

Someone pushes the door open, and the brown-haired security guard hovers in the doorway, his eyes hawklike and cold.

“Please escort Mr. Tomaz to collect his belongings and then off school grounds. Do not leave him alone at any point,” she says firmly.

It’s a struggle to control my frustration. Someone doesn’t want me here, and the only person I can think would want me gone so suddenly is Thomas Benson.

He was hanging around the girls’ dorms. I confronted him, and now this ?

I walk out of the building, briefly capturing Xavier’s eye. He’s feet from the wellness center, in his gardening disguise, bagging up raked leaves.

His eyes bounce from me to the security guard trailing me, and he raises his eyebrow.

I subtly shake my head.

I have no clue what the fuck is going on, but for now, it looks like Xavier is on his own.