Alex laughed. “I’m going to Yale.”
“Fucking junkies,” Eitan repeated in disgust. He rose and dusted off his perfectly tailored trousers.
“What are you going to do?” Alex asked.
He glanced around the room. “You have no flowers. No balloons or anything. That’s sad.”
“I guess it is,” said Alex. She wasn’t even sure if her mother knew she was in the hospital. Mira had probably been waiting for that call a long time.
“I don’t know what I will do,” said Eitan. “I think your asshole boyfriend got into debt
with the wrong person. He rip someone off or piss someone off and Ariel was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” He rubbed his face again. “But it doesn’t matter. Once you are chump, is like a tattoo. Everyone can see it. So someone will die for this.” Alex
wondered if it would be her. “You owe me for fentanyl. Six thousand dollars.”
After Eitan had left, she asked the nurse to move the hospital phone closer. She took out the card Elliot Sandow had left with her and called his office.
“I’ll take your offer,” she told him, when his secretary put her through. “But I’m going
to need some money.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” he’d replied.
Later, Alex wished she’d asked for more.
Alex flipped the coin of compulsion once more. She pulled herself to her feet, ignoring
the throb of pain that shot through her. She walked back to the desk where she’d spread
Darlington’s scribblings beside her bloody Shakespeare notebook.
Once you are chump, is like a tattoo. Everyone can see it.
She took out her phone and called the dean’s house. His housekeeper picked up, as Alex had known she would. “Hi, Yelena. It’s Alex Stern. I have something to drop off for
the dean.”
“He is not home,” Yelena said in her heavy Ukrainian accent. “But you can bring package by.”
“Do you know where he went? Is he feeling better?”
“Yes. Went to president’s house for big party. Is welcome back.” Alex had never been
to the university president’s house, but she knew the building. Darlington had pointed it out—a pretty stack of red brick and white trim on Hillhouse.
“That’s great,” said Alex. “I’ll be by in a bit.”
Alex texted Turner: We got it wrong. Meet me at the president’s house.
She folded the list of names and placed it in her pocket. She was done being Sandow’s
chump. “All right, Darlington,” she whispered, “let’s go play knight.”
30
Early Spring
Alex stopped back at her dorm room to shower and change. She combed her hair
carefully, checked her bandages, put on the dress her mother had bought for her. She didn’t want to look out of place. And if something bad went down, she wanted as much
credibility as possible. She poured herself a cup of tea and waited for North to appear in
the cup.
“Any luck?” she asked, when his pale face emerged in the reflection.
“None of them are here,” he said. “Something happened to those girls. The same thing
that happened to Daisy. Something worse than death.”
“Meet me outside the wards. And be ready. I’m going to need your strength.”
“You’ll have it.”
Alex didn’t doubt it. Stray magic had killed North and his fiancée, Alex felt sure of it.
But something else had gone on in the aftermath, something Alex couldn’t explain. All she
knew was that it had kept Daisy from passing behind the Veil, where she might have found
peace.
She took a car to the president’s house. There was a valet out front, and through the windows, she could see people crowding the rooms. Good. There would be witnesses.
Even so, she texted Dawes. I know you’ve gone MIA, but if anything happens to me, it was Sandow. I left a record in the library. Just ask the Albemarle Book.
No reply from Turner yet. Now that he thought his case was solved was he done with
her? She was glad of North’s presence beside her as she walked up the path.
Alex had expected someone checking names at the door, but she entered without