Titus smirked. “Oh, I think not. You’ve been suspended from the festival. Everyone thinks you’re back at Arkwell, pouting in your dorm rooms, no doubt.”

I started to ask him how he knew about the detention, but I realized Gargrave had been there. Now that I thought about it, Gargrave had been everywhere, he and his men always lurking in the shadows, watching, waiting. Paul was right. His uncle had a long, powerful reach. I’d seen enough of the Will Guard to know how loyal they were to their captain—a man loyal to Titus Kirkwood. Really, using the Will Guard was brilliant. They could be anywhere on campus at any time and no one would question what they were doing.

“Lady Elaine will notice,” I said, refusing to admit defeat. “I never entered my dream-journal last night.”

Gargrave chuckled. “We entered one for you. What with dreams being so erratic, it was easy to take snippets from your prior entries and mesh them together.”

I felt myself pale. This had been well planned, and I wondered how long Titus and his men had been spying on Eli and me. Probably from the moment they decided to sink Senate Hall into the sea. That also meant they’d known the moment Paul had contacted us.

I stuck out my chin. “Our friends will miss us.”

Titus cocked his head. “Which one? Her perhaps?” He motioned to the far corner, and my stomach dropped at the sight of a long black braid with hair as glossy and fine as silk. “Wake her,” Titus said to Gargrave. “But do it more gently this time. I’ve had enough screaming.”

Gargrave strode over to Selene and muttered a spell. Selene began to stir at once, moaning loudly from the pain of ill-used muscles. Gargrave stooped and picked her up, depositing her in the chair to my left.

I glanced at Selene long enough to determine she was okay. At least for now. I assumed they must’ve taken her last night when they abducted Eli and me. She wasn’t wearing pajamas, though, but the black coat she’d been tailoring for her home ec class. Seeing her here was a blow, but at least there was no sign of Paul.

Titus stepped up to Selene, grabbed hold of her chin, and tilted her head back as he examined her face. He sighed. “It’s such a shame we had to bring you into this. I’m quite fond of your mother, and I know she’ll miss you terribly. But you shouldn’t have gotten so involved with these two.” He motioned toward Eli and me. “You know too much as well, I’m afraid.”

Selene didn’t respond, just sat there, her expression a mask of calm but her eyes livid. I knew in that moment that everything Paul had ever said about his uncle was true. He was a monster, a man who took pleasure in the pain and suffering of others. In a way, that made him even worse than Marrow, who simply didn’t care about the suffering he inflicted.

Titus released Selene’s face and stepped back. “Now on to business.” He reached into his front pocket and withdrew a cell phone. My cell phone. “We need to discuss the data my nephew hid inside this. I have a feeling that you know how to access it.” Titus approached me and held the phone a few inches from my face.

Right away the instructions and the pass code ran through my mind.

“Oh, she knows,” Gargrave said. “She’s thinking about it now.”

I jerked against the ropes holding me. I felt an odd pressure in my mind, the presence of someone else trying to break in. If it weren’t for the sessions I’d spent with Mr. Deverell, I wasn’t sure I would’ve recognized that pressure for what it was. Instinct took over, and I pushed back against it, forcing him out of my mind. Gargrave winced, and I flashed a smile at him, momentarily gleeful in my victory.

But it had come too late.

Titus rubbed his hands together. “Excellent.” He took a step toward me. “Now, I’m going to give you one chance to make this easy for everyone. Tell me how to access the data hidden on this phone, and I promise that you and your friends will not suffer.”

I gasped as the full meaning in his words reached me. He didn’t say that my friends and I would live. Oh, no. He had brought us here to die. It was just a matter of how quick and how much pain we endured beforehand.

“Don’t tell him anything,” said Selene.

In an almost casual gesture Gargrave backhanded her. Selene’s neck rocked back so hard I was terrified it might’ve broken, my fear intensified by Selene’s silence—she hadn’t uttered a sound as the blow fell. But then I watched her lower her head back down, and I realized she had held it in with a force of will far greater than any I’d ever known. There weren’t even tears in her eyes, despite the blood trickling from the side of her mouth.

“What’s your decision?” Titus said.

Doing my best to mirror Selene, I said, “I’m not going to tell you anything.”

Titus sighed. “Ah, yes. I figured as much. But no matter. We just need to find the right pressure point. Everyone has one, you know.”

My gaze flicked automatically to Eli, bile climbing up my throat of the thought of them hurting him.

But Titus glanced at Gargrave. “Let’s try Paul first. Carry him if you must.”

Every muscle in my body tensed as I watched Gargrave turn and leave the room only to return a few moments later with an unconscious Paul dangling in the air in front of him, held there by silver ropes. One look at Paul’s face told me that he’d needed to be carried in. Shiny black bruises covered his cheeks, and his right eye was swollen shut. His lip was split in three places. Gashes ran down his arms and legs, the wounds visible through his shredded clothes.