"Where did you get that?" Sabine asked, her voice barely audible over the music.
"You know where I got it--from the frame next to your bed," I replied, advancing on her slightly,
still holding the picture up. "What are you doing with Ariana, Sabine? How the hell do you know
her? How could you have kept it from me all this time?"
Sabine glanced around and laughed nervously, as our mutual friends were now gaping at her.
"I don't know what she's talking about," she said, shaking her head.
"The evidence is right here!" I said, thrusting the picture at her. "You can't even try to deny it. Tell
me the truth, Sabine. What are you doing with Ariana Osgood?"
Sabine was still smiling, looking at me like I had lost it. My blood was boiling so hot my skin was
going to sear right off.
"Reed, I-"
"The girl tried to kill me!" I blurted, my hand quaking. "Tell me how you know the psycho bitch!"
Just like that, something inside Sabine seemed to snap. The innocent, cornered puppy dog mask
fell away and was replaced by something dark. Something evil. Something smoldering.
"Don't call her that," she said, her voice hard.
I had to laugh. "Call her what? Psycho bitch? That's exactly what she is."
Sabine got right in my face so fast I almost lost my balance. Her green eyes bored into mine. "She's
not a psycho bitch," she hissed through her teeth. "She's my sister."
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The world around me was sucked into a vacuum, leaving nothing but me and Sabine behind. The
lights, the music, the voices, the laughter, the whirl of color all around me. Gone in a flash. All I
could see was the rabid look in Sabine's eyes. So very much like Ariana's ferocity. So very familiar.
So very obvious.
Ariana was Sabine's sister. The one she always talked about like she was some kind of goddess, the
one she had visited off campus, the one who had been "out of the country" for our fund-raiser. All
that time she had been talking about Ariana. Of course the girl was out of the country. She was out
of her freaking mind. Suddenly, I remembered a couple of weeks ago when Sabine had tried to get
me to confide in her about my breakup with Josh. She had mentioned helping her sister through a
bad breakup. Had she been talking about Ariana and Thomas then? My God, I was such a total
fool.
"Your what?''' Constance blurted, bringing me back into the here and now. The world rushed back
in on me so fast I thought I was going to faint. And on top of that, the realization. The complete
realization of the truth.
"It was you," I said quietly, my hand and the photo finally dropping. Sabine had killed Cheyenne.
Sabine had been the one haunting me. She had done it all for Ariana.
"It was all you."
Sabine simply stared at me, but I saw the light of triumph in her eyes. She didn't even seem upset
at having been caught. She seemed... excited.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute," Trey said, stepping up next to us.
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Slowly a crowd was forming around us. Trey. Noelle. Astrid. Gage. "What do you mean, it was all
her? What was all her? Reed, what the hell is going on?"
I couldn't answer him. All I could do was stare at Sabine. "Why did you have to kill Cheyenne?" I
asked her, my throat suddenly aching. "If you wanted me, then why didn't you just come after
me? Why did you have to hurt her?"
My voice broke on the word hurt, which pissed me off. Trey and Gage looked at each other, grim
understanding creeping into their eyes.
"Because I wanted you to feel it," she said fiercely, her teeth still clenched. "I wanted you to feel
what it was like to slowly lose your mind. I wanted to put you through exactly what you put my
sister through. An eye for an eye."
"What?" Trey said. "What the hell are you guys talking about?"
"Let her talk," I said, holding a hand out to Trey. "It feels good to talk, doesn't it, Sabine? Just like
Ariana did. Doesn't it feel good to get it all off your chest?"
"Don't talk about my sister like you know her!" Sabine snapped, getting right in my face. "You
ruined her!"
There were a few gasps around me as the crowd thickened. Up until now, it had been difficult for
anyone to hear us over the noise, but now that the other partygoers were starting to take notice, I
could hear the whispers running already, disappearing into the heavy bass of the music.
"Ariana's sister?"
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"Sabine?"
