Sejeong and I walk down our empty dorm hallway, carrying books. There's only a single wall torch to light our way and it's burning low, casting long sections of the hall into dark shadow. My arm throbs from the stitches the nurse gave me, and I've learned that this place doesn't believe in painkillers. I look over my shoulder, but everything is still and silent.

I unlatch our door and Sejeong and I put our books down - some on history for me, which Sejeong said would give me the basis of understanding for what she needs to teach me, and more on criminology for her. She also threw in some regular books about poisons and swords just in case Sohee is taking note of our reading.

I'm not sure why Sejeong's still obsessively researching Taehyung's murder after we found out Kai was the culprit and Sehun and I were cleared, but she seems to be fixated on the details. Maybe she just wants to understand what happened to her friend? I would ask Sehun if this was normal for her, but I haven't seen him all evening.

We check the room to make sure no one is hiding anywhere, and Sejeong sits on the couch in front of the fireplace.

"If Taemin took the time to break in and write that message on your floor, why didn't he just kill you when we had the chance?" she asks.

I sit down next to her. "I don't know." I reflexively touch the bandage on my arm. "Maybe Jennie wanted to be the one to do it, to cut me down publicly?"

Sejeong bit her lip. "Yeah, but she didn't succeed. And from what I heard, you held your own, which, against Jennie, is saying a lot. I think she an opportunity and took it, simple as that. because why would she chance fighting you in the open if she could just sneak in and slit your throat?"

I shudder. "No knife?"

"That's possible," she says. "But how did she manage to come by a sharpened sword? The sparring blades are kept dull for a reason. Something here doesn't add up." She stares at the cackling fire.

"Yoo said they were taking her to the dungeon," I say. "Are they going to enforce the eye-for-an-eye rule? And how would that even work? Because technically she cut my arm, but obviously she was trying to kill me."

Sejeong turns toward me. "I'm not exactly sure. I've never seen a situation play out this way before. They'll do something. The dungeon is miserable, from what I've heard, but I'm sure you'll get a chance to retaliate as well."

I frown, wishing all this retaliation business would just stop. "What about Taemin? Whether he was the one who broke in or not, I'm assuming he's got to be pissed now that one of his friends is dead and the other is in the dungeon."

Sejeong's fist clenches for just a moment. "Oh, this definitely isn't over. I'm not trying to scare you, but if the Tigers want you dead, they're not going to stop until you are."

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Before I even turn around, Sejeong is off the couch.

"We're coming," she says as she lifts the latch.

The guard on the other side of the door looks around, and once she sees me, she turns and goes to the next room to knock.

Sejeong hands me my cloak and I slip it on.

We follow the other girls down the hallway and into the foyer where Jennie and I competed in the dark. It's hard to believe that was only a week ago; I feel like a year's worth of chaos has ensued since then. Kang stands by the wall, and the twenty-four girls assembles on the ground in front of her and form a U.

"We have some new challenges for you tonight," Kang says, and her tone makes it sound like a carefully concealed warning. "You will find these challenges different from any you have been presented with thus far. And there will be serious consequences for not completing them properly."

She looks behind her at the guards, who step aside to let six faulty members pass, including Sanrak, Naifu, and Yoo. Kang nods at them and they begin to move around the U like we're playing a creepy game of Duck Duck Goose, each one selecting a handful of students.

Yoo taps the girl on my left and Sanrak taps the girl next to Sejeong. The girls get up and walk off in small clusters, following the faulty members  who selected them, until only Sejeong, Rose, Lisa, and I are left.

"Follow me," Kang says with no warmth. I want to protest, but I don't dare show Rose that I'm nervous about whatever is about to happen.

Kang leads us two doorways down to the teachers' lounge I was kept in when I first arrived. The fireplace isn't lit like it was then, and the only source of light is a single torch by the arched doorway.

Four large guards follow our group into the room, and the X guard is one of them, which only escalates my unease. Sejeong and I glance at each other, and I can tell by the look in her eyes that she's worried, too. I want to ask her how extreme these challenges get, but no one is talking right now - not even Rose.

I immediately take in the details of the room. There are two big couches near the fireplace, with a wide, sturdy coffee table between them. Two sets of armchairs with footstools separated by small end tables. A sideboard with a pitcher of water, clean glasses, and a bowl of apples. A round table with for holders. A large fireplace with decorative stone t. A shelf full of books. A wrought-iron candelabra hanging from the ceiling. And no windows.

