Isle of Night (11 page)

With a sigh, I toggled to The National and played them extra low, careful to keep the earbuds hidden in my hair. Then I opened my book and read. And read.

Two attempted forays back to the room were enough to tell me that Lilac and I were playing some sort of passive-aggressive game of chicken. She wouldn't turn out the lights until I went to bed, and I wouldn't go to bed until she was passed out asleep.

Needless to say, I was becoming
very
well acquainted with the pantheon of Norse gods and goddesses.

The hall clock had just chimed three o'clock when I heard the footsteps. At 3:01, I heard the shrieks.

I ripped the buds from my ears and shoved my iPod in the belly of my regulation granny panties. Slinking to the hallway, I watched as seven Initiates went from door to door, pulling Acari from their beds. Girls stumbled from their rooms, dressed in full winter gear, fully packed kit bags slung on their backs. The uncooperative ones were dragged out by their hair.

I panicked. Was I supposed to be in bed? Had there been a lights-out curfew I didn't know about? Should I hide? Would I get in trouble already?

“You,” a voice called behind me.

I spun, startled. I had enough sense to look down submissively, but not before getting a full glimpse of the creature standing before me. Black hair in a severe bob; hard-edged features. She wore the midnight blue catsuit of an Initiate.

I thought of the headmaster's speech. A black bullwhip unfurled from her hand, and I remembered. She was here to teach me pain.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“Y
es . . .” I answered warily, fumbling for how to address her.
Yes, Master? Yes, Ma'am? Yes, Ms. Bizarro Dungeon Queen?

“I am Guidon Masha.” I detected the faint strains of a Russian accent, just the barest hint in her elongated vowels. “And you are late for the party.”

I forced my gaze to meet hers. I knew I needed to be agreeable, but something told me it'd be dangerous to let anyone scent fear. “Yes, Guidon.”

A frightening smile curved one corner of her mouth. I'd gotten the term of address correct. I guessed Guidon was a more advanced level of Initiate. I recognized it as a military word, though its exact meaning escaped me.

This was an ordered world I found myself in, one of hierarchies and titles. But I was smart; I could learn. I felt my shoulders relax a bit.

The smile evaporated from her face. Apparently she'd sensed the relaxation in my posture and didn't much like it. “
Move
, Acari. You will go to your room and return in full uniform, carrying everything you own.” She cracked her whip, snapping it against the couch. The couch, by the way, was at least seven feet away. “Now. Before I make you run.”

I didn't need any more urging than that.

Great.
I'd broken Annelise Drew Cardinal Rule Number One: blend. At all costs. And now my penalty was the attention of a girl with a
bullwhip
. Though, arguably, it beat catching the eye of someone with a lasso.

My brisk walk sped into a jog. I passed Lilac in the hallway, and the evil eye she gave me said she blamed
me
for her lack of sleep.

I zipped into our room and frantically gathered my stuff. It didn't take long, since, aside from a dry pair of socks and a little bag of toiletries, I hadn't unpacked in the first place.

Nerves slicked my skin with a fine sheen of sweat. I became aware of the metal and glass of my iPod, heavy and damp in my panties. I froze, crooking my thighs to stop it from slipping free.

I shot a glance at the door open behind me. Would anyone notice? Something told me I needed to take the risk. Jamming my hand down the front of my leggings, I retrieved both my iPod and the photo and shoved them deep into my kit bag.

I turned to bolt out the door, my heart pounding in my chest, but then paused, thinking of the throwing stars. She'd said
everything
. Dashing back in, I tugged off my pillowcase and wrapped it around the Japanese box, quickly nestling it in the center of my bag. I hoped it'd be safe.

Hoisting it all on my back, I ran out the door. The shoulder strap snagged on my parka and was dragging my sleeves up in an annoying way. I took a split second to adjust it.

“Acari Drew,” Masha snapped, punctuating her words with a flick of her whip. “Get in the ranks.”

I jerked my hands back to my sides. The other girls stood two by two, and I joined them, my heart thumping sharply in my chest. A scrappy, heart-faced girl and I merged together to bring up the end of the line. We didn't make eye contact.

“Acari,” one of the Initiates ordered. “March.”

It was the weirdest thing, but march we did. Without training, without direction, we fell into step as though marching were something hardwired into our reptilian brains.

“Halt,” the same Initiate shouted when we reached the end of the hall.

A couple of the girls pitched into each other and were rewarded with a snap of Masha's whip on the backs of their thighs.

The Initiates had stopped us in front of the bathroom and now stood, whispering among themselves. My gaze twitched to them and then quickly back again. The last thing I wanted was accidental eye contact. In their catsuits, they seemed like a cadre of diabolical supermodels.

I tried to measure my breathing and slow my pounding heart.

Why were we standing there in front of the bathroom? What, were they going to let us use the
potty
before our night of hazing?

The group of Initiates split up to surround us. “Get in,” a statuesque redhead ordered.

A girl at the front of the line looked dumbfounded, and Masha cracked her whip onto the white tiled floor. “Yes, Acari. In there. Now.”

Oh, God.
They
were
taking us into the bathroom. Dread unfurled in my belly as my imagination ran with all the possible hazing that could happen in a
bathroom
. My brain was swamped with images of things cleaned with toothbrushes and heads submerged in toilets.

