Chapter Seven - Shadowed

Ashley grabbed a hoodie from the back of her chair. Westbrook University crest faded to almost nothing,and pulled it over her head. The motion revealed a flash of skin at her waist, and there, just above the band of her jeans, a scar. Small. Circular. The kind a cigarette might leave.

I was tempted to ask what it was, but I knew she was already suspicious of me.

"The tour," she said, tying her hair into a tighter bun, "starts with the dining hall. Not because it's good,it's not…but because you need to know which tables are safe and which tables will make your life hell."

"Safe from what?"

Ashley's laugh was sharp this time. "From the wolves."

She didn't explain. She just walked out the door, and I followed.

---

The dining hall was a cavernous space with fluorescent lights that hummed in a frequency designed to cause headaches. Long tables stretched from one end to the other, each one claimed by a different tribe: athletes near the windows, theater kids in the corner, a cluster of international students speaking in rapid Mandarin near the salad bar, and then, near the back, a table that sat empty except for one person.

A girl with dark hair. Alone. Reading a hardcover book while eating a banana in small, precise bites.

"That's Madden Lighter," Ashley murmured, steering me toward the food line. "Third-year. Biochemistry. She used to be friends with Alice."

My heart stumbled. I kept my face neutral. "Used to be?"

"They had a falling out. About a month before Alice died." Ashley grabbed a tray, her movements casual, but her voice had dropped lower. "Nobody knows why. Maya won't talk about it. And Alice..." She shrugged. "Well. Alice isn't around to ask."

A falling out. A month before the murder. I looked at Madden, at the way her shoulders curved inward like she was trying to disappear, and I added her name to the list in my head.

We moved through the line in silence. I grabbed an apple I didn't plan to eat and a coffee I desperately needed. Ashley piled her tray with chicken tenders and what appeared to be a slice of cheesecake.

"Dinner of champions," she said, catching my look. "Life's short. Eat dessert first."

The words hit harder than she knew.

We sat at a table near the middle,not too close to any tribe, not too far from the exits. Ashley had been right about the wolves. I could feel eyes on me, assessing, categorizing. New prey.

"Okay," Ashley said, dropping her chin onto her palm. "So here's the thing about Westbrook. You've got your obvious groups, right? Jocks, nerds, theater freaks, goths who pretend they're not just theater freaks in black. But then you've got the groups that actually matter."

She ticked them off on her fingers.

"First, the Legacy Society. Kids whose parents went here, whose grandparents went here, whose names are on buildings. They run everything. Student government, the honor council, half the faculty. Don't cross them."

"Second?"

"The research assistants. The ones who work in the BioMed lab on the north side of campus. Professor Vance’s lab, specifically. Those kids are weird. Secretive. They have their own entry codes, their own schedules, their own cafeteria in the basement that the rest of us aren't allowed into." Ashley's eyes narrowed. "Alice was one of them."

My chest tightened. "What did she research?"

"That's the thing. Nobody knows. They sign NDAs. The whole operation is funded by some private grant, and Professor Vance doesn't answer questions." Ashley bit into a chicken tender. "But whatever was going on in that lab, Alice was obsessed with it. She barely slept. She barely ate. Her boyfriend…." Ashley stopped.

"Her boyfriend?" I prompted, keeping my voice light.

"That would be me."

The words came from behind me. A male voice. Low. Familiar in a way that made my skin prickle.

I turned.

Myles Clay stood at the end of our table, a tray in his hands, his brown eyes fixed on my face with an intensity that made me want to look away. I didn't. I held his gaze, and something passed between us; recognition or maybe a warning.

"Madden said I'd find you here," he said to Ashley. Then his attention returned to me. "Nova."

"Nova James," I confirmed.

"Nova James who asks questions about dead girls."

Beside me, Ashley went still. The air between us turned sharp, crystalline.

"Like I told you before, I'm a true crime writer and I wasn’t asking about anything," I said. "I'm eating dinner."

Myles set his tray down across from me,not next to Ashley, not at the empty end of the table. Across from me. Where he could watch my face.

"Alice was my girlfriend!" he said. No preamble. No softening. Just the truth, laid out between us like a scalpel. "She drowned in the lake two weeks ago. The police called it suspicious. They're still investigating. And now you're here, in her scholarship seat, in her old dorm room, so you have no right asking her old roommate about her old life."

He leaned forward.

"So I'll ask you once again, Nova James. What are you really doing here?"

The dining hall buzzed around us. Someone laughed. A tray clattered to the floor. None of it mattered.

I looked into Myles Clay's eyes, and I saw grief there, yes. But I also saw something else. Suspicion. Protective fury. And beneath that, a crack of vulnerability so deep it made my chest ache.

He was dangerous. Not because he might hurt me. But because he might see through me.

And because, God help me, I wanted him to.

"You are making a scene here, I'm here to learn," I said quietly. "Same as everyone else."

Myles held my gaze for a long moment. Then he did something unexpected. He smiled. It was small and sad and didn't reach his eyes, but it transformed his face entirely.

"Liar," he said. "But I respect the craft."

He picked up his fork and began to eat.

“I forgot to tell you I was friends with her boyfriend too.” Ashley whispered to my hearing only. She let out a breath. "Well," she said, " I’m guessing you two have met already, that wasn't awkward at all."

But I wasn't listening. Because across the room, near the windows, I saw a shadow like figure taking the structure of a man watching me. Holding a coffee cup in one hand and a phone in the other.

Our eyes met. He raised his cup in a small, deliberate toast.

Then he walked away, disappearing through the kitchen doors marked AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.

My heart hammered against my ribs.

"Who's that?" I asked, keeping my voice steady.

Ashley followed my gaze to the swinging kitchen doors. "Who's who?"

"The man.."

Ashley frowned. "I don't see anyone."

“Excuse me.” I stood up, my chair scraping against the floor.

"Where are you going?" Ashley asked.

"Bathroom," I lied.

I looked at Myles who was playing with the grains of rice on his plate instead of eating them.

“And Myles, we all have lost something in our lives and some people have it even worse.” I didn’t wait for a reply or eye contact.

I turned and walked toward the kitchen doors before I could change my mind.

But when I pushed through them, it was empty

The freezer hummed. The lights flickered.

And somewhere in the building, someone was watching me.

I could feel them smiling.