Page 60 of Hell’s Weapon

“Fine, but we have a duplicate. It's useless us having two people with the same suspect.”

For a second I think she’s going to kick me out as I’m holding one of the duplicates, even though it was the file she was handed originally, but before she can clarify, Wyatt stands, scoops up his file and stalks off.

“Us three it is then?” Seffy asks.

“Yeah, we can work this out between us,” Tacita says.

“Phew, I don’t really want to be on my own now the no killing rule has been lifted.” I freeze at that, having forgotten the change in the rules during game periods. The murderer on the loose now has free reign.

“Alright.” Wyatt returns, bringing number Forty-Seven in tow. “I have a new file and Rio has a different one as well, so he’s joining.”

“Wait–” Tacita interrupts.

“Nope. There’s strength in numbers, Mo Stór. And we need all the files to solve this thing quickly. Shall we head to my room to start plotting?”

Admitting defeat, Tacita rolls her eyes before agreeing.

As we stand to leave, Officer Zephyr claps his hands to get our attention again. “I’m sure you’ve all remembered the rules change during the games. Well, we have an amendment to add in light of recent events. Whilst you may indeed eliminate your competition during this next week, the dormitories are excluded. Feel free to go at it anywhere else, but killing in the housing buildings remains strictly forbidden and punishment will be given by Hades himself.”

“Ha, like you’ve punished the one responsible for the last four bodies,” number Fifty-Nine calls and few others join in with jeers and comments about the guards’ lack of control.

Officer Zephyr’s eyes flash golden. “I assure you, whoever committed those killings will be spending a long time in Tartarus,” he practically growls.

I wonder what he is. I haven’t seen him sprout wings, or shift into a different form, that I know of, but his eyes in that second scream predator. He’s as intriguing as he is terrifying.

“And one final thing,” Officer Zephyr adds once the crowds die down once more. “Lessons have not been cancelled, so off you all go before you’re late for your first lectures.”

There’s a few groans but the guards soon have us filing out of the canteen and towards the classrooms.

I guess our detective work on solving this puzzle will have to wait.

By the afternoon, I’ve poured over my file as well as Wyatt’s and Tacita’s. They had given them to me upon my request, neither hesitating in handing them over.

After lessons finished, Wyatt invited me back to his room. I’m currently sitting on the spare bed with the pages spread around me as I draw up the connections I’ve noticed with a deep read.

It’s the first time I’d been in any of the other rooms, and Wyatt’s is an exact copy of the one Tacita and I share. Still, it's Wyatt’s space and I can’t help but feel something at being here, surrounded by his stuff. Granted, it's also all the same as my own, all the stuff we’ve been issued. But it's his. And I’m trying really hard to not think about how he’s currently naked in the ensuite.

Tacita had run off as soon as we’d been released for the day, saying she needed to catch one of the professors and that she'd meet us back here. Wyatt and I had wandered back to the dorms together. Seffy and Rio were due to join us soon so we could get to work on the task, but neither had turned up yet.

Wyatt had read over the papers with me for a few minutes before deciding to take a shower. He’d left me alone in his room and hadn’t quite closed the bathroom door. The few centimetres gap between the wood and the frame taunted me, and turned my concentration to mush.

Did it mean something?

Was it just that he trusted me implicitly or that he didn’t care who saw him naked? I’d already seen his body after all, so maybe he really didn’t mind. Or maybe he didn’t realise that he had not in fact shut the door all the way.

I’d contemplated the reason for that door being ajar so hard that I jumped when it swung open and Wyatt stepped out, freshly washed, in a pair of our standard issue joggers, and rubbing his cropped blonde hair with a towel.

His bare chest flexes and ripples as he rubs his head, causing my mouth to simultaneously go dry and salivate.

“That’s better,” Wyatt says as he throws the wet towel onto his bed and flops down next to me.

I nod as a response, anything else fleeing my brain with the proximity of Wyatt’s naked skin. My eyes are drawn to his ink, the sleeve is a mix of things. Fauna and a coastal scene, stretching up into some darker elements with skulls and a gun wrapped in vines.

“Discover anything new?” he asks, reaching for the pages in front of my crossed legs. This time I shake my head, bringing my focus back to the task at hand. “Seffy and Rio should be here soon, maybe their files will help piece something together.”

Another nod from me.

“Are we good?” Wyatt surprises me with the question, shifting so he can look at me properly.