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Chapter no 16 – Winter

Ninth House

Lauren had given Mercy an Ambien and put her to bed. Alex stayed with her, dozing in the darkened room, waking in the late evening to Mercyโ€™s snuffling tears.

โ€œThe video is gone,โ€ Alex told her, reaching down to clasp her hand. โ€œI donโ€™t believe you. It canโ€™t just be gone.โ€

โ€œIf it was going to break it would have broken.โ€

โ€œMaybe he wants to hold it over my head so that I come back and โ€ฆ do things.โ€

โ€œItโ€™s gone,โ€ said Alex. There was no real way of knowing if Mikeโ€™s ritual had worked. The Full Cup was meant to build momentum, not drain it, but she had to hope.

โ€œWhy would he pick me?โ€ Mercy asked again and again, searching for logic, for some equation that would make this all add up to something sheโ€™d said or done. โ€œHe could have any girl he wanted. Why would he do that to me?โ€

Because he doesnโ€™t want girls that want him. Because he grew weary of desire and developed a taste for causing shame.ย Alex didnโ€™t know what lived in boys like Blake. Beautiful boys who should be happy, who wanted for nothing but still found things to take.

When night fell, she climbed down from her bunk and pulled on a sweater and jeans.

โ€œCome to dinner,โ€ she begged Mercy, squatting by their beds to turn on a lamp. Mercyโ€™s face was puffy from crying. Her hair gleamed in a black slash against the pillow. She had the same thick, dark, impossible-to-curl hair as Alex.

โ€œIโ€™m not hungry.โ€ โ€œMercy, you have to eat.โ€

Mercy buried her face in her pillow. โ€œI canโ€™t.โ€

โ€œMercy.โ€ Alex shook her shoulder. โ€œMercy, youโ€™re not dropping out of school over this.โ€

โ€œI never said I was.โ€

โ€œYou donโ€™t have to say it. I know youโ€™re thinking it.โ€ โ€œYou donโ€™t understand.โ€

โ€œI do,โ€ said Alex. โ€œI had something like this happen to me back in California. When I was younger.โ€

โ€œAnd it all blew over?โ€

โ€œNo, it sucked. And I kind of let it wreck my life.โ€ โ€œYou seem all right.โ€

โ€œIโ€™m not. But I feel all right when Iโ€™m here with you and Lauren, so no one gets to take that away.โ€

Mercy wiped her hand across her nose. โ€œSo this is all about you?โ€ Alex smiled. โ€œExactly.โ€

โ€œIf anyone says anythingโ€”โ€

โ€œIf anyone even looks at you wrong, Iโ€™ll take his eye out with a fork.โ€

Mercy put on jeans and a high-necked sweater to cover her hickeys, the outfit so restrained she almost looked like a stranger. She splashed water on her face and dabbed concealer under her eyes. She still looked pale and her eyes were red, but no one looked great on a Sunday night in the dead of a New Haven winter.

Alex and Lauren bracketed her, looping their arms through hers as they entered the dining hall. It was noisy as always, filled with the clink of dishes and the warm rise and fall of conversation, but there were no hiccups in the tide of sound as they entered. Maybe, just maybe, Mike and Manuscript had succeeded.

They were seated with their trays, Mercy pushing listlessly at her fried cod as Alex guiltily bit into her second cheeseburger, when the laughter started. It was a particular kind of laughter Alex recognizedโ€”sneering, too bright, cut short by a hand placed to a mouth in false embarrassment. Lauren went utterly still. Mercy shrank deep into the neck of her sweater, her whole body shaking. Alex tensed, waiting.

โ€œLetโ€™s get out of here,โ€ said Lauren.

But Evan Wiley swooped down into the seat beside her. โ€œOh my God, I am dying.โ€

โ€œItโ€™s okay,โ€ Lauren said to Mercy, and then muttered angrily, โ€œWhat is your problem?โ€

โ€œI knew Blake was gross, but I didnโ€™t know he was that gross.โ€

Laurenโ€™s phone buzzed, then Alexโ€™s. But no one was looking at Mercy; people were just shrieking and gagging at their tables, faces glued to their own screens.

