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jittery from all the caffeine, and feeling so thwarted that she was ready to throttle the first tall brunette that crossed her path.
    What if she had missed her? What if the girl was, right now, returning to that first dorm, out of sight? If Ariana had to come back in the morning and start this process all over again, she might have a nervous breakdown.
    Suddenly, her phone beeped, startling her. Ariana placed her coffee cup down next to her and pulled the cell from her pocket, being careful to keep one eye on the door of the dorm. The text was from Jasper.
    COME BACK SOON. IT’S COLD HERE WITHOUT YOU.
    Ariana smiled. He’d been sending her romantic little texts all afternoon, but never asked her where she was or what she was doing. It was so nice to have a boyfriend who wasn’t nosy or demanding or controlling. All he wanted was to be with her.
    BACK SOON. PROMISE.
    Ariana hit SEND and slipped the phone back into her pocket. She was just about done here anyway. Clearly mere surveillance wasn’t going to be enough. She was going to have to figure out some other, more efficient way to determine where Reed was staying. Maybe she could devise a way to hack into the school’s system. Or simply fly to that awful town where Reed hailed from and ask her parents. They were probably just hick-dumb enough to tell her.
    With a sigh, Ariana pushed herself to her feet, her frozen muscles and bones cracking and protesting. She was just about to head for the visitor’s lot when she heard a laugh that stopped her cold.
    Slowly, Ariana looked up, and there she was. Reed Brennan in the flesh. She was walking with three friends about twenty yards away, tugging along a rolling suitcase, headed toward the dorm. And just in case Ariana was concerned that her mind was messing with her again, Reed was wearing a vinyl warm-up jacket with her last name emblazoned across the back in huge letters.
    Suddenly, Ariana’s mouth filled with saliva. She swallowed hard, disgusted. It was amazing, the effect Reed had on her. It was all Ariana could do to stop herself from sprinting across the quad and launching herself at the girl like a wild animal. The primal beat started up inside of her all over again, this time louder than ever.
    She must die … she must die … she must die …
    At the front door of the dorm, Reed paused and tugged a key card out of her pocket.
    She must die … she must die … she must die …
    Reed flashed the card in front of the electronic pad, then reached over and opened the door for her friends.
    She must die … she must die … she must die …
    They all piled inside, Reed at the rear, and the door slammed behind them.
    Ariana blinked, waking up from her trance. Reed was gone, and that was that. Ariana breathed in, long and slow, and felt her pulse start to slow. Reed had a key to the building, so this was clearly where she lived. Now all Ariana had to do was watch her, get her schedule down, and figure out the optimal moment to attack.
    Soon, it would all be over. Soon, the balance would be restored. All the deaths—Thomas’s, Briana Leigh’s, Brigit’s, Lexa’s—all of them would be avenged.
    Lifting her chin, Ariana turned and calmly strode toward the parking lot. Her heart rate was perfectly calm. Her breathing perfectly normal. is time she was going to have a plan. A foolproof plan. is time she was going to leave nothing to chance like when she’d done away with that horrible Mel girl back in Easton, or poor Sergei at the lake, or the first time she’d tried to kill Kaitlynn in her hotel room on Dupont Circle, or that awful, fateful night when she’d come so close to pushing Reed off the roof of Billings House.
    It was always much better to have a plan. And this was far too important to leave anything to chance.
    THE NOMINATION

    “I now open the floor to official nominations for the post of President of the Atherton-Pryce Hall chapter of Stone and Grave.”
    April’s words brought a chill over the