I saw Josh slip into the front row of onlookers, his gorgeous face creased with concern and
confusion. I felt stronger just seeing him there.
"Fine. Let's just say I ruined Ariana," I said sarcastically. "What did that have to do with
Cheyenne?"
Sabine let out an evil laugh. "Don't pin that on me," she said, shaking her head. "I would never
have had to go there if it hadn't been for Josh. All I wanted to do was help Cheyenne steal him
from you the way you stole Thomas from Ariana. Easy as pie. But no. Not Josh. He loved you too
much. He was too strong. I had to drug him within an inch of his life that night just to get him to
hook up with Cheyenne in the Art Cemetery."
All the air rushed right out of my lungs. Astrid's face went ashen and Constance let out a small
whimper.
"What? That was you? "Josh demanded, coming forward. "You fed me those pills? You could have
killed me!"
Sabine laughed. "Please. You're fine. Get over it already."
I couldn't stop staring at her face, trying to find some semblance of the girl I'd known all year. The
girl I had trusted. But there was no trace of sweet, innocent Sabine left. She was all darkness.
"Besides, the pills didn't even do the job! You two still got back together. It made me sick, the way
you just forgave him," Sabine said, looking at my feet as if she wanted to spit on them. "That was
when I realized I'd have to take a more extreme approach."
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"So it's true. You did kill her just to get to me. To make me feel responsible," I said, my palms
sweating. A hard rock of guilt settled in over my heart. Once again I was indirectly responsible for
murder. First Thomas, now Cheyenne. Both dead because of me. I felt Noelle step up behind me.
Getting my back. Just like old times. She put her hand protectively on my shoulder.
"Collateral damage," Sabine said with a sneer. "Necessary in all wars. And let's face it, Cheyenne
was kind of a bitch."
Wars? Wars? She was clearly out of her mind. Completely and totally gone.
I could barely think. Barely feel. Barely process anything that was going on around me. There was
no space. No air. But I needed to know. "And what, your battle plan was to haunt me? Make me
think Cheyenne was dead because of me?"
Sabine laughed, her eyes wild. "You should have seen yourself. Every time I sent you an e-mail or
left you a little 'present.' Things I stole from Cheyenne's room that night her parents so generously
let us paw through all her stuff. You were always on the verge of a nervous breakdown."
Someone, somewhere, finally cut the bass-heavy music, and all around were whispers and elbows
nudging elbows. I felt tears of anger and embarrassment well up in my eyes. I couldn't take much
more of this. All this time I had trusted her. All
this time I had thought she was one of my only true
friends. But all the while I had been living with the enemy. Sabine had tortured me for months and
I had never once suspected her.
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My God, she must have gotten such satisfaction out of seeing me slowly losing it. Seeing me lock
myself in the bathroom. Watching me tear my dress off before the fund-raiser because the
perfume on it was Cheyenne's. She was one of only three people even to know that photo of
Cheyenne and me existed, so she must have dug through my stuff until she found it and used it
against me. I had treated her like my best friend and all the while, she had been plotting with
Ariana.
Ariana. That was how Sabine had known about the blush beads and the bedding, Ariana must have
told her. It was all so perfectly, sadistically planned. Sabine probably gave me that stupid rug just
so she could crush the blush beads into it later.
Noelle gripped my arm tighter. "You're out of your mind, Sabine."
Sabine just laughed. "Oh, Noelle. Perfect little Noelle. You were the hardest to deal with. You kept
getting in the way. Protecting Reed. Explaining it all away. Keeping her sane. Acting the part of the
good friend."
Everyone was listening now. Everyone silent. I frantically searched the crowd for Ivy. Where was
she? Had she called the police? Why weren't they here yet?
"It wasn't acting," Noelle said, her glossy hair falling over her shoulder. "Unlike you, I don't have to
pretend to be someone's good friend."
"Yeah? So I guess you were a good friend to Ariana, then? When you kidnapped her boyfriend and
then became best friends with the slut who stole him away."
