“Then stay here and be scared,” he says. “Any minute now they could come out of that parlor and we’ll lose our window of opportunity. But that’s okay; you go to bed. I’m sure you’ll sleep well knowing that you will likely be blamed for a murder you didn’t commit.” And he walks away.

For a second I just watch him with my mouth open. I’ve clearly met my match in Ash when it comes to being creatively pushy.

“Damn it,” I say under my breath, and walk quickly down the hall to catch up with him.

When I reach him, he’s wearing a small smile, like he knew exactly what the result of that conversation would be. I scowl and consider saying something biting, but as we pass into the stairwell, my annoyance with Ash is eclipsed by my fear of what we’re about to do.

Ash stops in front of the second-floor entrance to the girls’ dormitory, checking for guards, and I immediately get a feeling of déjà vu from the other night. Only then it was all still a game.

Ash motions for me to follow him and we dart into the hallway, keeping our steps silent. He stops at the fourth door on the right and silently lifts the latch of Aarya and Ines’s door. We slide inside, my heart beating a bazillion miles an hour.

I’ve never considered how easy it is to get into someone else’s space at the Academy. The doors can only be locked from the inside. But then again, I’m not sure what use locks would be with this group. Instead of making it harder to break in, I suspect locks would incentivize this group to try.

“What now?” I whisper, scanning the common room, which is a replica of Layla’s and mine. Between the stone floors and antique furniture, the only good space to hide is under the beds, and there is absolutely no way I’m risking getting trapped in one of their bedrooms.

“What’s now is that you pick up that piece of grass you tracked in,” Ash says, looking at the floor like he can’t believe I’m so careless. “Unless you want to immediately alert Aarya that we’re here, and if that’s the case, I hope your fighting skills are good enough to handle a three-on-two fight.”

I look down at the floor, and sure enough there is a single blade of grass that must have been stuck to the bottom of my boot. I pick it up and shove it in my pocket.