Good vs. Evil High (29 page)

“Kristine Con, return.”

I barely got it into my pocket before three
guys entered the stairway. Bane stood in the center of them, which
was a good thing, because he told the other two to leave when they
made a move to grab me. “You shouldn’t be here,” he said when we
were alone.

“I have to find Knight.”

“I told you last night, if the wrong person
finds you here they’ll hurt you. And you’ll never find him, anyway.
You need to get back to your school and forget about him.”

“No. I’ll die before I let him go.”

“You’re right. You will die if you don’t go
back.”

“No, Bane, I’ll never go back to life without
him.” I turned my arms inward and ran up the stairs.

“Where did you get that?” he shouted after
me. “Stop—you’ll never find him!”

I climbed as fast as I could when I heard him
running behind me.

“He wouldn’t want you to go after him,
Kristine.”

I stopped on the third floor and waited
inside the hallway to hear him keep going up. As I waited I smiled,
thinking how that was the first time he’d called me by my first
name.

“Get back here,” he called up as he headed
for the fourth floor.

“Thank you, Bane,” I whispered to myself,
touched to know he cared enough to chase me up a flight of stairs,
since I knew there weren’t many others, if any, he would have done
it for.

Then I started down the hallway, hoping I
would find Thorn alone and that she wouldn’t attack and try to kill
me, though I fully expected it. I stopped in front of her door and
took a deep breath before I inched it open.

A big punching bag was chained to the ceiling
in the middle of the room. Thorn had her back to me and her boxing
gloves on, beating away. It was a horrible time to come to her for
help, but nothing scared me the way losing Luke did. I turned my
arms outward and knocked on her open door.

She spun around and stared at me for a
moment. “Fayre,” she said with a sadistic smile, as she pulled her
gloves off and threw them down. “Who’s gonna save you now?”

I did my best not to let on how afraid of her
I was. “I came to make a deal.”

“No.” She rushed forward and reached back to
hit me.

I fell into the hallway, trying to get away.
“I’ll let you win in the next race—”

Thorn stopped mid-kick in her effort to stomp
on my face. She put her foot on the ground and leaned down to grab
my feet, drag me into her room, and shut the door. “You think I
need you to let me win?”

Yes
, I thought to myself, although I
answered, “No, but I could guarantee it. I just need to know how to
get to Knight.”

“You came here to ask me for help with
Knight? Do you know what would happen if I did that and someone
found out?”

“Nothing, because no one would ever
know.”

She stared at me as I stood up, and then
glared as she asked, “How do I know I can trust you? How do I know
you didn’t come here to get me in trouble with my headmaster?”

I fought not to cry as I struggled to answer.
“Because I love Knight—and I’ll do anything to get to him. You’re
the only one who can help me. You have my word, I’ll never tell a
living soul, and you will win the next race.”

Thorn leaned against her punching bag and
chewed on her lip. I could tell she was considering it. She wanted
to beat me in front of everybody, but she also hated me more than
anyone else in the world. Helping me was probably the last thing
she wanted to do...

“Well, I have heard a North Havener’s word is
as good as gold...All right, I’ll help you. But you have to let me
win both of the next races.”

I only hesitated for a second, not wanting to
suffer the humiliation of losing twice. “Deal.” I held out my
hand.

Thorn’s lip curled as she stared at it,
looking repulsed, but she took my hand and twisted her arms so that
she disappeared in her shadow suit. “I know you’re wearing one,
too, Fayre,” she said, letting go. “Make yourself unseen and be
absolutely silent.”

When I’d done this, she grabbed my wrist.
Then I felt her pulling me out of the room and down the hallway in
the opposite direction I’d come from. She dragged me through
several other hallways and pitch black rooms and finally down a
flight of stairs. We came out on the Cinder side of the arena where
Thorn led me down to the Cinder girls’ locker room.

She appeared in front of me, looking around
the empty room. “Southland Cinders, show yourself.” When nothing
happened and she was sure the coast was clear, she walked to one of
the shining black lockers in the back of the room and let go of me
to press the knob.

