Chapter 13

Kate’s fingers dug into my sleeve.“You’re not going,” she said again, sharper this time. “It’s a trap. You know it’s a trap.”The text glowed on my screen like a dare.

Ten minutes. Alone. The old greenhouse.I pulled my arm free. “If someone else was involved with that bottle, I need to know.

The headmaster already thinks I’m lying.”“Then wait for Isaac.”“He’s dealing with his father.” The words tasted bitter.

“I can’t keep hiding behind him.”Kate looked like she wanted to argue further, but the second-period bell had already rung and the corridors were emptying.

She cursed under her breath, then shoved her phone into my hand.“I’m tracking you.

If you’re not back in fifteen minutes I’m dragging every prefect in this school out there.”I nodded once and walked away before I could change my mind.

The east wing felt farther than usual. Rain still sheeted down, turning the path behind the science buildings into dark mud.

The old greenhouse crouched at the edge of the grounds, glass panes fogged and cracked, ivy swallowing one entire side. No one used it anymore.

The air around it smelled of wet earth and something faintly chemical.I checked the time. Two minutes early.

The side door hung crooked on its hinges. I pushed it open.

The interior was dim and humid, rows of dead potting benches stretching into shadow.

Water dripped steadily from a broken pane overhead.

“Hello?”My voice sounded small.

A figure stepped out from behind the far table. Not Mia.

Not Lydia.

Lola.

Mia’s quieter shadow.

The one who usually just watched and smiled.

Her dark hair was plastered to her cheeks from the rain. She held her phone loosely in one hand.“You came,” she said. “I wasn’t sure you would.”

“You sent the message.”“I did.” She glanced toward the door as if expecting someone else.

“Mia didn’t put the drop in the bottle alone. She got it from someone who wanted Isaac… distracted. Someone who has been watching him for longer than any of us.

”My pulse kicked. “Who?”Lola opened her mouth, then froze.

Her eyes fixed on something over my shoulder.I turned.The greenhouse door had closed without a sound. Lydia stood just inside, blonde hair still perfect despite the weather, expression carved from ice.

Behind her were two senior boys I only knew by reputation—pack enforcers’ sons who answered to the McCall name when it suited them.

Lydia’s gaze flicked from me to Lola.“You talk too much,” she said softly.Lola took a step back.

“I only—”One of the boys moved faster than I expected. He caught Lola by the arm and spun her against a workbench hard enough to knock the breath from her.

Her phone clattered to the wet floor.Lydia walked toward me slowly, heels clicking on the cracked tiles.“You just couldn’t stay invisible, could you?” Her voice was almost gentle. “First the party. Then the office. Now this.

My mother is already making calls. By tomorrow the board will want you gone.”I kept my back straight. “Isaac already gave his statement.”

“Isaac will do what his father tells him.” She stopped an arm’s length away.

“And right now his father is very interested in removing the problem that keeps appearing in his son’s path.”The bond in my chest tightened without warning—sharp, urgent.

Isaac.

He had felt something. Distance or not, the connection was waking.

Lydia noticed the flicker in my expression.

Her smile turned thin.

"Feeling him already? How sweet. Too bad it won’t matter.”She nodded to the second boy.

He stepped forward, something small and dark in his hand—a glass vial. The liquid inside caught what little light remained.

Wolfsbane, concentrated. The same scent that had burned me once before.“You’re going to drink it,” Lydia said. “Quietly.

Then you’re going to walk out of here and have a very public collapse in front of the entire school.

The weak scholarship wolf who couldn’t handle the pressure. Tragic, really. No one will look too closely after that.”My throat closed.

“They’ll know.”

“They’ll know what I tell them.” She tilted her head. “Or you can refuse, and Lola here can explain to Mia why she betrayed the group.

Mia doesn’t forgive easily. Neither do I.”Lola made a small, frightened sound against the workbench.The vial came closer.

The chemical bite of wolfsbane filled the damp air.

Outside, thunder rolled low across the fields.

I took one step back and felt the edge of a broken potting table dig into my spine. Nowhere left to go.

Lydia’s voice dropped to a whisper.“Last chance, Charlotte.

Drink… or watch what happens to the only friend stupid enough to help you.”The bond screamed.

Somewhere across campus, Isaac started running.