Page 109 of Bound By Fury

He tsks. “You’re not fine. You’re grieving.”

“So?”

“So, I would expect some of this behavior from you. I can’t imagine what it must be like for you right now. Being on this campus, knowing that your grandmother went here as well.”

The saliva in my mouth sours.

“I’ve already talked to Ms. Chang about the candles in her room. She’s received a strike on her student record.”

It’s a punch to the gut.

We’ve been seen back to back today, and I haven’t had a chance to talk to the others yet. This is the first I’m hearing of what level of disciplinary action we’re in for.

“What—what does that mean?”

He wipes nonexistent fuzz from his lapel and straightens his tie.

“We have a three-strike system. The first strike is a warning. The second results in an action plan with staff on how to improve behavior. And a third strike earns the student a meeting in front of the disciplinary board to discuss potential expulsion.”

Expulsion. With the way Daisy’s mom pressures her academically, an expulsion could be the thing that officially destroys their relationship. I blink away the sting in my eyes.

“She—it wasn’t her idea. It was my idea. They told me not to do the candles, but I insisted because of the aesthetic. I figured it would look the best on my feed.”

He shakes his head. “Nice try, Harper, but she already confessed, and I believe her. Daisy isn’t known to tell lies.”

He says it like he can’t be too sure about me.

“I’d like to know, though, why you all were using the candles. So far no one has wanted to explain. I could go by what other students report seeing through Daisy’s open door on their way out of the building, but I’d like to give one of you the chance to tell me yourselves.”

Everything in my body is warning me to keep my mouth shut. But glancing over at the cabinet again, I can’t ignore the giant elephant in the room between us, and it’s crushing me.

“We were trying to contact Fiona.”

The words are past my lips before I can stop them.

His mouth goes slack. “Come again?”

“Like a séance? We needed the candles because we used a spirit board to try to contact her. Missy needed closure.” I shrug. “I thought it was worth a shot.”

He nods slowly, like it’s taking him a second to process everything I just said.

“A séance.”

I nod.

He drums his fingers against the desk. “Interesting.”

I’m itchy like I revealed too much. But now that I’ve started, the words keep flowing. A dam has been broken, and I don’t know how to fix it. Even though I know that the last person I need to be telling all this to is him.

“I was actually doing some research on the history of the school for Dr. Rogers’s class, and I realized Fiona’s last name matches one of the names of the one-room schoolhouse that used to be on this land—the Beaumont Clark School, I know you’re familiar.” I was reading the plaques about the school here in Biltmore Hall when he approached me on move-in day.

“So I was curious whether Fiona had any relation to the original families, because Missy told me that Fiona’s mom went here as well when she was a teenager, and that felt like a big coincidence, so I figured maybe if we contacted her ghost or whatever—which I know sounds silly—I could get more information about it and I could use that as part of my project.”

I’m out of breath by the time I finally stop talking, and his face is all screwed up.

Shit, I think. I’m fucked.

But then he dissolves into a hearty laugh.