It sunk in and something in the top of her
locker began beeping. “Activating,” a robotic voice said. “Cinder
Thorn, password.”

“Loyalty to your master and to your school,”
Thorn said. The door opened slowly. It was much thicker and heavier
inside than any regular locker door.

“Remain unseen while you’re down there,”
Thorn said. “The system’s gonna think you’re me, so be sure you
come back through door number one fifty-six—one-five-six—when
you’re done. When you step in here, you’ll be taken down deep
underground. You’ll see a bunch of hallways. Go to the one farthest
to the right and take it to the very end. Get in the elevator and
type six, six, eight, four, one, zero into the security panel.
It’ll take you to the prisoners. I don’t know which cell Knight’s
in, but I’m pretty sure he’s the only one down there. Do
not
open his door. If you do, an alarm will sound and you’ll be killed
on the spot...which wouldn’t be bad, actually, except that I might
end up dead too.”

I gulped as I climbed into the box. What was
I supposed to do if I couldn’t open the door? And how many times
must I be reminded of the potentially lethal risk I was taking?

“Got it,” I managed.

“And if you tell anyone about this or you
back out of our deal, I’ll kill you myself.” She hit a button next
to my head and pulled her arm out just before the door shut.

My heart pounded as I went down. Was I doing
the right thing—risking my life looking for Luke? I could still go
back and trust that he would find his way back to me someday. No.
Even if I was doing the wrong thing and I was caught and cooked
alive, it was far better than going back to North Haven and letting
him slip away.

How did I live without Luke before?
I
wondered. I was young and helpless, I guess, but not anymore.

The box stopped moving and the door opened. I
stepped into a long, wide area and turned right, holding my hands
in front my face the entire time to be sure no one could see me. If
I hadn’t had the protection of invisibility, I would have been
absolutely petrified. I walked past empty spaces where other
lockers could come down and also past a few lockers waiting for
their Cinders to return to them.

Through the hallways to my left, I heard feet
shuffling and watched shadows move under torchlight from one door
to another.

Sixty-six, eighty-four, ten
, I kept
thinking.
Sixty-six, eighty-four, ten
. If I forgot those
numbers, everything would be for nothing.

When I got to the end, I turned left into the
last hallway. I passed doors with signs on them that said things
like “Stealth,” “Targeting,” and “Punishments.” The last one made
me shiver as I passed by, because of the tortured cries coming from
inside. The next door was unmarked and had all sorts of strange
growling and screeching sounds coming from the other side. Being
all alone in that dark, horrendous place was terrible.
Such a
strange pl—

The door in front of me opened and a guy ran
out of it, right into me. I reached out to catch myself as I fell
back against the ground, fighting not to make a sound through it
all.

“Fayre?” he said hoarsely. I looked down and
saw my torso and legs. My arms must have turned the wrong way in
the fall. “FAYRE!” the boy ran back into the room shouting.

I jumped up, turned my arms inward, and took
off toward the elevator at the end, pushing myself to run faster
than ever before. Every nerve ending in my body seemed to be
exploding, taking turns between spurts of numb dreamlike feelings
and outrageous panic.

They knew. They knew I was there, and they
would be coming for me.

The traditional elevator doors opened
immediately when I hit a silver button beside them. I dashed inside
and had to feel my way over the keys as I punched in the numbers,
since I couldn’t see my hand. My fingers were shaking horribly.

“Invalid code, one more try,” the robotic
voice said. My hands shook even worse then.

A bunch of guys, men and students, ran out of
the open door, all carrying guns.

The deep breath I let out shook audibly.
One more try...Then what?

The guys were running down the hall away from
me or opening doors to peer inside as I did my best to punch in the
numbers a second time, taking way too much time on each one. Two
guys were getting closer and closer, moving through the doors.

The two doors in front of me began to close
when I hit the last number. I felt a great deal of relief—but only
for a second.

And then the shots were fired. I screamed and
flattened myself against a side wall, then crouched down and
wrapped my arms around my head. The elevator began moving, guns
still ripping holes through it until they couldn’t get to it
anymore.

