I’m crying for you, idiot. But I didn’t manage to say the words out loud. They were too raw, too real. And maybe Kyan was right. Maybe I didn’t like the truth after all. But that didn’t mean I didn’t need to hear it.
“Ask me,” he said, his voice gruff.
I took a steadying breath, knowing exactly what he meant. “Squits?” I whispered.
“That piece of shit was going around sneaking laxatives into the meals of anyone he took a dislike to. People all over the school would randomly fall so ill, they nearly shit a lung. The dosages were high. Too fucking high. It wasn’t just some joke. A guy even ended up in hospital for it. He targeted the popular kids, jealous I guess. He snuck into a party at the Oak Common House one night, put laxatives in a bowl of punch that Pearl and her friends had made. Blake saw him thankfully. And holy fuck, did he give him hell. He made him drink every last drop of that punch and exposed him for the scumbag he was. Squits didn’t make it to the bathroom by the time he was about to blow, diving into the cloakroom instead. Suffice to say, Saint still has not forgiven him for ruining his coat, or for any of the other awful shit he did.”
I didn’t feel cold anymore. I felt too hot with this knowledge that I’d been befriending Deepthroat and Squits for weeks, felt sorry for them, defended them. “What about the others?” I whispered, fearing what he was going to say, but needing to know too.
It turned out Pigs had bought a couple of piglets onto campus to scare some girl who’d rejected his advances and planned to leave their mutilated bodies outside her door. By the time he got to the girls’ dorms, one of the cheerleaders had tipped off the Night Keepers after spotting Pigs sneaking into their accommodation. Kyan had beat him within an inch of his life and the piglets had been taken to a sanctuary in Saint’s fucking car no less.
Pirate had been bullying a scholarship student into giving him her work, forcing her to try and redo the essays before each of her deadlines. She ended up losing her spot at the school for being unable to get her own work in on time. And all the while Pirate got straight As on every paper he took from her, essentially ruining her life for the sake of his fucking laziness.
Freeloader had apparently ridden through this school on a scholarship even though her parents were wealthy doctors. She’d given her auntie’s name as her guardian in her application, making out she couldn’t afford the fees and fiddled the system, costing someone else their place at this school who actually needed the help to pay for it. Being on the school board, Saint’s mom had gotten wind of the truth, but had told her son there wasn’t much they could do about it now she was here. He had obviously disagreed. Freeloader was apparently coming to the end of her term as an Unspeakable though. For smaller crimes, the Night Keepers let them pay their dues then welcomed them back into society.
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” I snapped, fisting my hand in Kyan’s shirt as anger welled up in me. “Why didn’t you tell me!”
More tears ran down my cheeks and Kyan lifted a hand to wipe them away but I smacked it aside, climbing out of the hammock and walking straight out into the rain.
It chilled me to the bone, but it didn’t come close to cooling the fiery rage in me. I clutched the railing at the end of the balcony and screamed out at the lake, releasing my hate and pain into the storm. The people I’d fought for, sat with every day, encouraged and looked out for…they’d been nothing but monsters. Un-fucking-speakable monsters.
My mind hooked on Bait and I turned around as I realised Kyan had never mentioned him, finding him right behind me, his shoulders slumped.
“What about Bait?” I asked, my lower lip quivering. “What did he do?”
Shadows coiled through his eyes. “It stands for jail bait,” he growled. “He pressured a fourteen year old girl into having sex with him last year. He groomed her, got her to send him photographs of her body then told her he was considering giving them to a teacher because he was going to get into trouble if they were found. He manipulated her into thinking everything would be alright so long as she gave him what he needed and said he would get rid of the pictures for her if she just did as he asked. After she let him take her virginity, she realised he wasn’t going to stop harassing her. She finally came to us for help, I just wished she’d come fucking sooner. But she’d already asked to transfer schools. She said she was too afraid to go to the police and press charges, but she knew we’d take care of it. Those photos have now been destroyed and Bait will be punished always and fucking forever for what he did. We took our Night Keeper vow to protect everyone in this school, that wasn’t a lie, Tatum,” he said fiercely, his voice loud enough to battle the wind. “We don’t bully people who don’t deserve it. Not until…” He sighed, running a hand over his face to wipe the water away.
“Not until me,” I finished for him and he nodded, hanging his head.
My tears mixed with the rain, hot and cold, icy and burning. My heart crushed in my chest as I tried to take this all in. What it meant. How it changed things. Changed everything.
“I’d say I’m sorry but that’s not really good enough, is it?” he