Of all my wildest imaginings, though, nothing came close to the reality.

“It's a
Hot Party
, girls.” The redhead shooed us into the showers, an open space with six nozzles sprouting from antiseptic white tiles. “First one to fall loses.”

Fisting my hands at my sides, I shuffled in behind the others. My palms were sweaty. Like everyone else, I'd donned my outdoor gear, including a pair of what I guessed were ski gloves.

Just don't slip.
I found a spot at the edge and widened my feet to brace myself. I imagined myself anchored to the tiles. It'd be easy enough not to fall, right?

Wrong.

The Initiates turned on the showers. Full blast, and all the way to hot.

Masha leaned to whisper in my ear. “Happy Hot Party, Acari.”

Despite the rising temperature, we all pulled our hoods up over our fleece hats. It was that or get scalded. My brain felt like it was boiling.

Some got it worse than others. I was grateful not to have a spot directly beneath the jets. Regardless of position, everyone shifted from foot to foot, withstanding in stoic silence. The parkas protected our skin, and our boots were sturdy, but there was a small stretch of lower thigh and knee that felt roasted pink.

I could tell by the shifty looks on the other girls' faces that everyone was waiting to see who would fall first. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who feared what the penalty might be.

I'd thought the scalding water was the punishment, but I soon discovered I was mistaken. It was the steam.

After a few minutes, the steam became uncomfortable. After five, it was suffocating. By ten, it was unbearable. It choked me. A white haze of vapor hung all around, pressing down on my chest. Burning my lungs. Making me woozy. I longed for a gulp of cold, fresh air.

I sensed rustling. Girls shifted. They were parting to let Lilac pass. She had me in her sights.

I could see it in her eyes. She wanted a single room as badly as I did.

The girl with the heart-shaped face stood just in front of me. A swatch of her auburn hair was soaked a burnt sienna color and plastered to her cheek. She looked disoriented.

Heart Face didn't step aside quickly enough, and Lilac shouldered past her. The girl started to tumble forward, and I instinctively caught her by the elbow to steady her. Our eyes met for a flicker of a second. She looked stunned and almost uneasy at my touch. I flinched my hand back.

Saving her had been instinctual. But, really, if I'd been thinking strategically, I could've let her fall. A tiny, shameful part of me wondered if maybe I should have.

“Sleepy?” Lilac's perky voice chimed in my ear, jerking me back to myself.

It took me a moment to register her point. My skin felt parboiled, and my brain muzzy and slow. I hadn't snagged the few hours' sleep that the other girls had managed. Nor had I slept on the flight out here. Which meant I'd gone for God knew how many hours without rest.

But Lilac was in the same boat.

“No, not
Sleepy
.” I mustered a broad grin, pretending the air I breathed didn't feel like wet fire. I pulled my shoulders back, imagining brisk mountain breezes and a big chug of ice water. I'd have one the moment I got out. It would spread cool tendrils through my belly. The glass would be cold in my hand. I'd drink so much and so fast, it'd dribble down my chin. “I'm
Happy
, which must make you
Dopey
.”

“You have
no
idea what you've started.” Lilac spun away from me, hard. Her pack smacked me across the jaw.

I stumbled—a sideways
hop-hop
on my right foot. The tile was slick under the rubber tread of my boots. I slipped.

My arms clawed the air like slow-motion pinwheels. I heard the dead-weight
oof
of my body slamming to the floor, the sick slap of my head against the tile. The weight of the kit bag walloped the air from my lungs.

A whistle blew.

I'd lost.

I lay there trying to catch my breath. I heard eager stomps rushing out. Suddenly the air seemed more open. I was vaguely aware that the stinging spray of the shower had stopped.

Rough hands gripped under my arms, pulling me to standing. What was my punishment? I braced myself. Whatever it was couldn't be worse than the steam.

But then I heard Masha speak. “Need some fresh air, Acari?”

I forced myself to look at her. I knew I should nod, but wasn't sure if I managed more than a twitch of my head.

“Oh, poor little Acari,” someone crooned. Initiates surrounded me. “Let's get these hot clothes off you.” Hands pulled off my kit bag, unzipped my parka, removed my hat, my gloves.

The hands grew rougher, tugging the wool sweater over my head. It caught on my chin, tore over my ears. “It's time for your cooldown.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

“O
utside?” I asked, suppressing a shiver. The Initiates had led me to the ground-floor foyer, where I stood, stripped led me to the ground-floor foyer, where I stood, stripped to my underwear. I'd hurt my ribs in the fall, and my trembling intensified the pain.

Along the hallway, a few doors were cracked open, and I spied wary eyes witnessing my torture from the safety of the dorm rooms. Even though we'd all been issued the same ugly, regulation beige bra and granny panties, the shame of it burned my cheeks.

It was the only thing that burned, though. My teeth had begun to chatter and I was already nostalgic for all that heat. The front door was open, and I contemplated the black and gray swirl of starlit snow outside. Why had I found the Hot Party uncomfortable? The concept was unthinkable now.

“What's the punishment?” I huddled into myself, chafing my arms in vain. “Parading around half naked, or is it the pneumonia I'm contracting?”