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My ankle gives a sudden, enormous throb, right where it’d been broken during my first year at Lochkelvin, fault lines shifting along the marrow. The pain is sharp and deep enough that I suck in air through my teeth and automatically slump over myself to massage my ankle. Rory looks across at me in concern.
And then the locked door to our politics class begins to open.
31
“Iknew it,” Arabella whispers, triumph flashing across her face. She stands on the other side of the doorway with her hands on her hips. I’d care more but my ankle is flaring with agony, like being stabbed by a million pins at once, the power concentrated in one tender, healing spot. I’m catapulted back to my first year here, a phantom pain from long ago flourishing now. Sweat begins to spring along my hairline. I sit with my ankle across the thigh of my other leg, digging my thumbs into the grooves of my joint. “Iknewyou’d be sneaking around. I was so sure I heard you come up to the tower after curfew last night.”
“How did you get in here?” Danny asks, to which Arabella raises a key aloft. It dangles from a delicate chain like a romantic symbol. Through my blurred vision, I watch as Arabella fastens it behind her neck.
“I saw your names on the board this morning. There was no way you could have done that during class. So the question is,” she asks sharply, rounding on us, “why are you herenow?”
“Students aren’t allowed keys,” Rory murmurs. “It breaks all kinds of safeguarding protocols.”
“And yet,” Arabella says pointedly, gesturing at the three of us.
“And yet,” Rory fires back, staring hard at her. “You tell on us and you give yourself away. We go down, you go down.”
“I don’t have to mention anything about having a key,” Arabella declares haughtily. “I can say I was fulfilling my Head Girl duties by patrolling the area at curfew,which I am, when I saw you three sneak in here with a stolen key. I get plaudits for doing an exceptional job as usual, and — at this point — you three likely get suspended. Maybe even expelled. So close to exams, too — wouldn’t that be a shame.”
Danny glares at her in disgust. “So you’re happy to lie when it benefits you?” he asks with a scowl. “Who do you think you are?”
Unbidden, I give a soft whimper, and everyone turns to look at me. Tears are stinging at my eyes. I can’t hold in this pain.
“What’s wrong with her?” Arabella sneers.
Rory and Danny stare at me, confused. Danny places both hands on my cheeks gently, brushing my tears away with his thumbs. He doesn’t understand, but he reassures me with kind whispers that everything will be all right. I don’t quite believe him. Suddenly, it’s as though my whole body is collapsing. Rory’s gaze falls to the hand wrapped like a firm bandage around my ankle. He pulls me into his steady embrace, my face damp against the ball of his shoulder. I see his mind processing, processing…
He turns back to Arabella, and mutters viciously into the side of my neck, “Our key isn’t stolen.”
“Don’t.” Through bitten lips, I whisper, “Don’t drop him in it.”
Nevertheless, Rory continues above my head, “It was given to us,willingly, by Dr. Moncrieff.”
Arabella gazes at him in confusion, trying to measure the truth of Rory’s statement. At first she scoffs, as though it could only be a fairytale, but when Rory’s expression remains stoic and unchanged, doubt begins to cloud her face.
“You’re lying,” she snaps.
“No, that’s whatyourside does.” Rory’s attention returns to me. He leans over, using his large palm to hold my ankle steady. I take a couple of deep breaths, feeling scared.
“This isn’t natural.”
Softly, Rory replies, “I know. It’s Lochkelvin. Everything’s falling apart.” From his position leaning over my ankle, Rory asks in a threatening growl, “What have you done with the unicorn?”
Unlike when Rory interrogated a perplexed Dr. Moncrieff, Arabella is eager to announce herself as the culprit. “Oh, you noticed, did you? In my personal opinion, it became averydivisive statue in the end. Lots of ultra-royalist propaganda every day.Deeplyunpleasant. And, of course, with the rot of anti-Jamesian sentiment creeping into Scotland’s disposition, it felt not only right, but necessary, to petition its removal.” Proudly, Arabella reveals, “I did the same with the flag.”
I really wish Finlay were here right now to tear her a new one. I can practically hear him ranting in my head:youareScottish, you fucking imbecile.
“It was a memorial for Luke’s mother,” Rory snarls. “Students weregrieving.”
“Then that’s their problem, if they’re so brainwashed they’re affected by the death of someone they’ve never met.”
“Don’t pretend to be mighty about this — you targeted that memorial because you stand against Luke. You targeted the unicorn to get back at the growing disquiet in Scotland from the many who oppose you. You didn’t give a fuck that it was for grieving students. You just destroyed it out of hate.”
“Hate?” Arabella gives a disbelieving laugh. “It’s basic justice, accountability. I’ll let you in on a little secret about hate — don’t be someone people hate and you won’t get what’s coming to you.”
“Can you even hear yourself?” Danny asks incredulously, a frustrated edge to his words. Arabella ignores him.
“Well done, Belly. Further proof, as if it were needed, that you fully embody the era of the sociopath.” Rory’s palm gently squeezes my ankle, bringing a small amount of relief. “People should do the right thing, which is coincidentally the things approved by you. Someone does something you don’t like? Rebrand it as an act of hate. Mourning a murdered queen? Forbid it. Otherwise, people might begin to question the official narrative about how a fit and healthy woman with a growing number of political enemiesreallydied.”
