Page 71 of Hide And Seek

She froze. Her hand flew to her mouth, but it was too late. Every head in the circle turned toward her, including mine.

“What night?” I asked coolly. “Are you talking about the night Carly died?”

Grace’s gaze dropped to her lap, fingers twisting together. “I didn’t mean…”

Sutton shot her a look so sharp it could’ve sliced her open. Then she drew in a slow breath and lifted her chin. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll tell you all the truth.”

A ripple went through the group.

“You can’t!” Jensen said. “We agreed—”

Sutton cut him off with a raised hand. “It’s fine.” Her jaw tightened. “It’s time we told the truth.”

The room fell silent.

“Last year, on the night Carly Martin drowned… we didn’t go to bed early like the rest of you,” she went on, gesturing faintly to the other Legacies. “We had a bonfire out in the woods. Just us. We didn’t invite anyone else.”

“Of course you didn’t,” Jasmine muttered under her breath.

“Rhys didn’t come,” Sutton said. “He was sick that night, so he actually did go to bed early. The rest of us went out there to drink.” She paused. “But we still did our rounds. Every twenty minutes, two of us would go back to check the cabins. Make sure the kids were okay.”

“But they clearly weren’t,” Caitlin said, eyes narrowing.

Sutton lifted a palm. “Theywere,” she insisted. “When we put the fire out, around one-thirty, everyone was in their beds. Carly included. So we were all asleep by the time she sneaked out. None of us saw or heardanything.”

“Why lie, then?” Wren shot back. “Why tell everyone you had an early night?”

“Because we knew exactly how it would look!” Sutton snapped, throwing her hands up. “How the hell do you think people would react if they found out we’d been drinking in the woods all night? We’d be utterly crucified! Painted as negligent assholes whose irresponsibility led to a kid’s death, even though that’s not actually what happened! We reallywereasleep when Carly sneaked out.”

A few of the Legacies shifted uncomfortably.

“So anyway… we made a pact with each other,” Sutton said. “We agreed to lie and say we all went to bed early, just like the rest of you guys. No fire. No alcohol. Nothing.”

The other Legacies nodded, but none of them met anyone’s eyes. They wouldn’t even look at each other.

They were still holding something back, and I was willing to bet I knew exactly what it was. They’d probably all been awake when Carly slipped out of the cabin, too drunk and distracted to notice she was gone until it was too late, and now they were clinging to a version of the story that kept them just far enough removed from blame.

“Okay, hold on.” Wren pushed to her feet, lifting a hand like she was physically trying to steady the room. “Let’s just say, for the sake of argument, that Alissa’s theory is right, and the killer is targeting the counselors they think are responsible for Carly’s death.” She glanced around the circle, brows furrowed. “Grace had a good point before. Why would they go after Rhys if he wasn’t even at the bonfire that night?”

“I think he probably holdsallthe counselors responsible,” Caitlin said flatly. “Not just the ones who were drinking at the fire.”

“Yeah,” Tamsin said, arms folding tightly across her chest. “If he thinks we covered up the truth together, then it wouldn’t matter who was actually there. He thinks we’re all guilty by association.”

“Great!” Jasmine snapped, letting out a harsh laugh that didn’t sound remotely amused. “Now we’re all at risk of getting hacked up because of you Legacy fuckwads!”

“Well,” Sutton shot back coolly, gesturing to the cluster of Legacies again, “at least we can safely rule out one thing.”

“Oh my god,” Jasmine muttered. “Here we go.”

“It’s not one ofuskilling people,” Sutton finished, her tone sharpening. “And honestly, at this point, I’d say we’re getting a lot closer to figuring out whois.”

“I swear to god, if you say Alissa’s name again, I’ll—”

“Oh, I wasn’t going to say Alissa,” Sutton cut in. “I was going to sayyou.”

Jasmine blinked. “What?”

“We all know how much you hate us Legacies. You’ve never made much of a secret of it.”