Page 59 of Depraved Boys

Fuck, I hate him with the power of a supernova.

Even if it’s the last thing I do, I will ruin Prakash Kashaayah.

I reared back. “What the hell?”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

That night, I couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t close my eyes. Couldn’t think of anything else but what I had read. Of all the people I had suspected had played the game on Corrine, I hadn’t even thought about Prakash. He was so… straight-laced. And disdainful of scholars.

I had to skip back hundreds of paragraphs to make sure I had gotten it right because she barely mentioned Prakash in her diary.

I soon realized that she called him 512 191512, which wasn’t a nonsensical EAB AIAEAB, but EL SOL, which was Spanish for the sun. When I googled the meaning of Prakash, the results told me it meant light in Sanskrit, but a Sanskrit-English dictionary told me that one of the translations for the sun was prakāśaka. El sol had to be Prakash.

As soon as I worked out that she had included Spanish words in her code, a range of fascinating entries opened up.

Corrine referred to Sebastian as ‘el moreno,’ which meant the brunet, and Leopold as ‘el rubio,’ which meant the blond. It was no wonder I had missed so much. She wasn’t consistent with the use of their names. One entry was particularly damning:

The sun said he had been trying to resist loving me for months, but he could no longer help himself. I nearly died on the spot. Me, Corrine the hairy gibbon and the most beautiful boy in the academy? It’s like a dream, and I never want to wake.

I asked the sun if I could sit with the blond and the brunet on their royal table, but he said it wasn’t yet time to go public about us.

Early the next morning, I strode to Cormac’s room and knocked on the door. There was a dull thud, a moan, then the door opened. His caramel-colored hair was disheveled, as though he’d just been sleeping, and dark circles ringed his eyes.

I blinked a few times to clear my vision. Cormac never looked anything but well-rested. I wondered if copycat incidents of younger students making others forcibly ingest dangerous substances took up his time.

He rubbed his eyes. “Willow?”

“Why didn’t you tell me Prakash was the boy who seduced your sister?”

He gave me a blank look. “Did he tell you?” After a pause, he frowned. “You didn’t burn the diary.”

“I kept it in case you ever changed your mind.” I placed my hand on the door frame in case he tried to shut me out. “Sorry, but after someone ruined my mom’s watercolor painting, I couldn’t face destroying Corrine’s memory.”

“Some things are better left buried.” He stepped aside and let me enter.

His bedroom was about the same size as mine, except it had one bed instead of two. Framed certificates covered the walls, and trophies lined the mantlepiece.

All my accolades hung around the house. I probably had just as many as Cormac, but it was odd to see so many in such a confined space. The only thing slightly out of place about the room was his bed, as the comforter was on the ground. I expect the thud I had heard earlier was him falling out of bed.

He gestured at a high-backed chair for me to sit. “Sorry about the mess.”

“Erm… Right.” I sat. “Didn’t Corrine ever tell you about Prakash?”

He ran a hand through his messy hair. “To be honest, I thought it was Leopold. Prakash just seems so…”

“Responsible?”

“That’s the word.” He yawned, straightened out his bed, and sat on the edge of the mattress. “Prakash? Did she actually say so?”

“There’s no mistaking the code. It’s him.”

His entire posture slumped, and the pain in his eyes made my stomach drop. He rubbed a hand over his face and asked, “Just Prakash?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Was it just Prakash who slept with my sister, or all three of them?”

I reared back. Cormac was making it sound like she’d been gang-raped or something. “I’ve only gotten as far as when the queens informed her that she’d been a victim of the pull-a-pig game. Before that, she didn’t think the other two knew about them.”