Page 44 of Wicked Elites

“He wasn’t harassing me, Miss,” I said. “But thanks for coming over to help.”

With a sharp nod, Miss Claymore returned to her seat.

“He was playing the pull-a-pig game, you know.” Ashley bit into her toast. “I don’t know why someone so rich would go so low to win Bianca’s bet.”

My shoulders slumped. Not at the barb, but at the reminder that I couldn’t be sure about Sebastian until I had worked out what had happened to Corrine. Pressing my lips together to stop myself from replying, I poured myself a cup of orange juice from the jug on the table.

“Don’t look at me like that,” said Ashley. “When I’m a Queen of Brittas Academy, I’ll be able to get him and his friends to back off.”

I still wasn’t convinced that Geraldine and Bianca’s offer was genuine, but we’d already had that conversation, and it hadn’t gone well.

* * *

In the early hours of Saturday morning, a bang on the door jolted me out of my slumber. I bolted upright to find dark figures crowding around my bed.

Panic exploded across my heart. “Wha—”

“Quiet!” The speaker stuffed a ball between my lips and fastened straps around my head.

Rough hands pinned me down to the bed and held me in place. Cold terror rushed through my veins. My attackers turned me around onto my front. Someone placed their weight on my back, knocking all the oxygen out of my lungs.

Palpitations squeezed my heart. Who were these people, and were they also attacking Ashley? A heavy hand pressed my face into the pillow, and I struggled for air. I kicked. I thrashed. I tried bucking the person off my back, but it was futile. At this rate, someone would find me smothered to death.

My attackers wrapped ropes around my ankles and my knees, while the person holding down my head pushed down harder until my lungs burned, my muscles weakened, and my consciousness faded to black.

* * *

Cold water poured over my head and shocked me out of unconsciousness. I jerked awake and screamed, but the gag in my mouth muffled the sound. Smooth fabric obscured my vision. From the way it wrapped snug around my head, I guessed it was a pillowcase.

The distant hooting of an owl and a cold breeze rustling through my nightgown indicated that we were outside. Cool, wet grass on my bound legs and the scent of algae filling my nostrils told me we were near a body of water.

“Pull her up,” said a female voice.

Two different sets of hands jostled me to a sitting position, and someone pulled the pillowcase off my head. I blinked to clear my vision. It was still night, and we were somewhere in the mountains. A large pond stretched about five-hundred feet in diameter, and a glowing tent stood on the other side of the bank.

Ashley sat on my right, looking strangely composed. The figures in black were girls from around the academy clad in leggings and sweaters. My eyes bulged. What the hell was going on?

Geraldine and Bianca strolled out from behind us, both wearing black and looking like blonde and raven-haired versions of Audrey Hepburn from the Funny Face movie.

Bianca beamed. “Welcome to the Queens of Brittas Academy initiation ceremony.”

“Hmmmmm!” The gag muffled my words. I shook my head and jerked my arms, but tight ropes held them behind my back.

“What’s that, Pigsty?” Bianca cupped her hand behind her ear.

“Sorry, I don’t understand pork,” said Geraldine.

The girls’ laughter filled the air, and a frustrated breath huffed around my nostrils. Why was I here when I had made no indication of even liking these queens, let alone wanting to join their stupid gang?

“Shut up, Willow,” muttered Ashley. “You’re making us both look bad.”

Bianca paced up and down the bank of the pond, holding a riding crop. “Every woman in Brittas Academy has the makings of a queen, but she must earn her greatness.”

The other girls cheered.

My brows creased. What the hell did they want us to do? I looked around and couldn’t find any signs of roads or mountain peaks. This indicated that we were at a high elevation, but I didn’t know the Lake District well enough to recognize our location in the dark.

A cold wind blew through my cotton nightgown and made goosebumps prickle across my skin. I shivered and wished they would hurry up and take us back to the academy.