Chapter 99: Secrets in the Lecture Hall
By the time we made it back to the dorms, the adrenaline had worn off and exhaustion hit me like a brick wall. My feet dragged against the stairs, my head still buzzing with Mara’s words, with the weight of that humming stone in my palm. The Circle had not just shown us who they were—they had shown me what I was. Or at least, what they believed I was.
Ethan unlocked our fake dorm door, grumbling under his breath about how “college life” was supposed to be coffee, exams, and bad Wi-Fi—not ancient cults who wanted to use your bloodline as a magic battery. Elena shoved past him with a dramatic sigh.
“Finally,” she said, tossing herself onto one of the beds. “If I had to sit through one more creepy chant, I would’ve thrown the candle at their smug faces. And probably missed, because my aim sucks, but still.”
Rhea closed the door gently behind us. She was quiet, as usual, but her eyes were sharp. “They weren’t lying,” she said softly. “About the ritual. You felt it too, didn’t you, Roxanne?”
I set my bag down and sank into the chair by the desk. My hands were still trembling slightly. “Yeah. I felt it. It wasn’t fake.”
“Great,” Elena said, sitting up and pointing at me. “So now you’re basically a walking lightbulb for ancient rituals. Love that for you.”
“Lena,” Ethan muttered.
“What? I’m just saying what we’re all thinking. She’s glowing like a damn Christmas ornament and we’re supposed to act like it’s casual? Newsflash—it’s not casual.”
Aidan, leaning against the wall with his arms folded, shot her a glare. “Keep your voice down.”
“Oh, right, because the RA might overhear that our best friend is apparently a mythical bloodline chosen one,” Elena said with a roll of her eyes. “Totally normal college problems.”
Ethan shut his laptop with more force than necessary. “Enough. We need to think this through. The Circle isn’t just a random club. Half of them are scared kids, sure, but the other half… they’re ambitious. They’ll want to use Roxanne. That’s dangerous.”
“Yeah, thanks, Sherlock,” Elena muttered.
Ethan ignored her. “The question is: do we keep playing along, or do we cut ties before this gets worse?”
“Playing along,” Rhea said immediately. Everyone turned to look at her, but she didn’t flinch. “If we leave now, we lose everything. The journals, the rituals, the chance to learn what Ravenna’s planning. They’re too close to her. If we run, we’ll be blind.”
A heavy silence fell. She wasn’t wrong.
Finally, Aidan spoke. “She’s right. We need information. But if we’re staying in this game, we set the rules. Not them.” His eyes flicked to me. “Rox, you don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with. You hear me?”
I nodded slowly. “I hear you. But I also heard Mara. She said if I refuse, people die. That’s not something I can just ignore.”
Elena groaned and flopped back onto the bed dramatically. “Ugh, why can’t we just deal with normal problems? Like, I don’t know—roommates stealing our snacks. Exams. Heartbreak. Not world-ending cult drama.”
“Speak for yourself,” Ethan said dryly. “I’m kind of enjoying watching you try to blend in as a college student. It’s like watching a cat try to swim.”
“Excuse me?” Elena sat up, glaring. “I am the perfect college student. I’ve got the sarcasm, the caffeine addiction, and the hoodie collection. I’m basically a poster child.”
“You fell asleep in class today,” Ethan said.
“I was meditating!”
“You drooled on your notebook.”
Elena pointed at him. “You are such a liar.”
“Am I? Or do you just not remember because you were too busy face-planting into your econ notes?”
Rhea actually snorted, covering her mouth quickly. Aidan smirked. I bit my lip to keep from laughing.
“Unbelievable,” Elena muttered, grabbing her pillow and hurling it at Ethan. He ducked, and it smacked straight into Rhea instead.
Rhea blinked, then slowly lifted the pillow. Elena froze.
“Um,” Elena said. “Please don’t kill me.”
For the first time in forever, Rhea smiled. Just a tiny curve of her lips. Then she threw the pillow back at Elena with surprising force.
The room erupted. Elena shrieked. Ethan laughed so hard he nearly fell off his chair. Aidan shook his head, muttering something about children.
For a moment, just one moment, the weight lifted. It felt almost normal. Almost like we really were just students in a dorm room, arguing about nothing.
But then my phone buzzed.
The screen lit up with an unknown number. One message.
We see you.
The laughter faded. My chest tightened.
I showed the screen to the others.
The room went dead quiet.
Morning came too quickly. I barely slept, not with that message burned into my brain: We see you. Every time I closed my eyes, I imagined shadowy figures outside the dorm, faceless and waiting. When the alarm blared at seven, I smacked it off and sat there staring at the ceiling. Aidan, already dressed, glanced over at me.
“You didn’t sleep,” he said.
“Neither did you,” I shot back.