Cautiously, I picked up my head. I turned my
arms out and looked over my shaking body for wounds, because, even
though I didn’t feel it, I was sure I’d been hit. I stumbled into
standing and twisted around to see my backside. Somehow, they’d
missed me. Looking over all the quarter-sized gashes in the door, I
couldn’t believe my luck.

But how long would it last? Once I got down
there, I couldn’t go back up. Even if I called my headmaster, he
wouldn’t be able to help me. I was entirely at the Cinders’ mercy.
I could only hope Luke would know what to do.

The injured door opened and I stood in a long
silver corridor with bluish lights hanging from the dirty ceiling.
Giant metal doors with small windows and levers pointing up where
doorknobs should have been lined the hall on both sides. I jogged
through the hall, glancing into each room for any sign of him.

A lever was lying on its side up ahead, so I
raced to that door and looked inside. It was like every prison cell
I’d ever seen on TV, two beds protruding from the wall and held up
by chains on one side and a grimy toilet on the other.

A guy in black jeans sat leaning against a
chain on the bottom bed with his back to me. Luke!” I knocked on
the window and shouted.

“Kristine?” He got up and came to the window
with a half-crazed look in his eyes. “Don’t open the door.”

“But I can help you get away.”

“Headmaster will have you killed if he finds
out you helped me.”

“It doesn’t matter. They already know.”

“No,” Luke and another voice said.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” Roman said,
approaching from my right, even though there were only prison doors
that way.

“Neither are you.”

“Who’s there?” Luke asked, as I noticed the
gun in Roman’s hand.

“Why do you have a gun?” I asked.

“Who’s got a gun?” Luke demanded. “Kristine,
who’s out there?!”

“You’re not supposed to be here,” Roman said
again, pressing the side of the handgun against his bruised
forehead. His whole face was pretty beat up, actually. “This isn’t
how it was supposed to go.”

“Kristine—” Luke shouted. “Tell me who’s out
there!”

Suddenly everything clicked. Who hated Luke
enough to try and blow him up? Who hated Luke enough to frame him
and get him expelled? And who made the accusation the night before,
even though they were the one who was unaccounted for during most
of the dance and then right after? “Roman.” I felt like the biggest
fool in the world for not figuring it out sooner.

“Armstrong’s there?” Luke called. “Open the
door!”

“It was you...and you have a gun...” I said,
as the reason hit me even harder. I pressed my body against the
prison door, determined to protect Luke. “I won’t let you hurt
him.”

“You can’t stop me,” Roman said, coming to
stand right in front of me. “No one can.” He grabbed my face and
kissed me.

Luke shouted with unfathomable rage as he
pounded against the glass, which was clearly unbreakable. “OPEN THE
DOOR RIGHT NOW!”

I tried to get away from Roman, but his
fingers dug into my shoulder until I was kneeling and screaming in
pain.

“I’M GONNA MURDER YOU, ARMSTRONG!” Luke
shouted, now banging on the door.

“I’LL BE BACK FOR YOU!” Roman yelled over
Luke, before I heard the loud crack, felt an icy blow against the
back of my head, and then nothing.

Chapter
Thirty-Six

~ Dying Heart ~

My head hurt.

Everything took a couple of minutes to come
into focus when I opened my eyes, my memory just as fuzzy. A
weakly-lit room took shape as I sat up in bed. It took me a second
to realize the bed was only a mattress that had been thrown right
on the floor and topped with velvety, violet blankets.

“Where am I?” Feeling a leg laid over mine, I
turned around and found Roman sleeping beside me. “Roman?” I asked,
placing a hand on his arm.

“Hey, sweetie,” he said, sleepily.

“Where are we?”

He sat up and took the hand I had on his arm
to kiss it. “What does it matter? We’re together.”

“But—” I took my hand away to put on the back
of my head, which was throbbing. “but—What about Luke—something—”
It all came back at once. “Luke! Where’s Luke?”

I felt something heavy around my ankle as I
stood up, causing me to lose my balance and fall back down.