Page 10 of Mayhem

“It’s accurate,” Priya teased, breezing through ahead of me. “Also, you both get weird in public if I’m not there to make us look normal.”

Maren’s gaze cut toward her. “You do not make us look normal.”

I stepped into the warmer corridor and let the door fall shut behind us. The hall was lined with donor portraits and little brass plaques, all of them polished to a shine that made me want to touch them with dirty fingers. At the fork ahead, Maren shifted left without slowing. “This way is faster. The right hall passes the faculty offices and two rooms people use when they don’t want to be seen.”

Priya glanced back at me. “Don’t ask what that means unless you want Maren to explain scheduling patterns for eight minutes.”

“I only did that once,” Maren said.

I bit back a smile as we passed a set of double doors at the end of the corridor. There was no sign, just dark wood, black handles, and a card reader set low into the wall. The three ignored its existence entirely which made me focus on it instead.

Priya caught me before I could ask. “That’s not for us.”

I let my gaze stay on the card reader for another second. “I didn’t say anything.”

“You were about to,” she said.

Devon waited until we had turned the corner before speaking. “Some spaces are attached to the Kings. People don’t use those spaces unless they’re invited, assigned, or too stupid to finish the semester in one piece.”

That was more information than they’d given me yesterday and still almost nothing. The Kings again. No names. No faces. A title without a body. A door everyone knew not to touch. I watched Priya’s reflection in the glass of a display case as she checked the hall behind us, casual enough that anyone else might have missed it.

“I haven’t even seen them,” I said, hoping someone would explain.

Maren’s fingers tightened around her tablet. “That’s better.”

Priya nodded, but she didn’t look pleased. “People think getting noticed by them is flattering until they have it. Then they spend the rest of the semester pretending they meant to do whatever happens next.”

“That’s...” I trailed off as we entered Sterling’s lecture hall, the whispers around me resituating.

A girl in the second row leaned toward her friend as we passed. “She cleans up better than expected.”

I smiled at the board instead of at her. Priya didn’t slow, but her voice dropped near my shoulder. “Don’t start a fight before Sterling takes attendance.” She threw me a glare and then slid into her own seat, the other two crowding around me like their mission was to protect me.

It was almost laughable. If they only knew why I had come to this godforsaken academy, they wouldn’t be sitting anywhere near me.

Priya opened her mouth to ask a question before I just pointed toward the front of the class. Her gaze narrowed but she didn’t push whatever conversation she was about to start. Professor Sterling started talking about criminal negligence and intent, and I lasted almost four minutes before my attention dropped to the notebook in front of me, a small smile spreading across my lips. Across the top of the page, I had written Nichlas’ name and boxed it in until the paper started to bruise. Beneath it were the times I had so far.

First day, library steps before lunch. Yesterday, east walkway, 11:07. Today was still blank. I drew a line from the business annex to the library, another to the cafeteria, then a third toward the frosted doors I still didn’t have a reason for. Every route looked too clean until I started adding people.

Two beside him.

One behind.

Different faces. Same shape.

Sterling said something about protection creating dependence, and my pen stopped long enough for the word to land. Dependence. I wrote it beside the line that led to the annex, then scratched a question mark under it hard enough that the tip of the pen caught in the paper. If Nichlas came from the library side again, I’d have him from this window. If he didn’t, then Nicky boy had changed doors, and I hated when prey learned.

Devon shifted in the seat ahead of me, then angled his body just enough to glance back without making it obvious. His eyes dropped to my notebook. “What are you doing?” he asked under his breath.

I covered the bottom half of the page with my hand and kept my eyes on Sterling. “Taking notes.”

Devon looked at the map lines visible above my fingers, then back at my face. “For this class?”

I shrugged and added another mark beside the east walkway. “Eventually.”

At 11:04, Nichlas crossed the east walkway. I saw him through the rain-streaked glass between Sterling’s shoulder and the edge of the projector screen. Two students walked with him, close enough to count as company if anyone asked, too loose to feel like friends. A third trailed several steps behind with his phone in one hand and his eyes moving over the path before Nichlas reached the annex doors.

I wrote 11:04 under the other times.