He gave a humorless smile. “Touché.”
By the time the rest of the team shuffled into the cafeteria, I was clinging to caffeine like it was oxygen. Elena was already halfway through a stack of pancakes, butter smeared on her sleeve like war paint. Ethan had two tablets open on the table, balancing bites of toast between typing. Rhea, quiet as ever, sat opposite me, carefully peeling an orange.
“Okay, hear me out,” Elena said, pointing a fork at Ethan. “We don’t need another stakeout or creepy ritual. What we need is a party.”
Ethan didn’t even look up. “Do you mean a gathering for intelligence purposes, or are you actually suggesting something social?”
“I’m suggesting,” she said slowly, “that nothing gets people talking like cheap beer and loud music. If the Circle is recruiting kids, where are they gonna look? Not in the library. Not in advanced calculus. At parties. College 101.”
Aidan frowned. “You’re saying we crash a frat party.”
“I’m saying we attend a frat party undercover,” Elena corrected, grinning. “Huge difference.”
“Sounds like the same thing,” I muttered.
“It’s not.” She jabbed her fork at me this time. “Besides, Rox, you need to work on your ‘blend in as a normal student’ act. You still sit in class like you’re waiting for an ambush.”
I raised a brow. “Maybe because half the time I am.”
“Exactly,” she said. “Which is why tonight, we socialize. We drink. We dance. We do normal college things. And maybe, just maybe, someone slips up and mentions a creepy ancient cult. Boom. Intel.”
Ethan finally looked up, unimpressed. “Your plan is to lure out a secret society by doing keg stands.”
“Yes,” Elena said confidently. “Got a better one?”
He paused. “I hate that I don’t.”
Aidan shook his head, muttering, “This is going to end badly.”
Rhea, still peeling her orange, spoke up for the first time. “I want to go.”
Everyone turned to her.
“You?” Elena asked.
Rhea met her eyes. “If they’re watching Roxanne, they’re watching me too. I should see what kind of people they are. In the open.”
Aidan frowned but didn’t argue. I sipped my coffee and sighed. “Fine. Party it is. But if anyone tries to sacrifice me to their beer pong table, I’m out.”
\---
By evening, the campus had transformed. Music thumped across the quad, laughter spilled from the houses, and every light seemed too bright, too sharp. I tugged at the borrowed hoodie Elena insisted I wear, feeling ridiculous. She’d even braided my hair, muttering about how I needed to look “less brooding heroine, more approachable sophomore.”
“This feels like a trap,” I whispered to Aidan as we approached the house.
He leaned close, smirking. “That’s because it is. Just not the kind you’re used to.”
Inside, chaos. Red cups everywhere. The smell of beer, sweat, and cheap cologne hit me like a wall. A group of students cheered around a beer pong table in the corner, while someone tried—and failed—to rap over the pounding bass.
Elena lit up immediately, dragging Rhea toward the snacks. Ethan stayed glued to his phone, muttering about “signal triangulation.” Aidan hovered close, his hand brushing mine every so often, a silent reminder that I wasn’t alone.
We didn’t have to wait long.
A tall boy with slicked-back hair and a predatory smile approached. “You’re new,” he said, looking me up and down. “Haven’t seen you at one of these before.”
“Maybe you weren’t looking hard enough,” Elena cut in, sliding to my side like a shield.
The boy’s smile widened. “Relax. Just being friendly.” His eyes flicked to me again. “Name?”
“Roxie,” I lied, forcing a smile.
Something flickered in his gaze. Recognition? Or maybe suspicion? He leaned closer, lowering his voice. “You’re exactly who I was hoping to meet.”
Every instinct in my body screamed danger. Aidan must have sensed it too, because he stepped forward, his voice deceptively casual. “And you are?”
The boy grinned. “Call me Damien.”
Of course his name was Damien.
He slipped something into my hand as he walked past, so quick no one else noticed. A folded piece of paper. I shoved it into my pocket before anyone could see.
Ethan sidled up, eyes narrowing. “What did he give you?”
“Later,” I muttered. “Not here.”
“Roxanne,” Aidan warned under his breath, but I shook my head. Not yet. Not in the middle of a crowded party.
Elena, oblivious to the tension, grabbed a cup and raised it like a toast. “To blending in!” she shouted, before downing it in one go. She sputtered immediately, coughing. “Oh my God. What is in this?”
“Cheap whiskey,” Ethan said dryly.
“Poison,” Elena wheezed. “Absolute poison.”
Despite myself, I laughed. And for a moment, it almost felt normal.
But later, when the music dulled and we slipped out into the cool night air, I unfolded the paper under the glow of a streetlamp.
It wasn’t a note.
It was a map.
A circle drawn in black ink, with one word scrawled across the center:
Choose.