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“Your only,” I reminded him with a tight smile. “No other girl’s ever going to see your cock without laughing their asses off at my finest handwriting.”
“You’re supposed to be trying to win him over,” Remington muttered under his breath to me as Cain’s eyes narrowed.
“I just need one person to nominate me,” I said.
Remington was avoiding my gaze, drumming his fingernails on the tabletop. Stellan gave me a short, sharp shake of the head; maybe I shouldn’t be surprised he was pissed at me at the moment.
“Sorry, Aurora,” Pax said. “We’ve got plans for the Sphinx. Even if we successfully made you a member, well… The alumni network is pretty important to us, and they would not be impressed.”
I couldn’t believe I still had the capacity to be disappointed by them. But as I was leaving dinner, Remington slung his arm over my shoulders again. I was about to shrug him off when he hip-checked me abruptly to one side, shoving me into a room as we passed.
“What?” I demanded.
He held his arms out with a flourish, giving me a cocky grin.
We were in a walk-in closet, where dark robes were neatly folded.
“This is going to be so much more fun if we surprise them,” Remington said, and I felt a grin come out over my face before I jumped to hug him.
Tonight was going to be full of surprises.
* * *
Dressed in a black robe and a gold mask that hid my face, I followed the other acolytes down the steps of the Sphinx and into the night. Tonight was the night we took our places. I’d heard that other students hid inside because, sometimes, the Sphinx initiates took revenge on various people who had wronged the Sphinx as one of their tests. Jenna claimed it was probably all made up in past years, but I wouldn’t put it past these men of mine to make it a reality.
“Tonight,” Cain said, “You all are supposed to be initiated into the Sphinx. For the past few months, you've tried to prove your worth, and your ranks have been decimated as some of your peers have been found unworthy.”
“But there is one last night of testing. Tonight you all have your missions.” Pax spoke up, and even though his face was hidden behind a mask, I’d know his voice anywhere. I felt it through my bones, deep and bass.
“You’ll meet us back here tonight when you’ve collected your tithe to the Sphinx,” Remington added. They had a different requirement of each pledge, something that would hurt, that would take a sacrifice no matter how rich they were. Some of them needed to steal something, some of them needed to provide leverage, some of them needed to bring a chunk of the family fortune to the table. Nothing was easy.
Remington had pointed out that, when the moment of challenge came, my price had to look the same as anyone else’s.
So tonight, I was digging up a corpse.
The thought made my stomach tense, bile climbing up my throat. Was it worth it, to disturb the Demon’s old graves? There were corpses no one ever found, buried with proof of their sins.
Like Carrie Heyward.
Remington thought it was nice symmetry to provide the grave to the Sphinx, but then, he wasn’t the one who was likely to break a nail digging up the box buried with Carrie. Remington knew they’d all appreciate having the dirt on Carrie to hold over his family.
I headed around the Sphinx to the car. Once I’d locked myself in the driver’s seat, I tore the mask and hood off, because if I was a police officer, I’d one-hundred-percent pull someone over if they wore a depraved-sex-club mask when it wasn’t even Halloween.
Maybe the masks were supposed to be dignified and mysterious, but I’d never see a mask again without thinking,sex club.
I started up the car I’d borrowed–i.e. stolen–from Paxton, BANKS blasting through the cabin. I didn’t bother to turn it down, grateful to peel out onto the open road.
It started raining as I was driving, and it felt like I was going home, but not to a home where I belonged, not somewhere I wanted to be. The rain lashed the windshield, almost blinding, and a sheet of water coated the road with a silver shine. The fog rising into the air made the world look supernatural and unreal.
All the acolytes must be getting soaked by now. I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel, knowing that my time was coming. There was a shovel in the trunk. I’d bring them the box, then I’d give them the coordinates to the grave.
When I pulled off the road and bumped slowly down the gravel lane, the rain beat against the trees overhead. Even my headlights seemed too dim to penetrate far into the night.
I opened my car door and pressed the button to pop the trunk, taking a deep breath to steady myself. The scent of ozone and wet greenery filled the air.
I should’ve gone further away from the Demon when I picked my college, not someplace where I could reach one of his favorite burial sites. Except there were so many graves. It seemed there was nowhere I could outrun him anyway.
But it would be worth it to stand as a member of the Sphinx–no longer trapped there, but choosing to become one of them. I’d be standing as their equal when the sun rose on the new secret society.