"Your first challenge is simple," Kang says, standing directly in front of the door with two guards on either side of her. "There are six objects hidden in this room. Find them and it will make completing the second challenge easier. Don't find them and you will wish you had - some of you more than others. I will be the one to decide when your time is up."

That doesn't sound remotely comforting and pretty much tells us nothing except that Kang makes the rules and unless we move quickly we'll regret it.

"Begin," Kang says, and everyone springs into action.

Lisa goes to the bookshelf and methodically starts taking down every book. Rose moves to the sideboard to inspect the apples. Sejeong drags the coffee table to the center of the room. She grabs a chair from the round table and places it on top, climbing it up to the candelabra.

I turn in a circle. The furniture is the obvious go-to and most likely contains more than half of the objects. And I have no doubt those three will find whatever is there. But there has to be at least one object that isn't hidden in the furniture. I run my eyes over the walls, looking for anything that could be shifted or manipulated. I pull on the empty wrought-iron torch holders, but they were firmly attached. I lift the tapestry, but there's nothing behind it.

I stop at the fireplace. The stones are large and seemingly mortared in place. There are no logs in the fireplace, but is some leftover ash. i sift through it with my fingers.

"Found one," Rose says with a gloating tone. She pulls a hairpin out of the end of an apple and places it on the marble top of the sideboard.

A hairpin? They hid things that small? I smack my hands togethers a cloud of soot billows out. I run my fingers along the brick-sized decorative stones that make up the mantel, looking for any crack or groove that shouldn't be there. My sooty fingers leave a trail , particularly in the tiny imperfections. Well, now, there's an idea. I scoop up the ash and smear it on all of the small stones by the fistful, painting the whole mantel with dark grey.

"Metal nail file," Sejeong says, and we all briefly turn to see her pull it from the end of an unlit candle in the candelabra.

Rose is removing the drawers from the sideboard and inspecting them for false backs and bottoms.

I look around me for a piece of spare fabric, but there's nothing but the heavy tapestry. Screw it. I grab the end of my cloak and start wiping the excess soot off the stones in a circular motion.

"Two paper clips," Lisa says, pulling them from the loose spine of an old book.

"Paper clips, a metal nail file, and a hairpin - there's definitely a theme here and I'm pretty sure it has something to do with locks. Except that the door in this room in this room, like all the doors I've seen, closes with a latch.

I rub at the stones faster, and a soot line forms around a fist-sized stone in the upper left corner of the mantel. I drop my cloak and grip the rock with my fingertips, wiggling it back and forth. Slowly it comes out in my hand, and I catch Lisa watching me from where she's checking the seams of a couch.

I look into the small stone cubby and glimpse a dark metal object pushed all the way to the back. "Got one," I say, and pull medieval-looking pliers from the hole, placing them on the mantel.

Sejeong slides out an inch from under the coffee table, where she's inspecting the wood.

"Time's up," Kang says.

And just like that, the torch goes out, smothering the room in complete blackness.

"Sejeong?" I say.

"I'm -" she starts, but get cuts off by what sounds like a blow to the stomach. Wood scrapes against wood, and there is a squeak I can only guess belongs to moving metal.

I take a fast couple of steps toward Sejeong's voice, my arms out in front of me, and smack into  the coffee table with my shins, pitching forward.

"Get the hell -" Rose starts, and her voice is muffled.

Sejeong coughs and wheezes, only instead of coming from the floor, the sound seems to be coming from above my head.

There are a few rough thuds of what I can only imagine are people hitting each other, and I cringe, wondering if I'll be next. Something crashes to my right, and books topple to the floor from one of the bookshelves.

I recover my balance and climb onto the coffee table, moving toward the sound of Sejeong's labored breathing. My heart beats a mile a minute.

There is the whine of an old hinge as the door briefly opens and slams shut. A latch slides into place from the outside, and then the room falls into complete silence besides Sejeong's wheezing.

"Sejeong, where are you?" I say, waving my hands in front of me.

"Light. We need light, Suzy," Sejeong manages between breaths.

I hear a couple more books fall. "Xụ," Lisa breathes, and I'm pretty sure it's the first word I've ever heard her say.

