Page 58 of The Bargain

“No, you don’t.”

The lights flare back on all at once, blood red and blaring, the music screeching back to life. I whip around to shove Julian off me: he lets me go only long enough for me to step back, but immediately follows me, shoving his face into my neck.

“Stop playing games,” he says, wet lips catching on long strands of my hair. “I know you miss me.”

My heart is hammering now, not with annoyance or disgust or anger, but with fear. I have the horrible feeling like I was just given a chance at something important, but missed. It’s been more than a month since I last saw Ophelia—that night she came into my room after I made the deal with Elias. After all this time trying to speak to her, I finally got to, and all I did was tell her off and push her further away.

No wonder she hates me.

I have to make it right. Keep her safe, at least. This party is the worst place for her to be, especially after Birnam. I can’t let anything happen to her. Not again. I turn around, flushed with panic, sluggish with dread, and try to rush back to the corridor.

Maybe she’s still there, maybe⁠—

“Dessie, please.” Julian grabs my arm. His eyes are wide and miserable, his speech is a little slurred. He’s been doing way more than drinking: his pupils are so dilated the blue of his irises is barely visible. “I don’t get it. Are you angry at me? Is that why—” He shakes his head and swallows, throat bobbing. “This whole thing with Lennox, I know what you’re doing.”

How can he not realise that this is the last thing I want to be dealing with right now?

“Let me go.” Despite the rising tide of panic in my chest, my voice is deathly calm.

“He’s a fucking nobody, a worthless grifter.” Julian’s voice is a pained whine. “You know he’s only with you for one reason, right?”

“What reason?” I snap.

He looks at me pleadingly. “Can’t you see he just wants to impress the Brotherhood?”

“Right.” I smile without mirth. “Just like you when we were together, then.”

“I fucking love you,” he says, pulling me to him. “And I know you love me too, you just need to⁠—”

“She told you to let her go.” A calm voice cuts him off. “Don’t make her ask you again.”

Elias appears over Julian’s shoulder like a ghost—literally, his plastic mask still firmly on his face. Julian whips around, letting go of my arm with an angry noise.

“I don’t know who the fuck you think you’re talking to,” he says. “Just because Blackwood and Kavinski have taken you under their wing doesn’t mean you have any power over me.”

“If I had any power over you,” Elias replies mildly, “you’d be spinning through the cosmos somewhere too far away for anyone to ever remember your existence.”

Julian lets out a sharp, brittle laugh. “You know she’s only stringing you along to make me jealous, right?”

“Must be working.” Elias smirks. “You’re seething, mate.”

Julian swings at him. Elias evades him with a step back and a laugh. Glancing up at me, he mouths: Go on. I hesitate, but he smiles and adds voicelessly, I’ve got this.

And because I have the complete certainty that he does, I turn and run back out into the corridor. Watching Julian get humiliated by Elias would feel good, but right now, only one thing matters to me.

Ophelia.

But my sister, of course, is long gone. The corridor where I bumped into her is empty except for the occasional drunk giggling girl running through it, chased by boys in wolf masks. That doesn’t stop me from searching desperately for her: running into rooms at random, calling her name.

Each room feels like a glimpse into a different person’s nightmare. In one, some people are playing spin the bottle with an empty Veuve Clicquot bottle, and I see Yuna, one of my childhood friends, kissing one of the rugby boys while Jamie Vale, the captain of the rugby team, watches fixedly, cheeks flushed with fury.

In another room, I see Mira Rajahn springing away from Gabriel North, the headmaster’s son. At first, I think I’ve interrupted them mid-embrace, but when Mira glances at me, her eyes are red and full of tears.

I see Blaise comforting Natalya Valenkova while she stands as still and silent as a statue. I see people fighting and playing, people arguing and making out.

But I don’t see Ophelia. She’s nowhere to be found.

I had my chance…