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“Yeah. She had a black eye a couple of weeks ago,” I told him. “And last night she came back to the dorm late with her arm in a sling. She made me promise not to tell our other roommates.”
He remained silent for a long moment, the only sound the wind whispering gently through the trees surrounding us. When he spoke again, his expression was troubled. “Look, I want to tell you that reporting Drew is the right thing to do. That he’d get kicked out of school and that would be the end of it. But nothing here is ever that simple. If he’s threatening you, I really think you should stay out of it.”
It was basically what I’d already decided, but hearing Devan speak the words made my doubts surface again. “But what if he keeps hurting Julie?”
“Julie’s an adult. She knows what she’s gotten into, and no one is making her stay with him,” he said, leaning his weight against a tree. His brow was furrowed and he seemed conflicted though, like he was saying the words but he didn’t actually believe them.
“I just hate how no one will stand up to him,” I grumbled. “Sure, maybe his family is scary, but surely the other kids here are just as powerful and influential as he is.”
Devan’s face turned dark. “Most of the kids here were raised with wealth and opportunity, not with murder and betrayal. Their parents are rock stars and actors and politicians, not weapons dealers and sex traffickers.”
I shivered a little, pulling my hands up into the sleeves of my coat. Devan noticed the movement and pushed off the tree. “C’mon, you’re freezing. Let’s head back.” He started walking and I hurried to keep pace by his side, grateful when he wrapped an arm around my shoulders to ward off the chill. My shiver had been as much from his words as from the weather, but I didn’t say anything. His arm felt too good around me.
“Why is he here in the first place?” I asked as Drew’s words from earlier came back to me. “Drew told me being at this school gives him an opportunity to help his family, and that’s why he wouldn’t let anyone report him and potentially get him kicked out. What did he mean by that?”
“I guess you haven’t heard that Lost Lake Academy has a bit of a reputation for being the go-to school for mafia kids, then?” Devan asked.
I caught a sparkle in his eye as he glanced down at me, and for a second I thought he was joking. “Wait, are you serious? What?”
“Yeah,” he said. “It’s not exactly the kind of stuff they put in the brochure, but over a hundred years ago, two of the largest North American crime syndicates got their starts right here at Lost Lake.”
“Two of them?” I asked.
“Well, it was just one at the time. Then there was a disagreement, maybe a little murder and betrayal, and then there were two. They’ve grown since then, and generally keep out of each other’s way, but a lot of members still send their kids to school here.”
“If the two groups are rivals, why would they both send their kids to school here?” I asked, raising my brows. The entire tale was hard to believe, but fascinating nonetheless.
He shrugged, the movement jostling me under his shoulder. “Partly for the tradition, I expect. If your family has been coming here for generations, they’re not going to stop now. Besides, no one talks about this stuff. Lost Lake is supposed to be a kind of neutral ground. Also, partly for the security, too. The school is big on safety and privacy. Why do you think they have such a stringent no-violence policy?”
“Huh.” I fell quiet for a moment, taking it all in. “But wait—when he says being here gives him the opportunity to help his family, is he implying he’s trying to get revenge on the people who killed his brother? Like are there students from the rival group here too?”
Devan shrugged. “Who knows. Could be. Most people aren’t as vocal as he seems to be about their ties to crime syndicates. And he might even mean something else altogether. But either way, it’s nothing you want to get involved in.”
We arrived at the dorms, but rather than letting me turn off toward my room Devan kept his arm tight around my shoulders and we stayed in step together, heading toward his building. My mind churned and I had a hard time processing all this information. Crime syndicates were something you heard about in stories, not something real involving people you went to school with.
A year ago my biggest concern had been whether my old car would break down on the way home from school and how to convince my mom to let me start my tattoo early, and here I was suddenly getting death threats from mob members? What was happening to my life?
“What’s the name of Drew’s…what—gang? Cartel? Syndicate?” I asked as we made our way up the stairs together.
Devan laughed, removing his arm from my shoulders to dig through his pocket for his key. I shivered slightly at the loss of his comforting weight.
“The Fallen Eagles,” he said, unlocking the door to the suite. It seemed neither of the other guys was home yet. “Their symbol is an upside-down eagle pierced through with three arrows. That was the original group here—it started off as a kind of secret society—and you can see the symbol carved into some of the older buildings.”
I glanced up. “What, seriously?”
He nodded. “Yeah, there’s one near the base of one of the columns of the admissions building. They’re around if you know where to look.”
“Wow, that’s almost kind of cool. So, Drew has ties back to the founding of the school? It’s almost a pity he sucks so much,” I mused, and Devan laughed, the sound warm.
I sat down on the floor by the couch, and he came to join me, throwing his coat up onto the cushions behind us.
“What’s the name of the rival group then?” I asked.
“The Shattered Sun. They split off later. I gather there were some disputes over business practices.”
“And do they have their symbol carved around campus too?” I asked.
“No, I think the split didn’t happen until a few decades later. But their symbol is a sun pierced through with a lightning bolt.”
