As they took the elevator down and crossed the large entrance foyer, Grey wondered why he was doing this. Technically, Jaya Rao couldn’t force him onto that bus. Sure, she could get him expelled like she’d threatened—and then where would he go? Definitely not back to his father—but he had a feeling she wouldn’t. She was as interested in finding out why he’d been in her room as he was in keeping the reason from her. And now, thanks to his stupid guilty conscience, she knew it had something to do with her pendant. Damn it.

The truth was, he had been snooping in her room. There was no going around that, and he had no right to be. He was clearly in the wrong. And so, caught in a weak and guilty moment, he’d found himself agreeing to go to Aspen and confess to Jaya exactly what it was that he’d been doing in her room.

As they walked, he glanced at her sidelong to find that she was looking at him, too. He forced his eyes away and lengthened his stride, so he was ahead of her as they pushed the doors to walk outside toward the bus. Yes, she wanted the whole story. Yes, she had a right to ask. But still, Grey couldn’t imagine himself telling her. He hadn’t told a single soul in all of his nearly eighteen years. How was he supposed to change that for a Rao, of all people?

His mind turned back to the pendant, as it always did. The Raos had cursed the ruby. Jaya shows up to St. R’s wearing it. How could there not be a connection?

Grey recalled all the times he’d asked Jaya about her pendant. She’d never once looked guilty, never once said anything to hint at the fact that she might know where it had come from or what it meant to him. Besides, she’d thought he was snooping in her room so he could sell information to the tabloids. She hadn’t mentioned the pendant at all. So her having it was probably just another weird thing to add to the list of weird things that had plagued Grey since he was born.

“There you are,” Mrs. Wakefield, the Russian Lit teacher said. She was waiting just outside the bus, her brassy blond hair blowing in the breeze. “Come on, you two, we’re ready to go.”