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“Ok, let’s go,” Saber said. “I want to find Lozen.”
Saber followed the other three girls out to a Toyota 4Runner that was already running, looking like it was smoking in the dark. Rex was in the driver’s seat.
She took a seat directly behind him, while Laurel got in beside him.
“Hey Saber,” he said, looking at her in the rearview. “Looks like you’re coming after all.”
When they’d all piled in, he put the car in drive, and it seemed to glide into the deep, impenetrable fog. Thinking that Lozen was out there, in that fog, without her made Saber feel deeply uneasy.
They came very close to where Ansel lived, then turned in a different direction. Saber’s heart sank. Of course they weren’tgoing to his house. She felt like an idiot for hoping for something so absurd, cringing at her own childish fantasy. Hoping that she would randomly meet him out at one of these parties was so idiotic, and she felt ridiculous and embarrassed for hoping for such a thing.
They drove for a long time, almost twenty minutes, and turned into a long, winding driveway with a buzzer at the entrance. Rex already knew the code, entered it, and they all watched as the gate swept open, slow and steady.
The car wound up a long, twisting driveway to a well-lit house with an expansive, well-manicured lawn. They drove past a small parking lot glittering with expensive cars, mostly black, reflecting the glimmer of dozens of outdoor lights along the driveway, up the front stairs, and dripping, in the form of string lights, from posts around the yard. The house was a mansion, but not modern or sparse. It was decadent, elaborate, with a marble-looking facade and scrollwork on the porch columns.
“Fancy,” Saber said, but nobody seemed to hear her.
Was everyone else anxious? They kind of seemed like it.
They heard laughter even before they went into the house. Saber saw there were some people in the yard, all dressed up in nice outfits, business casual, sitting around a very large, elegant stone fireplace set out on a flagstone patio. She looked up at the big house as they walked in and saw that the light hanging over the doorway was made of swooping blown glass. It was all expensive, but Saber couldn’t help thinking there was something incoherent about the design, like random pieces from different “fancy” houses cobbled together.
“Whose house is this?”
“You’ll meet him soon,” Elise said, her voice hushed.
The ceilings were so high that the velvet curtains for the windows were long enough to cover a wall of her own house. She heard music at the perfect volume, not too loud, jazz, upbeat andromantic. Most of the people there were dressed not formally, but in very nice business casual, rich fabrics, tasteful jewelry, clean, polished haircuts and perfect skin. These, Saber thought, were very wealthy people. What did they want with a bunch of high school seniors?
“Ladies,” a man said, descending the grand staircase and opening his arms to them. He was no older than forty and reminded Saber of Bradley Cooper, wearing a tailored pin-striped button-up. He had gleaming silver eyes, baked-tan skin, and carried himself like a man who had never lacked confidence in his life.
She knew for certain that he wasn’t one of the men that had dragged the woman, Maggie, back into the woods.
Saber’s senses were on high alert. She scanned the room for Lozen but couldn’t find her. There were no other teenagers there other than the group she’d come with.
Had they lied to her?Saber felt a jolt of panic.
The man glanced at her, his eyes traveling over the girls, then shifted back to her.
“You’re new. What’s your name?”
“Saber,” she said, her voice catching a little.
“I’m Derek Slater.”
Something in his eyes made her relax a little bit and sent a noticeable tremor of calm and pleasure through her. She hadn’t realized how tense she’d been until her muscles relaxed.
“Let me get you a drink,” Derek said, and led her to a trendy mirrored bar on the far side of the large room where so many beautiful people were gathered.
“Sure,” she said, and walked with him, even taking his arm when offered.He radiated a certain cool charm that reminded her, vaguely, of Ansel.
“Where are you from?” he asked, gazing into her eyes. “I thought I knew all of the girl’s friends.”
“I’m new. I just moved here from Florida.”
“That explains the tan,” he said. “I love beautifultanskin. You look like you should be on a warm, sunny beach.”
Saber smiled, utterly charmed. She felt sunlight, heat, and could almost smell the briny air on a Florida beach, picked up by a trade wind and carried on a breeze.
“Yeah,” she said. “I love the beach.”