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Noelle narrowed her eyes. "You have no idea what you're talking about."
"But you know what that feels like now, right? To lose your boyfriend to Reed Brennan." Sabine's
eyes flickered between me and Noelle. "Although it looks like you've already forgiven her. I have
to say, I expected more backbone from you, Noelle."
My blood boiled. "Shut up, Sabine."
"Reed, you're so pathetically loyal to Noelle I could vomit," Sabine sneered. "Driving a wedge
between the two of you was like pulling teeth. But I did it. That video of you from the Legacy was
priceless, wasn't it? Girl like you could have a future in porn."
A gasp escaped my lips. One that was echoed by plenty of onlookers.
"That was you?" I said.
"Of course it was me," Sabine said, looking proud of her accomplishment. "I slipped Ecstasy into
your drinks and into Dash's all night long. I wrote the note that got you up to the roof in the first
place."
Suddenly an image of the note flashed through my mind. The girly handwriting. I had noticed it at
the time, but had been too out of it to care. Out of it because of the Ecstasy, it seemed.
"And it all worked like a charm," Sabine continued. "The two of you were so far gone and all over
each other you didn't even notice me filming."
The room's strobe lights continued to flash. Sabine's face turned red, then pink, then red, then
pink.
"You psychotic, sniveling little bitch," Noelle said from over my shoulder.
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"Now, now, just because you totally fell for it, there's no need for name calling." Sabine smirked at
Noelle, her eyes wide in faux innocence. "It's amazing how fast you turn on your friends. First
Ariana, and then poor little Reed. You ripped her right out of your life without even giving her a
chance to explain."
"You're insane, you know that?" I said. "You belong in the same padded cell as your sister."
At that moment we all heard the sirens wailing in the distance. Sabine turned away and my heart
flew into my throat. Everyone froze. Everyone but Josh and Trey, who lurched forward, grabbing
her to keep her from running. For a split second, I felt nothing but grateful relief, but then I saw
the look of terror on their faces. They released Sabine and backed away as she pressed the barrel
of a gun directly against Trey's heart.
Everyone around us gasped. There was a scream and a crash as some people raced for the door. I
tried to back up but found that I couldn't move. My feet would simply not budge. Suddenly I was
freezing cold. So cold I couldn't breathe.
Sabine turned the gun on me.
"Once you were out of Billings, I thought I finally had you. I thought I had finally succeeded in
ruining your life. No friends, no boyfriend, no Billings, no future. But you just keep fighting, don't
you?" Sabine said, her hand as steady as granite. "After that sappy little speech you made last
night, I knew it was time for drastic measures. You're never getting back into Billings, Reed. You
can't have the life you stole from Ariana. You just can't."
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"Sabine," I heard myself say, breathless. "Don't do this."
"I held this very gun to Cheyenne's head to make her take all those pills," she said evenly. "Now I'll
finally have the chance to fire it."
I took a step back. "Sabine--"
"Maybe I am just like my sister, Reed," she said, her eyes filled with unshed tears. "But unlike
Ariana, I am going to finish this."
My life flashed before my eyes. Josh, Noelle, Thomas, Constance, Natasha, Kiran, Taylor, Dash,
Scott, my parents, my grandparents, even my dog. This was it. This was the end of it all. I would
never see any of them again.
"Reed! Oh my God! No!"
The sirens swelled. Josh shoved Gage aside and leapt toward me. Sabine closed her eyes and
pulled. The shot went off, as deafening as a blast of thunder.
And then, everything went black.
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[This Page Is Blank.]
251
BEFORE REED BRENNAN CAME TO EASTON ACADEMY...
BEFORE THOMAS PEARSON WAS MURDERED...
BEFORE NOELLE LANGE RULED BILLINGS HOUSE...
BEFORE ARIANA OSGOOD BECAME EASTON'S MOST NOTORIOUS STUDENT...
SHE WAS JUST ANOTHER GIRL AT BOARDING SCHOOL.
