“Mother. Father,” Lexa said flatly, ignoring the question. “Hey, guys,” she said to her friends. “Hello, Lirianos.” She lifted a hand half-heartedly.
Lexa grabbed a flute of champagne from the tray of a passing waiter. “I’ve got kind of a lot going on right now.”
She sipped the champagne and tapped her foot as if nervous, not looking anyone in the eye.
“Lexa!” Her mother whipped the glass out of her hand. “No drinking!”
“Mom!” Lexa whined, her shoulders slumping.
Ariana and Palmer exchanged a glance as Mr. Liriano cleared his throat and looked away. Maria and Soomie leaned toward one another, whispering under their breath as if they were trying to come up with a plan to help, but no one knew what to do, what with all the adults hovering around.
“Lexa. What has gotten into you?” Senator Greene said, his voice a low rumble.
Lexa opened her mouth to answer, but Ariana placed her hand on Lexa’s wrist to stop her.
“We’ve all been under a lot of stress lately with the SATs coming up and finals,” Ariana said, smiling at the adults. “Honestly, Lexa just hasn’t been getting much sleep.”
Instantly, Lexa’s mother’s face was lined with concern. She handed both her champagne flute and Lexa’s to Maria and Soomie. They took them, obviously startled at being suddenly treated like the help. Mrs. Greene stepped toward her daughter.
“Is that true, honey? You haven’t been sleeping?” she said, cupping Lexa’s face with both hands.
Lexa’s cast her eyes down and nodded.
“You know how you get when you’re overtired,” her mother said as she wrapped one arm around Lexa to face the group.
“I’m the same way, Lexa,” Palmer’s father said in his congenial way. “I’m a bear when I don’t get my eight hours.”
“It’s true. He could never do my job,” Congresswoman Liriano joked. The others, including Ariana, laughed half-heartedly.
“What’re we going to do with you?” Mrs. Greene asked, shaking her head at her daughter.
“Don’t worry, Mrs. Greene,” Ariana said, reaching for Lexa’s hand. “I’ll make sure she takes care of herself from now on.”
She gave Lexa’s fingers an extra-hard squeeze, driving her point home.
“Well, thank you, Briana Leigh,” Mrs. Greene said. “It’s nice to know that Lexa has an old friend here, looking out for her.”
Ariana beamed with pride over Mrs. Greene’s approval.
“Lacey, there are the Janikowskis,” Senator Greene said suddenly. “We must go talk to them before they leave for Greece.”
“All right,” Lexa’s mother said. She shot an apologetic look at the group. “Duty calls.” Then she turned to Ariana and took her free hand. “I’m looking forward to talking to you more at our brunch tomorrow, Briana Leigh.” She kissed Lexa on the forehead. “Get some sleep tonight, honey, okay?”
“Okay, Mom,” Lexa said quietly.
As Mr. and Mrs. Greene sauntered off, Ariana sighed with relief at another crises averted. It was time for her to focus on keeping Lexa in check, before the girl completely lost it and did something both of them would regret.
“Everyone ready?” April Coorigan asked late Friday night as she walked along the end of the long line of Stone and Grave members.
“Ready,” Ariana replied.
“So ready,” Tahira put in, lifting her hood over her head.
The double doors at the front of the line opened, and the brotherhood began to walk inside slowly, heads bowed. Ariana lifted her own hood and bowed her head. For the last hour, April and Connie had gone over the meeting ritual with the five new members of Stone and Grave so that they would be ready for their first official gathering as brother and sisters. Ariana’s steps were light as she entered the circular stone room where she had been locked inside the coffin with Jasper. This was it. This was the moment she’d been waiting for, ever since Lexa had first spilled about the secret society.
Slowly, Lexa led the group around the open graves. All along the stone walls, candles of various shapes and sizes flickered. Around the open graves, dozens of skulls had been placed, just like the ones Ariana had seen on the night she and the other potential members had first been introduced to Stone and Grave a couple of months back. That night seemed like it had happened a million years ago. Not only had Brigit still been alive, but Kaitlynn had been there as well. And because of Kaitlynn, Ariana had been full of anger and fear, unable to fully focus on the opportunity being laid out before her. But now all of that was over. Blissfully, mercifully over. And now she was here. Right where she was supposed to be.
Lexa stopped near the top of the room, right behind the gravestone that read Becky Sharp. Palmer stopped next to her, behind the Starbuck stone. Conrad was next in line as Lear, then April as Miss Temple, then Soomie, Rob, and so on, standing in order of their rank in the society. For a moment, Ariana felt a twinge over being near the end of the line, but at least she wasn’t last. That spot belonged to Jasper, being that he was last alphabetically in their pledge class. Tahira stood behind her Sister Carrie headstone, and then Ariana took her place, glancing down to admire the name Portia, which was stamped onto hers in big, bold letters. Behind her, Landon took his spot as Pip—a name that made Ariana wonder if the Stone and Grave membership knew about him and Maria after all, since Maria was Estella. Then Adam stood behind Oliver Twist, and finally, Jasper took his place as Amory Blaine.