16. Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

Fallout Central

I wake up with a start, the early morning light filtering through the grimy window of my dorm room. My heart hammers in my chest as fragments of last night’s events come rushing back.

The forest, the witches, Brandon. A nightmare.

I sit up, my breath coming in quick gasps, and scan the room. Daisy’s bed is still empty. I’m guessing she stayed the night with Mary, because she wasn’t here when I went to bed.

Which is just as well.

I’d have had to tell her the truth. She would have seen the tragedy on my face, anyway. So better that she slept another night thinking she still had an education, room and board, an entire future ahead of her.

I swing my legs out of bed, the cold floor sending a shiver up my spine. Bracing myself, I pad over to the window, peering out at the campus below. There’s a vibrant energy in the air, a vague sense of commotion. Students are gathered in small clusters, their heads bent together, whispering.

The news is breaking.

I pull on a hoodie over my pajamas, not bothering to change, and slip out of my room, the hallway eerily quiet. The usual chatter of back-and-forth students is absent, replaced by a tense hum. I make my way toward the common room.

As I walk, the murmur of voices grows louder.

I round the corner and freeze. The common area is filled with students, their faces etched with worry and fear. They huddle together, their eyes darting around the room, their voices hushed.

I step out into the hallway, the din of voices growing louder. Students cluster in tight groups, their faces flushed with excitement and worry.

Lorelei, our usually stern resident advisor, is at the center of it all, her voice brisk and commanding as she tries to restore order. “Everyone, calm down,” she snaps, her eyes scanning the crowd. “There are too many people here. It’s against the fire code. Some of you go back to your rooms.”

Her words do little to quell the chaos. The air is electric, buzzing with an energy that’s almost palpable. I push my way through the throng, catching snippets of conversation.

“Did you see the post?”

“Can you believe it?”

“What’s going to happen now?”

I spot a girl I recognize from my Latin class, her eyes wide as she stares at her phone. I tap her shoulder. “What’s going on?”

“Tanglewood Tea just dropped a major exposé. It’s all about Luca Andini and the Shakespeare Society. It’s...it’s huge.”

She shoves her phone in my face, and I allow myself to take it, handling the piece of metal as if it’s a live snake. It’s opened to a series of social media posts that contain text instead of images.

It’s all there, in stark black and white. The corruption, the bribes, the manipulation. Will this be enough to bring them down for good?

Or will they find a way to spin this, to twist it to their advantage?

I hand the phone back, my mind racing. Lorelei is still trying to herd everyone back into their rooms, her voice growing hoarse with the effort. But no one is listening. They’re all too caught up in the drama.

And the fallout.

That’s us, fallout central.

It won’t matter to my college career if the Society takes the school back.

I won’t be able to take classes or live in the dorm. The area around the university, and most of Tanglewood, would cost too much for me to get an apartment for long, except in the most unsafe areas.

Does that mean I’m moving back home?

Does it mean I’m going to need a permanent position at the diner?

I press my back against the cool wall of the hallway, the chatter of my peers fading into a dull hum as my heart starts to race. The air feels thin, like I can’t quite catch my breath. I close my eyes, trying to focus, to steady myself, but the darkness only makes it worse.

“Are you okay?” A voice cuts through the fog, but I can’t quite place it. I open my eyes, the hallway spinning slightly. I see a girl from down the hallway, the one who’s always shaving in the bathroom. No matter what time of day it is, shaving. Right now her brows furrowed with concern.

Are you okay?

I try to speak, but the words get stuck in my throat. I nod instead, a jerky motion that feels disconnected from my body. She doesn’t look convinced but gets pulled away by the current of the crowd.

The walls feel like they’re closing in.

I burst into my dorm room, the door slamming shut behind me.

My scholarship. The only reason I’m able to attend Tanglewood. The only way I have to escape Port Lavaca, to escape my parents, to build a future for myself. I feel the color drain from my face, my body suddenly numb.

