“Hey,” a voice said behind him, and Matt jerked, tumbling a suitcase down onto the floor. “Whoops, sorry about that. Are you Matt?”
“Yeah,” Matt said, giving the key one last twist and, just like that, the door final y opened. He turned, smiling. “Are you Christopher?” The school had told him his roommate’s name and that he was on the footbal team, too, but the two of them hadn’t gotten in touch. Christopher looked okay. He was a big guy with a linebacker build, friendly smile, and short sandy hair that he scrubbed at with one hand as he stepped back to make way for the cheerful middle-aged couple fol owing him.
“Hi there, you must be Matt,” said the woman, who was carrying a rol ed-up rug and a Dalcrest pennant. “I’m Jennifer, Christopher’s mom, and this is Mark, his dad. It’s so nice to meet you. Are your folks here?”
“Uh, no, I just drove up by myself,” Matt said. “My hometown, Fel ’s Church, isn’t too far from here.” He grabbed his suitcases and lugged them into the room, hurrying to get out of Christopher’s family’s way.
Their room was pretty smal . There was a bunk bed along one wal , a narrow space in the middle of the room, and two desks and dressers crammed side by side on the other wal .
The girls and Stefan were no doubt living in luxury, but it hadn’t seemed quite right to let Stefan use his Power to get Matt a good housing assignment. It was bad enough that Matt took someone else’s slot as a student and someone else’s space on the footbal team.
Stefan had talked him into doing just that. “Look, Matt,” he’d said, his green eyes serious. “I understand how you feel. I don’t like influencing people to get what I want either.
But the fact is, we need to stay together. With the lines of Power that run through this whole part of the country, we have to be on our guard. We’re the only ones who know.” Matt had to agree, when Stefan put it like that. He’d turned down the plush dorm room Stefan had offered to arrange for him, though, and taken what the housing office assigned him. He had to hang on to at least a shred of his honor. Plus if he was in the same dorm as the others, it would have been hard to say no to rooming with Stefan. He liked Stefan fine, but the idea of living with him, of watching him with Elena, the girl Matt had lost and stil loved despite al that had happened, was too much. And it would be fun to meet new people, to expand his horizons a bit after spending his whole life in Fel ’s Church.
But the room was awful y smal .
And Christopher seemed to have a ton of stuff. He and his parents went up and down the stairs, hauling in a sound system, a little refrigerator, a TV, a Wii. Matt shoved his own three suitcases into the corner and helped them bring it al in.
“We’l share the fridge and the entertainment stuff, of course,” Christopher told him, glancing at Matt’s bags, which clearly contained nothing but clothes and maybe some sheets and towels. “If we can figure out where to put it al .” Christopher’s mom was prowling around the room, directing his dad on where to move things.
“Great, thanks—” Matt started to say, but Christopher’s dad, having final y managed to wedge the TV on top of one of the dressers, turned to look at Matt.
“Hey,” he said. “It just hit me—if you’re from Fel ’s Church, you guys were the state champions last year. You must be some player. What position do you play?”
“Uh, thanks,” Matt said. “I play quarterback.”
“First string?” Christopher’s dad asked him.
Matt blushed. “Yeah.”
Now they were al staring at him.
“Wow,” Christopher said. “No offense, man, but why are you going to Dalcrest? I mean, I’m excited just to play col ege bal , but you could have gone, like, Division One.” Matt shrugged uncomfortably. “Um, I had to stay close to home.”
Christopher opened his mouth to say something else, but his mother gave a tiny shake of her head and he closed it again. Great, Matt thought. They probably thought he had family problems.
He had to admit it warmed him a little, though, to be with people who acknowledged what he’d given up. The girls and Stefan didn’t real y understand footbal . Even though Stefan had played on their high school team with him, his mind-set was stil very much that of the Renaissance European aristocrat: sports were enjoyable pastimes that kept the body fit. Stefan didn’t real y care.
But Christopher and his family—they got what it meant for Matt to pass up the chance of playing for a top-ranked col ege footbal team.
“So,” Christopher said, a little too suddenly, as if he’d been trying to think of a way to change the subject, “which bed do you want? I don’t care whether I take top or bottom.” They al looked over at the bunk beds, and that’s when Matt saw it for the first time. It must have arrived while he was downstairs helping with Christopher’s luggage. A cream-colored envelope sat on the bottom bunk, made of a fancy thick paper stock like a wedding invitation. On the front was written in cal igraphy “Matthew Honeycutt.”
“What’s that, dear?” Christopher’s mom asked curiously.
Matt shrugged, but he was beginning to feel a thrum of excitement in his chest. He’d heard something about invitations certain people at Dalcrest received, ones that just mysteriously appeared, but he’d always thought they were a myth.
Flipping the envelope over, he saw a blue wax seal bearing the impression of an ornate letter V.
Huh. After gazing at the envelope for a second, he folded it and slipped it into his back pocket. If it was what he thought it was, he was supposed to open it alone.
“I guess that’s fate tel ing us the bottom bunk’s yours,” Christopher said amiably.
“Yeah,” Matt said distractedly, his heart pounding hard.
“Excuse me for a minute, okay?”
He ducked out into the hal , took a deep breath, and opened the envelope. Inside was more thick fancy paper with cal igraphy on it and a narrow piece of black fabric. He read:
Fortis Aeturnus
For generations, the best and brightest of Dalcrest College have been chosen to join the Vitale Society. This year, you have been selected.
Should you wish to accept this honor and become one of us, come tomorrow night at eight o’clock to the main campus gate. You must be blindfolded and dressed as befits a serious occasion.
Tell no one.
The little pulse of excitement in Matt’s chest increased until he could hear his heart pounding in his ears. He sank down along the wal and took a deep breath.
He’d heard stories about the Vitale Society. The handful of wel -known actors, famous writers, and great Civil War general that Dalcrest counted among their alumni were al rumored to have been members. To belong to the legendary society was supposed to ensure your success, to link you to an incredible secret network that would help you throughout your life.
More than that, there was talk of mysterious deeds, of secrets revealed only to members. And they were supposed to have amazing parties.
But they were just gossip, the stories of the Vitale Society, and no one ever straight-out admitted to belonging to it. Matt always figured the secret society was a myth. The col ege itself so vehemently denied any knowledge of the Vitale Society that Matt suspected the admissions people might have made the whole thing up, trying to make the col ege seem a little more exclusive and mysterious than it real y was.
But here—he looked down at the creamy paper clutched in his hands—was evidence that al the stories might be true. It could be a joke, he supposed, a trick someone was playing on a few of the freshmen. It didn’t feel like a joke, though. The seal, the wax, the expensive paper; it seemed like a lot of effort to go to if the invitation wasn’t genuine.
The most exclusive, most secret society at Dalcrest was real. And they wanted him.
4
“Trust Bonnie to meet a cute guy on her first day at col ege,” Elena said. She careful y drew the nail-polish brush over Meredith’s toenail, painting it a tannish pink.