Alpha's Favourite Girl

wrong with the r

wo fires and a headmaster, and all of it was making noise. But underneath the noise, Eliana Rose had the feeling she'd had al

g the thing,

t th

d scrubbed at Eliana's left sleeve with the grim efficiency of a girl who had been doing this since the ag

do the morning shif

she s

en doesn't care

led into something resembling a decision, the stack of index cards she was strangling in one fist. "Ok

ng to be Chi

a Supreme Court. It's the same

: round tables, white cloths, crystal. People who had never once wondered what a scholarship cost the person who held it. O

, every uniform, every one of the three years she'd spent at Aldermere pretending she wasn't doing arithmetic in the margins of her life. If she kept h

oundation's favourite

"Smile, thank them, do

terrible

advice. You just

peration of a man who was nervous about the gue

two fingers. She had practised this. She had practised it in the bakery at fiv

e let her eyes travel the room. "So I will. It has given this school a library, a science wing and a scho

eone near the front clapped once. At the side of the stage, the headmaster's face we

a compliment. It means the money works so well that it doesn't need a face." More laughter, warmer. She gave them a moment, then lowered

as real. About a mother who baked at four a.m. and still found the time to ask, every night, whether Eliana had eaten. About the difference be

she felt the exact moment the room st

en she noti

ording to the programme. They were very still. They weren't looking at the stage, or the guests, or the exits, in the way security was supposed t

them was lo

e post. He wasn't listening the way the others were. He was watching her with an expression she could only

plause was loud, and

shed from th

to his ribs, pressing, and when it came away Eliana saw the black leather glistening. Not sweat. The light caug

e second, shook his head, almost impercept

n the wings. "You were insane, and the headmaster's

ooking at the service door.

here are abou

Grey hair. He

ned, and looked back a

s s

You've been standing under a spotlight fo

ounds, of noticing when a piece of evidence didn't fit the story she was being told. The glove hadn't been wine. It hadn't been sweat. And a man who bled at a gala and flin

air,"

l co

dit for my speech. You

te one

t one," Eliana

ple in kitchens never do. She cut through it with her index cards still in her hand and

s and the delivery vans. One lamp over the door buzzed and flickered, and the shadows kept

st missed it, was the sound of a

en torn open from collar to hip. Across his ribs ran four deep, parallel cuts, as evenly spaced as the tines of

ss Rose. Don't come closer

n for her. "It's a borrowed blazer. And you're dying o

N

was surprisingly gentle, for a gr

ey'd have me before the para

's t

n a coat

the walls, with their heads tilte

my name,

across his grey face. "Everyone knew it by the second sen

d a small, s

been dead t

ld've been wiser to sit." He swallowed, and she heard the wet catch in it. "I owe your mother something.

. "You knew my father," she said. "You know my mother. And you were standing in a gala hall in a Foundat

ut his eyes. "T

of his coat, and came out holding something small. He turned her hand over,

as a

wasn't quite black. When the lamp flickered across it, it seemed to hold the light for a moment too long. It w

n, I'm holding evidence. If it isn't stolen, it'

ce was fading. "It's a messa

ch k

, and no one else's. Not the police. Not the school. Not anyone in a coat like mine. Tell him-" A cou

t li

hers. "I'm sorry, Eliana. I'd hoped to keep this fr

service gate, so

ed in through its teeth. Gravel shifted under a weight that was far too heavy. The lamp abo

gy went out of it, and what replaced it w

you must. But go inside, and don'

ot lea

t time he'd used her name

e

wearing black coats. She skidded to a stop in front of the first person she recognised, Mr. Pell, th

voice, the one that never wobbled. "Stab wounds. Maybe w

a second and then moved faster

h the door together,

stopped, as though whoever had left it had stopped bleeding or stopped being a person. The gate hung half open on a single hinge. The latch w

e steam vent, where the frost

re the claws had gone in. A pad wi

id Mr. Pell,

s not

pale. "I'll call this in.

. P

G

hed the sentence, two men in black coat

at they didn't look at the blood, or the gate, or the print. They looked

stepped forward. "We'll take it from here, miss. Founda

side. Her fingernails had cut half-moons into he

you. She felt it now: cold, clear, absolutely steady. Not anyone in a coat like mine. Marcus Hale had known her father. He'd said her na

ee anything

nd bright and perfect, and it was the fi

rtable. His head tilted a few degrees to the left. Then he stepp

return to

ndows that looked out over the dark lawns, until she was certain no one was following.

but a very small, very deep well. And inside the band, where the gold had been worn almost to no

ng it to the light

was enormous. It was not a dog and not a wolf and not any animal she had a name for.

palm, the r

thing inside the gold had been waiting a very long time to be asked a question. It beat again, in time with the

holar, daughter of a baker, closed her

in the dark, som