Daisy bursts into our dorm room, her cheeks flushed, blonde hair disheveled. She must have run all the way here. Her blue eyes meet mine, wide and worried. “Where have you been? I’ve been trying to reach you.”

“I’ve been right here. In this room. That we share.”

Her brows lower in confusion. “Why are you in bed?”

“I’ve decided to quit school and run away with the circus.”

“Did you see the Daily Tangle ?”

“No, but I can guess what it says.”

Daisy paces the length of our cramped dorm room, her blonde hair a mess from running her fingers through it. She clutches her phone, the screen displaying the homepage of the Daily Tangle , which is the university’s award-winning college newspaper. It’s pretty good, but Tanglewood Tea definitely got the scoop on them this time.

“Luca Andini stole millions. Millions of the university’s dollars.”

“Actually, they were our dollars.” I’ve had more time to process this, to wrap my head around it. Daisy, on the other hand, is still in shock, her blue eyes wide with disbelief.

“No one knows where he is. Some people are saying he left the country.”

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury my diploma, not to graduate.”

“Thorne made a statement,” Daisy continues, her voice shaking. “She tried to distance herself from Andini, saying she’s just one of his victims. Unfortunately they caught her signature on some of the documents.”

“Good.” I can’t help but feel a twinge of satisfaction at that. Thorne deserves to squirm under the weight of her own lies.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” Daisy says, sinking down onto her own bed, her shoulders slumped. “What are we going to do, Anne?”

I shrug, the gesture feeling hollow. “I told you about my circus plans.”

Daisy looks up at me, her eyes narrowing. “Be serious, Anne. Our scholarships...our futures...it’s all up in the air now. We need a plan.”

This was my plan. Plan A, B, and C.

The scholarship fund was my lifeline, my ticket out of Port Lavaca, away from my parents, away from that stifling small-town life. And now, it’s been ripped away, stolen by a man who was already rich. The injustice of it all burns in my chest, a hot flame.

“I don’t know,” I admit, my voice barely above a whisper.

I think of the other students, the ones who rely on that money to be here, to chase their dreams. What will happen to them? To us? Will we be forced to drop out, to leave Tanglewood and all the possibilities it holds? The thought makes me sick, a churning in my gut that won’t go away.

Daisy looks up at me. “I don’t know what to feel.”

I shake my head, trying to put my turbulent emotions into words. “I do. It’s angry. I thought Tanglewood was different, that the scholarship could level the playing field. Turns out that was a lie.”

“I’m going to throw up.”

“Try to do it so that it leaves a stain. We should make our mark before we have to move out of here.”

“How can you be so glib?”

I think of Luca Andini, of his smug smile and his expensive suits. Of the way he wields his power, like a weapon, cutting down anyone who gets in his way. “I don’t know. I’m still trying to wrap my head around all of this too.”

Her phone chimes, and she looks down at it, her brow furrowing. “There’s an email from the bursar’s office. They’re setting up meetings with the students. All of us are getting links to book one.”

I nod, a sense of dread washing over me. They’re only going to tell me what Dean Morris already did. That it will take time. “Sounds fun.”

Daisy looks up at me, her eyes filled with worry. “We’ll figure this out. Together. Right?”

I force a smile, even as I feel a sense of numbness spreading through me. “Right. Together.” But even as I say the words, I can’t shake the feeling of helplessness that’s settled over me. The feeling that our futures are spinning out of control, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it.

“We’ll figure this out. You’ll see.”

I wish I had her optimism, but all I can see is the uncertain future stretching out before us, a future that’s as dark and tangled as the woods that surround Tanglewood.

I start to pack, my movements mechanical, my mind racing. But no matter how fast my thoughts spin, I can’t see a way out of this. I can’t see a future where Daisy and I aren’t forced to leave Tanglewood, to leave the life we’ve built here.

And that thought is more terrifying than anything else.