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 Mercyโs snuffling tears.
โThe video is gone,โ Alex told her, reaching down to clasp her hand. โI donโt believe you. It canโt just be gone.โ
โIf it was going to break it would have broken.โ
โMaybe he wants to hold it over my head so that I come back and โฆ do things.โ
โItโs gone,โ said Alex. There was no real way of knowing if Mikeโs ritual had worked. The Full Cup was meant to build momentum, not drain it, but she had to hope.
โWhy 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 sheโd said or done. โHe could have any girl he wanted. Why would he do that to me?โ
Because he doesnโt want girls that want him. Because he grew weary of desire and developed a taste for causing shame.ย Alex didnโt 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.
โCome to dinner,โ she begged Mercy, squatting by their beds to turn on a lamp. Mercyโs 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.
โIโm not hungry.โ โMercy, you have to eat.โ
Mercy buried her face in her pillow. โI canโt.โ
โMercy.โ Alex shook her shoulder. โMercy, youโre not dropping out of school over this.โ
โI never said I was.โ
โYou donโt have to say it. I know youโre thinking it.โ โYou donโt understand.โ
โI do,โ said Alex. โI had something like this happen to me back in California. When I was younger.โ
โAnd it all blew over?โ
โNo, it sucked. And I kind of let it wreck my life.โ โYou seem all right.โ
โIโm not. But I feel all right when Iโm here with you and Lauren, so no one gets to take that away.โ
Mercy wiped her hand across her nose. โSo this is all about you?โ Alex smiled. โExactly.โ
โIf anyone says anythingโโ
โIf anyone even looks at you wrong, Iโll 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 recognizedโsneering, 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.
โLetโs get out of here,โ said Lauren.
But Evan Wiley swooped down into the seat beside her. โOh my God, I am dying.โ
โItโs okay,โ Lauren said to Mercy, and then muttered angrily, โWhat is your problem?โ
โI knew Blake was gross, but I didnโt know he was that gross.โ
Laurenโs phone buzzed, then Alexโs. But no one was looking at Mercy; people were just shrieking and gagging at their tables, faces glued to their own screens.
โJust look,โ said Mercy, her face in her hands. โTell me.โ
Lauren took a deep breath and picked up her phone. She frowned. โGross,โ she gasped.
โIย 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.
โAre you serious?โ Blake said, giggling in exactly the same wild, high- pitched way he had when heโd said,ย Look at all that bush!
โOkay, okay,โ he went on in the video. โYouโre so crazy!โ But whoever he was talking to couldnโt be seen.
โNo,โ said Lauren.
โOh my God,โ said Mercy. โIย 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.
Alexโs 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 wasnโt going to complain to Sandow. Heโd have to explain that his delegation had somehow let the secret to Merity slip freeย andย that heโd handed Alex a dose of Starpower. Alex had used Blakeโs own phone to send the new video to all of his contacts, and no one at Omega knew her name.
โAlex,โ whispered Lauren. โWhat 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.
โHow did you do it?โ asked Lauren.
โDo what?โ
โYou said you would fix it,โ Mercy said. She tapped her phone. โSo?โ โSo,โ said Alex.
The silence eddied around them for a long moment.
Then Mercy dragged her finger over the table and said, โYou know how people say two wrongs donโt make a right?โ
โYeah.โ
Mercy pulled Alexโs plate toward her and took a huge bite of her remaining cheeseburger. โTheyโre 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 curatorsโthough 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 Yaleโs very bonesโhas jostled elbows at it.
โfromย The Life of Lethe: Procedures and Protocols of the Ninth House
Sunburn keeping me awake. Andy said weโd 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 Iโve seen Haiti?
โLethe Days Diary of Naomi Farwellย (Timothy Dwight College โ89)