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“Did she really say Winter deserved it?”
“Y-yes,” I replied, voice cracking. “She did.”
Shuffling sounded on the other end. I heard muffled shouting like Katie was covering the phone. A keening whine came through. That would be Gabriella.
“I’ll call you later.”
Click.
I shook my head, making my way upstairs. I wasn’t even mad that Gabriella used the fight to spin herself as a victim to Katie. With everything that happened that day and my new resolution to stop playing by the rules, I finally accepted the punishment for those four that had been in the deepest, blackest part of my heart but that I had said no to.
Those punishments I had promised to the five men in Winter’s note—giving myself permission to go that far because they had taken a life. The standard rules didn’t apply. Society’s morals could no longer hold me. Even a country that condemns murder allows the death penalty to punish those who commit it.
Levi, Owen, Ashton, Wesley, and Giovanni were murderers. They earned what was coming to them.
But Queen Saylor and her Royal Handmaidens didn’t kill Winter. The other Royals didn’t kill Winter. I couldn’t unleash my fury on them. I had to stay within the rules.
Not anymore.
That morning as I wrapped my hands around Gabriella’s throat, I realized how wrong I was. The evil callousness that made her blame my sister for her death was the same callousness that Winter faced every day while the Truth or Dare Club made her life hell, and they all stood by and did nothing about it.
Everyone that could’ve stopped her and didn’t was just as guilty of her death as those five. And everyone who didn’t have the fucking decency to feel guilty about it, and instead taunted me and mocked her death—they were begging to finally be put in their place.
I wasn’t holding back anymore. I wasn’t clinging to the final remains of the good girl I used to be. Murderers met one of two fates: death or life in a cage.
T.O.D. Club chose their path. Now I’ll choose their future.
Sitting down at my desk, I pulled that piece of paper with only Saylor’s name written on it. My hand whipped back and forth across the sheet as I planned her revenge, and her friends, and the club, and the Royals.
I was done being the only one holding myself back. The Royals were used to being the biggest bully on the playground. They would find out what happens when the smallest, quietest kid brings a surprise to the fight.
“LUNA.”
I snapped my head up, squinting at the door. Wilder leaned against the frame, glancing at the mess of papers in front of me.
“You need to see this.”
“The club,” I rasped. How long had I been sitting there that my voice had gone rough from disuse? “You got on to the site.”
“I did.” He ducked out. “Come and see.”
I pushed away from my desk without hesitation, hurrying after him.
Wilder’s room was as cold as ever. The cage around his bed was open. I tugged a warm fleece throw and wrapped myself in it. “Where are the guys?”
“Cato and Rafael are in Rafael’s room, talking to their father. Lucien went out to handle some business for me.” There was an odd note in his voice. “For us.”
“Okay,” I said, accepting that easily as I narrowed on the reason all this began. “Finally.”
“Don’t say that yet.” He wheeled a chair beside his.
“Why not?” I sat down before the computer. Truth or Dare flashed bold and large across the screen. “We have them now.”
“Luna, all we have is what we’re looking at.”
Looking at Wilder, I frowned. I’d never seen this expression on his face before. He almost looked...
“I can’t hack this site.”
...defeated.
I flicked from him to the laptop. “What do you mean you can’t hack this site? You hack government websites like their password is one, two, three, four. You can hack anything.”
His fists balled. “I never said I could hack anything, and I can’t hack this.”
“Why?”
But Wilder wasn’t looking at me. His eyes glazed staring at the screen. “Because he’s too good.”
“He?”
He blinked, shaking himself. “Yeah, he. Whoever the club hired to code and protect the site. Considering who we’re dealing with, it’s not a surprise that they can afford the best that money can buy. They’d have to. Take a look at the truths and dares they’re doling out,” Wilder said. “If the dean ever saw this, he’d close Regalia U, burn it down, and scorch the earth. The web of cheating, corruption, and lies here goes too deep for anyone to get rid of.”
I pulled the laptop toward me, scrolling and scanning down.
It was interesting that the site itself was rather simple. The front page was set up kind of like a text screen. On one side there were truths and dares, and on the other side were screen names. I put together right away that the screen name was who had taken on the dare or truth. Like Gabriella said, some of the names were in purple—a Dreg.