โ€œJust look,โ€ said Mercy, her face in her hands. โ€œTell me.โ€

Lauren took a deep breath and picked up her phone. She frowned. โ€œGross,โ€ she gasped.

โ€œIย know,โ€ said Evan.

There on the screen was Blake Keely, bent over a filthy toilet. Alex felt the snake inside her unwind, warm and gratified, as if it had found the perfect sunbaked rock to warm its belly.

โ€œAre you serious?โ€ Blake said, giggling in exactly the same wild, high- pitched way he had when heโ€™d said,ย Look at all that bush!

โ€œOkay, okay,โ€ he went on in the video. โ€œYouโ€™re so crazy!โ€ But whoever he was talking to couldnโ€™t be seen.

โ€œNo,โ€ said Lauren.

โ€œOh my God,โ€ said Mercy. โ€œIย know,โ€ repeated Evan.

And as they watched, Blake Keely dipped his cupped hand into the clogged toilet, scooped up a handful of shit, and took a big bite.

He chewed and swallowed, still giggling, and then, brown smearing his even white teeth and caking his lips, Blake looked at whoever was holding the camera and gave his famous, lazy, shit-eating smile.

Alexโ€™s phone buzzed again. Awolowo.

WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU.

Alex kept her reply simple:ย xoxoxo

You had no right. I trusted you.

We all make mistakes.

Mike wasnโ€™t going to complain to Sandow. Heโ€™d have to explain that his delegation had somehow let the secret to Merity slip freeย andย that heโ€™d handed Alex a dose of Starpower. Alex had used Blakeโ€™s own phone to send the new video to all of his contacts, and no one at Omega knew her name.

โ€œAlex,โ€ whispered Lauren. โ€œWhat is this?โ€

Around them, the dining hall had exploded into pockets of heated conversation, people cackling and pushing their food away in disgust, others demanding to know what was happening. Evan had already moved on to the next table. But Lauren and Mercy were staring at Alex, quiet, their phones placed facedown on the table.

โ€œHow did you do it?โ€ asked Lauren.

โ€œDo what?โ€

โ€œYou said you would fix it,โ€ Mercy said. She tapped her phone. โ€œSo?โ€ โ€œSo,โ€ said Alex.

The silence eddied around them for a long moment.

Then Mercy dragged her finger over the table and said, โ€œYou know how people say two wrongs donโ€™t make a right?โ€

โ€œYeah.โ€

Mercy pulled Alexโ€™s plate toward her and took a huge bite of her remaining cheeseburger. โ€œTheyโ€™re full of shit.โ€

Whether the magic of Scroll and Key was learned or stolen from Middle Eastern sorcerers during the Crusades is not really a matter of debateโ€” fashions change, thieves become curatorsโ€”though the Locksmiths still like to protest that their mastery of portal magic was gotten by strictly honest means. The exterior of the Scroll and Key tomb pays homage to the origins of their power, but the interior of the tomb is nonsensically devoted to Arthurian legend, complete with a round table at its heart. There are some who claim the stone comes from Avalon itself, others who swear it comes from the Temple of Solomon, and still others who whisper it was quarried down the road in Stony Creek. Regardless of its origins, everyone from Dean Acheson to Cole Porter to James Gamble Rogersโ€” the architect responsible for Yaleโ€™s very bonesโ€”has jostled elbows at it.

โ€”fromย The Life of Lethe: Procedures and Protocols of the Ninth House

Sunburn keeping me awake. Andy said weโ€™d be in Miami in time for kickoff no problem, all of it on the books and approved by the S&K board and the alumni. But whatever magic they got cooking went wobbly fast. At least now Iโ€™ve seen Haiti?

โ€”Lethe Days Diary of Naomi Farwellย (Timothy Dwight College โ€™89)

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