DISCOVER THE SECRET THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING IN
LAST CHRISTMAS
THE PREQUEL
Turn the page for a sneak peek of LAST CHRISTMAS, coming October 2008.
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[This Page Is Blank.]
253
THE GOOD GIRL
Ariana Osgood just wanted to go home.She knew it was insane. She was, after all, standing at the
edge of the ballroom at the Driscoll Hotel, playing witness to the most decadent party of the year.
The party she had circled in red on her social calendar three months ago and had been looking
forward to every day since. But now that she was at the Winter Ball, watching all of Easton
Academy mingle and chat and dance, all she wanted to do was go back to Billings House and be
with her friends. Her sisters. Inside Billings it was simple. Inside Billings she could just be.
Ariana reached up and touched her light blond hair, making sure for the fiftieth time that the
chignon she'd worked so hard to achieve had held. How could she have forgotten how these
events always put her on edge? Always made her feel hot and clenched and breathless. She was
going to say something stupid. Or do something wrong. And everyone would see. Everyone would
know.
254
Which was why she had spent the past fifteen minutes leaning against a grooved marble colu
mn
on the outskirts of the room, just out of view of the table where her friends and boyfriend, Daniel
Ryan, were sitting. Sooner or later they were going to notice her marathon bathroom trips and the
current column-hugging, and she was going to have to rejoin their reveling. Better make these last
few minutes of invisibility count.
Taking a deep breath, Ariana let the sounds of laughter and clinking silverware fade into the
recesses of her mind and watched the scene around her unfold like a movie on mute. She
committed every detail of the black and white marble room to memory as if her life depended on
it. Noting details, cataloging a scene, always made her feel calm, in control.
There were her classmates, stiff and formal in their suits and dresses. The twelve-piece band
singing pop versions of Christmas carols on the stage up front. The light December snow falling
outside, the large flakes kissing the leaded windowpanes. The waxy mistletoe and the candlelit
wreaths that--if she squinted her eyes just so--looked like explosions of gold.
But the curtains... well, those she had to remember down to the last filigreed stitch so she could
report back to her mother about them. They were exquisite, all burgundy velvet with shimmering
gold-thread fleurs-de-lis. Her mother, a New Orleans native, loved fleurs-de-lis. When Ariana was
nine, her mother had given her a gorgeous gold fleur-de-lis necklace for Christmas. That had been
Ariana's favorite Christmas. The last happy one she could remember. The last one before her
father started taking those extended business
255
trips. Before her mother started to fade away. Ariana had never taken the antique necklace off, as
if it could somehow tie her to those happier times.
"Whoops, sorry!" A drunk junior in a rumpled Betsey Johnson dress knocked into Ariana on the
way to the bathroom, giggling and slurring and groping with her acne-scarred date.
With a blink, Ariana returned to her body, and the sounds of the ballroom rushed her ears at full
volume. The band was playing "All I Want for Christmas," and a girl let out a shrill shriek as her
boyfriend lifted her off her feet and spun her around. Ariana sighed and pushed away from the
cool comfort of the column, giving her teeth a quick flick with her tongue to clear away any
wayward lip gloss as she wove her way through the crowd.
As she slowly approached her table, Ariana took a mental picture of her friends. The Billings Girls.
She loved to watch them from afar, study their mannerisms, note their tics and gestures and
habits. More than anything, she loved when she caught them doing something gross or stupid
when they thought no one was watching. Like picking their teeth, or adjusting their boobs in their
dresses, or checking out cute-but-dorky Drake boys from across the room. She liked to make
mental lists of their imperfections. It made her feel less imperfect herself.
Of course, finding imperfections among the Billings Girls was never easy. It took a practiced eye.
They were, after all, Easton royalty. Which meant that Ariana was Easton royalty. She had been
ever since September, when she'd taken her place as a junior member of Easton's most elite dorm.
Now the Billings Girls, the ones her mother