Blackmail, Blushes & Battle Lines

7:00 AM — Ridgewood Courtyard

Bee stood beneath the bare branches of the courtyard tree, her breath curling in the frosty morning air. The silence was eerie—almost peaceful—if not for the storm inside her head. Her phone buzzed. Another text. Another threat.

> UNKNOWN: "We know what you did last spring, Queen Bee. One leak, and your crown burns."

Her fingers trembled. Her past was supposed to stay buried. But someone had dug it up, and now they were dangling it over her like a guillotine.

"Bee?"

Kai's voice snapped her out of the spiral. He wore a grey hoodie, messy curls tucked under his hood, and that look that always said he saw through her bravado.

"Everything okay?" he asked.

She slipped the phone back into her blazer pocket. "Peachy. Just another day at Ridgewood."

Kai stepped closer. "You're lying."

Bee exhaled. "I think someone hacked the Remembrance Drive. The files I deleted... they weren't just recovered. They've been weaponized."

Kai's jaw tightened. "And you think it's Harrow?"

"Could be. Or maybe the Unknown Number's leveling up. Either way, they know about last spring." Bee's voice dropped. "About Hailey."

A beat of silence. Then Kai gently took her hand. "Then we fight back. You're not alone in this."

8:30 AM — Ridgewood Hallways

Posters plastered the walls like propaganda: "Justice for Ridgewood! Transparency for All!" Serena's underground movement was no longer in the shadows. They had uniforms. They had slogans. They had footage.

Serena walked beside Bee, flanked by Zuri and Logan. The New Royals.

"Board meeting's in 72 hours," Serena said. "We either bring Harrow down, or we lose everything."

Zuri flipped open her tablet. "Including control of the digital archives. If they lock us out again, we'll be flying blind."

Bee's mind was elsewhere. "We have to find out who's behind the new messages. If they leak what happened with Hailey—"

"It's not just about Hailey anymore," Logan interrupted. "Someone sent me a threat too. Said they'd reveal what I did to get into Ridgewood."

The group fell silent.

"They're playing us all," Bee realized. "Turning us into suspects, and distractions."

Serena's eyes narrowed. "Then we flip the script. Let's lure them out. Tonight."

10:45 AM — The War Room (Abandoned Lab)

"Operation Honeytrap" was the kind of name Bee hated but Serena insisted on.

"We leak false intel," Serena explained. "Something only the enemy would bite. A fake confession file. Something juicy. Something Bee-specific."

Zuri hesitated. "And if they don't take the bait?"

"Then we know they're not just watching. They're inside the circle."

Bee stared at the blueprint of Ridgewood's internal servers on the projector. Her stomach churned. Whoever was behind this had eyes in places they shouldn't. Which meant...

"We've been infiltrated," she whispered.

5:00 PM — Bee's Dorm Room

Kai sat at the edge of her desk, typing rapidly into his laptop while Bee paced.

"The bait file's ready," he said. "It looks real. Even encrypted it with the same hash Hailey used."

Bee stopped pacing. "What if this backfires? What if we're just feeding the fire?"

Kai stood. Walked over. Cupped her cheeks. "Then we burn together. But we burn on our terms."

She looked up at him, vulnerability cracking through her mask. "Why do you always show up when I'm about to unravel?"

His smile was small, sad. "Because I remember what it felt like to be alone. And I swore I'd never let you feel that again."

She kissed him. Soft at first. Then fierce.

11:30 PM — Ridgewood Server Vault

Bee and Serena crept through the underground tunnel that led to the vault. The motion lights flickered on, revealing rows of humming server towers. The vault was a restricted area, off-limits to students. But Bee had a stolen keycard. Courtesy of Hailey. Old ghosts, new war.

"This is it," Bee said. "Upload the bait file here. Make it traceable."

As Serena connected the drive, Bee's phone buzzed again.

> UNKNOWN: "Tick-tock. The Queen is bleeding."

Bee turned to Serena. "They're watching us right now."

Serena's face paled. "Then let them. We're not hiding anymore."

Midnight — Rooftop Overlook

Kai waited on the rooftop, phone in hand, live-tracking the bait file. Suddenly—a ping.

"Got them," he whispered. "They opened it. Traced back to... a staff login."

He frowned.

Not Harrow.

Not the board.

Someone closer.

His eyes widened as the name appeared.

Madison Reyes.

His blood ran cold. And he hit send.

To: Bee

Subject: Target Identified

Message: The mole is in your hive.