For a split second I stand there with my heart racing, lost in the darkness. There are no matches. There aren't even coals to work with. And I'm pretty sure whoever left the room took the torch with the, because I can't see any embers glowing from where the torch holder should be.

Lisa gasps. "Rosé?"

I can hear the fear in her voice, and it brings my awareness into sharp focus. "Paper," I say with urgency, "the older and drier the better. Bring it over to the fireplace, Lisa."

If I'm not wrong, some of the stones making up the mantel are actually flint, including the one that was loose. And there's a chance those old pliers are made of steel. I step down from the table and run back to fireplace faster than is cautious, my hands in front of me.

I collide with the stone and quickly feel around the mantel. "Got you."

The sound of paper crumpling next to me makes my heart skips a beat.

"Here, find my hand," I say, reaching out, and Lisa does.

I take the crumpled paper, secure it on top of the stone with my thumb, and it the edge of the stone hard with the old pilers. A few sparks fly. Yes!

"If you could -" I start, but Lisa is already blowing on the paper.

I hit the sone a few more times, and by my fourth go one of the sparks catches, creating a tiny burning hole in the paper.

"C'mon, c'mon," I coax it impatiently while Lisa continues to blow gently on the flame. Little by little the burning circle widens until at last we're rewarded by an actual flame. Lisa has rolled up another paper and tips it against the flame, giving us a small but definite torch, and my heart soars. It's not much light, no bright than a birthday candle, but hopefully enough to get the general outline of things. As I squint through the gloom, Lisa puts the knocked-over chair back on the table and climbs onto it.

"What in the . . ." I say in horror. Sejeong's legs are wrapped around the candelabra branches in an awkward position and there's something tied around her wrists, preventing her from using her hands to hold on to anything.

Lisa doesn't say a word to Sejeong, and to my shock she doesn't try to help her. Instead, she just grabs two candles and jumps down to the floor, returning to me and lighting the candles with the paper. She gives me one and the room gets instantly brighter. Kang and the guards are definitely gone, not that I thought any differently.

I quickly drip some wax onto the mantel and stick the bottom of the candle in it to free up my hands. "Hang on, I'm gonna get you down," I say to Sejeong.

"It's a zip tie," Sejeong says, having regained most of her breath. But I can tell she's struggling. "It's wrapped around the iron. If I take any weight off my legs, it's going to cut into my skin more than it already has. And it's so tight that if we use fire to try to melt it, I'm going to get seriously burned."

"Sejeong, the file. Where did you put it?" I say. But before I can finish my sentence, I spot the piece of metal on the floor next to the table. I reach for it, but Lisa was quicker. Only instead of handing it to me, she walks away.

"Hey, where are you go-" I snap, but quickly stop.

I follow her line of sight to Rosé, who's lying on the floor. There's a metal and leather contraption covering and nose that's secured by five metal chains reach behind her head.

"Holy . Can she breathe?" I ask.

Rosé's eyes are closed.

Lisa places a hand on Rose's chest and shakes her head in a way that lets me know that whatever she's observing isn't good. Kang said there'd be serious consequences, but this is extreme. Life-and-death extreme.

I look between Rose and Sejeong. If Rosé can't breathe and I don't help Lisa, I could partially responsible for suffocating her. But I have no love for Rose, and if I let Sejeong get sliced up because of her, I won't forgive myself. However, fighting Lisa for the file will only ensure that everyone loses.

"Sejeong, how long can you on in that position?" I ask.

"Maybe two minutes?" she says, and I can hear the strain in her voice.

"Yell out when you're reaching your limit," I say, and crouch down next to Lisa and Rosé.

For a split second, Lisa looks up at me, surprised.

"Tell me what to do," I say as she files the last inch of a partially straightened paper clip.

"Unravel the second paper clip and fold it exactly in half," she says, and I find myself marveling at the sound of her voice, which is surprising soothing and self-assured for someone who so rarely uses it. "Bend the last half inch in a ninety-degree angle to form an L shape."

I start working while she explains. She holds up her own paper clip. "See how I filed this to be flat instead of round? Do the same with the bent part of yours."

Lisa hands me the file and uses the pliers to bend the flattened end of hers first one way, then the other, creating three little waves in the straight line.

I file away at my paper clip L for all I'm worth, my fingers clumsy and trembling with nerves. "You okay, Sejeong?" I call.

"Yeah," she says, but the strain in her voice has deepened.

