[Multiple POVs]
---
[Rosella – First Person POV]
I didn't sleep.
Not a wink.
The candle wax from the ceremony still clung to my skin like the vow I made — quiet and binding.
I'm part of them now.
The Thorns.
But Saint Augustine's feels different.
Or maybe it's me.
Every whisper sounds sharper. Every stare feels loaded.
I used to be invisible here. Now I'm a target.
At breakfast, someone "accidentally" spilled cappuccino on my skirt.
Then someone else slipped a note into my bag:
> "One of us? Prove it."
Welcome to hell, I guess.
---
[Veronica – Third Person POV]
She watched from her usual spot — center table, throne-like chair, untouched croissant.
Rosella had walked in with her chin up. Smart girl.
But brave wasn't bulletproof.
Veronica knew how to dismantle people. Not with fists. With reputation.
"Florence," she said sweetly, "isn't Rosella just... glowing today?"
Florence laughed. "Must be the initiation candlelight. So flattering."
Cue the giggles.
Let Rosella have her moment.
Let her smile. Breathe.
She'd take it all away.
Piece by piece.
---
[Damien – First Person POV]
I saw the note slip into Rosella's bag.
I saw the way her shoulders tightened when she read it.
They were testing her already.
Good.
She needed pressure.
Only then would the diamond show.
But part of me wanted to tear the note up myself. Punch the silence out of this place. Tell her she didn't have to play this game the way they wanted.
But then she looked at me across the room.
Defiant.
Unmoved.
And I knew—
She wasn't just playing.
She was planning.
---
[Lara – Third Person POV]
Lara knew something was wrong.
Rosella had that look. Like someone standing on the edge of a cliff, pretending the fall didn't scare her.
And Damien? He was watching too closely. His hands clenched when she passed. His jaw tightened when she spoke to others.
The last girl he looked at like that?
She vanished mid-term.
People said her family moved.
But Lara remembered her crying in the chemistry lab.
Remembered the bruises that looked intentional.
This wasn't just school anymore.
This was survival.
---
[Rosella – First Person POV]
When I got to my dorm, the second envelope was waiting.
Black wax again.
I opened it with fingers that didn't dare tremble.
Inside:
> Your First Task: Dig up a secret about Veronica Black.
Deliver it before Friday.
No digital proof. No lies.
Real dirt.
Or you're out.
I laughed.
Of course it was Veronica.
Of course it had to be clean. No screenshots. No gossip. Just truth.
They wanted me to go to war with a girl who'd been raised on threats and high fashion.
Fine.
Let the record show —
She started it.