“I’m here with Bas and his family.” She turns and waves him over, but quickly faces me once more. “We need to talk.”
Roz’s arm is still around me and I can feel Marco and Angus by my side, shoring up any doubts I may have had about my worth “No, we don’t. You’ve told me everything I need to know.”
Kate opens her mouth as she narrows her eyes, ready to fire off her response, but just then, Sebastian arrives. He joins the circle and says hi to everyone, and then he turns and puts his arms around a younger girl with blonde hair cut in a short bob and tucked behind one ear.
“Everyone, this is my sister, Quinn. She’s a first year, but she spends most of her time in the library interning for Professor Gwinstock.”
My entire body freezes in place. Everyone around me, including my ready-for-battle sister fades away. They just disappear as my heart stops and my lungs seize, and my eyes lock open.
It’s her.
Quinn Allbright smiles and says hello to everyone in our growing circle. I watch as Roz and Winter and Georgia all smile and take her hand, gushing over her luck at scoring an internship in her first year. They don’t know. They can’t know, of course, but still… I feel like it’s too close. She’s too close. It feels like my world is about to crack open and all the things that need to stay hidden are going to spill out for everyone to see.
My breath catches. I feel like I am going to pass out, or worse, puke.
Angus’s arm is around my waist. “It’s all right. Breathe,” he whispers in my ear as he clutches me to his side. He doesn’t change the look on his face as he introduces himself to Quinn Allbright, saying hello and telling her my name is Joely, and I’m Kate’s sister.
She clutches my hand. “Joely! It’s really great to meet you! I’ve heard so much about you.”
Angus interrupts and asks Quinn if she has met Marco yet, and Marco jumps at the chance to ask her something about her classes. The conversation moves blessedly on without us, though my mind is stuck.
It’s her.
I study Quinn’s face as she makes small talk and laughs with my friends.
It’s her.
She’s me.
She’s the girl my father and Porter Allbright swapped as babies. She’s the child that should have been Joely. She’s the one my mother thought she was holding in her arms. Quinn Allbright is lovely and friendly, and she has no idea that she isn’t who she thinks she is.
How could I ruin all that she has?
She moves away with her brother and my sister and I can breathe again.
The front doors of the mansion swing open and chime of harp music fills the air. Van steps out onto the landing with a few of the other stewards and welcomes the crowd inside.
Angus holds me back as everyone heads up the stairs. He holds my face in his hands and gets in close. “Joely? Are you all right?” His voice sounds like it’s coming from the end of a long tunnel. I see him, and I can hear him, but I am like a kite in the wind and I am hanging on by a thread. “Joely?”
I blink and my eyes burn from being open for so long. I hold them closed and take a deep breath. “I’m okay. I wasn’t expecting that.”
“You did fine. Nobody noticed a thing,” he says.
“Thank you. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been there.”
He winks at me and gives me a huge smile. “Well, then I guess that means you owe me one.”
I glance up the stairs at the entrance to the mansion.
“We don’t have to go in if you’re not up for it,” he says.
I take a deep breath and try to shake myself out of my shock. “No, it’s all right. It was bound to happen, I guess. I should count myself lucky that it happened here and not in the middle of class or something.”
“Earth to the lovebirds!” Roz appears at the top of the stairs. “Time waits for no mage.”
Angus laughs and takes my hand. “Shall we?”
I let him guide me up the stairs, pleased that both Kate and Quinn are gone. I’ll have to figure how I’m going to deal with both of them at some point. But now is not that time, and that’s just fine by me.
Inside the Society, we are led to the great hall, where all the large events are held. I remember the first time I entered this room and how enamored I was with all the rich history and glamorous decor. It was enchanting then and it’s beautiful as ever right now, set up like a cocktail party with champagne and finger sandwiches and trays of hors d’oeuvres being passed by an army of wait staff.
It’s all very charming and civilized, decked out for the holiday with evergreen sprays and holiday trees and glittery ribbons and bows. But no amount of fancy decorations could ever blind me to the evil that has taken place here since all the way back when this place was founded by Damon Underwood who used Reginald Whitmore Blakeborne as the face of the school, but created the Society, which was the real purpose. He needed this place to create his precious Vessel so he could find the wolves who killed his sons.
The Vessel that we destroyed was legendary. It was the key to acceptance in the Society. The mantra is the stuff of lore. The lottery is done in secret. The names appear by magic. The Vessel chose you, they said. If your name appeared on their lists, it meant you had the purest kind of magic—Ancient Magic—and were therefore inducted into the Society. Nobody ever said no to this invitation.
But it was all a ruse.