Lisa turns Rosé over. There's a padlock on the back of her head, holding the chains together like the medieval torture device.

Lisa grabs the lock. I give her the L paper clip I filed and she shoved it into the bottom of the keyhole, sliding the wavy end of hers in on top of it. I take the file and run for Sejeong, climbing the chair so fast that it wobbles.

Whoever put her up here was taller than me, and I can barely reach her wrists. I squeeze the file between her skin and the plastic and saw at it as fast as I can. The plastic is thick and resistant and I can see the desperation on Sejeong's face.

"Suzy?" Sejeong says. "I can't -"

A chair hits the table, and within a second, Lisa is on it. She positions her shoulder under Sejeong's and supports her.

Three more seconds of filing and the plastic snaps. Sejeong grabs the candelabra, and Lisa and I moved out of the way so she can jump down onto the table.

Sejeong rubs her wrists, which have cuts on them, but nothing like what she would have had if she'd fallen. "I have no idea how they go me up there so fast. I've never fought a guard before. They're -"

"As agile as giant ballerinas," Rose says. She's sitting up and rubbing her head. "I feel like I got hit by an ogre."

I grab the candle off the mantel and climb back up to the candelabra to light the others.

"You're pretty banged up, too, Lisa," Rose says, and in the brighter light I can see that Lisa has two bruises forming, one on her hand where she potentially landed a punch and one on her cheek surrounding a scrape that I can only guess is from colliding with the bookshelf in the dark. "In fact, the only person here who doesn't look like they fought is Suzy. How is it you were magically spared in this challenge? And wasn't Dr. Yoo also there to save you right before Jennie tried to skewer you? Sounds like a big fat conspiracy to me. Maybe you're not an Eagle at all, but a Tiger sent to screw with everyone."

I open my mouth to respond, but the door creaks and we all turn toward it.

Kang stands in the doorway. "I see you girls managed to get yourselves in order.=," she says flatly, like she left us drinking tea and eating cookies. "You may all return to your rooms now. These gentlemen will you back." She gestures to two of the four guards who attacked us, one of whom is the X guard.

"Gentlemen, that's one way to describe them," Rosé says in an Italian accent that drips sarcasm.

Kang gives her a hard look. "Perhaps you would prefer to continue with the challenge?"

Rose doesn't flinch. In fact, she looks like she's about to accept Kang's offer.

"Say the word and you and Lisa will get your wish," Kang says.

Anger flashes in Rose's eyes. She almost imperceptibly glances at Lisa and then reluctantly shakes her head. So Rose does have a weakness. And it's another person. I have to admit that I'm surprised. I always got the sense she would throw her own mother off a building if the thought occurred to her, so this hint of loyalty is something unexpected.

Sejeong and I exit through the door before Kang can change her mind.

The X guard takes up his position behind us, and I can't get up the stairs fast enough. Sejeong opens the door, and just as I'm about to follow her through it, I feel warm air graze the back of my neck.

"You're next," the X guard whispers, and I whip around, but he's already walking away down the hall.

I close the door behind me, my hands shaking.

"Did you hear that?" I ask Sejeong.

She looks at me expectantly.

"That guard just whispered 'You're next.'"

For a second she just stares at me. Then drops into a frown. "You're absolutely positive he spoke to you?" There's worry in her voice.

"Positive." I search Sejeong for answers. "Was that a threat? Did he just threaten me?"

Sejeong bit her lip. "He's the same one who caught you the other night?"

I nod.

"Guards don't talk to students. Yes, we break lots of rules here, but that's not one of them. I told you I thought there was something off. Now I'm sure of it," she says.

"And that exercise Kang just had us do, is that a normal -" I start.

"No," Sejeong says, shaking her head. "It was typical as far as the psychology of those challenges goes, but not in its execution. Students have died in the occasional accident or . . . homicide, but never from being suffocated by the headmaster." By the way Sejeong's looking at me, I can tell she's as scared as I am. "Having a challenge like this on the heels of two students dying is . . . well, I don't know what it is, and that's what worries me."

I take off my cloak, but she doesn't. "Are you going somewhere?"

"Sehun's room," she says. "He needs to know."

"You're going to Sehun's right after the guard said someone's coming for me? Can I go with you?" I ask.

"No, but I'll be back soon," she says, and slips out the door, leaving me all alone.