House of Cards (23 page)

              At the top of the stairs in Joist Hall, just before the fireproof doors, Rae stopped and tried to tame her unruly hair using the glass reflection. She hadn’t bothered to check it that morning. Tucking a loose strand behind her ear, she gave up and shoved it in a ponytail. She pushed through the heavy metal doors.

             
How she hadn’t heard the shouting while playing with her hair surprised her. The fire doors must have muffled the sound of the two male voices, which were clearly coming from Julian’s dorm room. Using the cheetah tatù, Rae raced down the hall.

             
As she ran, she nearly stumbled when she realized it was Julian and Devon who were hollering at each other.

             
“You back-stabbing scum!” Devon shouted.

             
“Me?” Julian scoffed. “I wasn’t the one who screwed up! You did that all by yourself.”

             
Rae paused behind the half opened door. Maybe she shouldn’t be here listening. Then again, they couldn’t see her.

             
“Yeah, I screwed up.” The disgust in Devon’s voice couldn’t be missed. “I thought I was doing what was best for me and her. She deserves a chance to figure things out on her own.”

             
Rae blinked. Did Devon mean her?

             
“By dumping her basically minutes after she joined the PC?” Julian must have pounded a fist against a chair or table or something. “I always thought you were a decent guy, Dev. Whatever your intentions were, you sure did a lousy job. I’m just glad I’m not the selfish prick who’s pretending to try and please everyone.”

             
Devon snorted. “I’m not selfish! Rae needs to focus. On training. Her dad, her mom…” He paused and Rae imagined him running his fingers through his hair. “She doesn’t need me as a distraction.”

             
Rae clenched her hands into fists. He was an idiot. She had needed him the most. He was supposed to be the one person who she could go to, spill everything and never be judged. He’d simply dropped her when he realized she had crazy complications in her life to deal with. Just two months ago, with no combat training or PC training, she’d risked her life to save him. Julian was right; Devon was being a selfish prick. She slipped through the half opened door, ready to confront him. Neither Julian nor Devon noticed her. They were too busy staring each other down from across the desk.

             
Julian stood straight, his arms crossed and frowning. He had bags under his eyes and he looked exhausted. “Whatever helps you sleep at night, dude.”

             
Devon leaned forward, his hands spread across the wood top. “You wouldn’t know about sleep, would you? You now spend your nights plotting, drawing and obsessing over my girlfriend.”

“She’s not your girlfriend. You dumped her!”

“You’ve been in love with her since the day she arrived at Guilder!”

             
Rae’s mouth dropped and she could feel her eyebrows raise so high her ponytail shifted. A noise escaped her lips. Both boys’ heads swung at the sound. It couldn’t be true. Devon was spitting accusations in anger. Besides Molly, Julian was her next best friend. He had been acting strange the past few days but that didn’t mean… it couldn’t.

             
Julian seemed to recover first. He stepped toward her, his hands open, palms up. “Rae. It’s not what it sounds like. Dev–”

             
“It’s exactly what it sounds like!” Devon shouted. “You’re fascinated by Rae. Don’t freakin’ lie!”

             
“I’m not lying!” Julian glared at his PC partner.

             
“What the heck’s going on?” Rae’s heart pounded hard against her ribs. She shifted and set her feet shoulder width apart, feeling an extreme need to find solid ground.

             
Devon leaned down and grabbed something from behind the desk and then stomped toward her. He tossed Julian’s drawing portfolio at Rae, which she caught. “Open it,” he demanded.

             
“Please don’t.” Julian’s face went from anger to horror.

             
Devon swiped a notebook off the top of the desk. He held it up like a teacher reading a story to her class. “Trying to hide something, Julian?” He began flipping through the pages showing Rae.

             
Hand drawings covered the pages, in charcoal, pencil, pen, marker or apparently anything Julian had handy. On every page were images of Rae. Every single page was covered with a picture of her face, her silhouette, fighting, reading or something.

             
Julian groaned. “Rae, it’s not what you think…”

             
Rae blinked several times. Her gaze trailed back and forth between both boys then down to the large leather portfolio in her hands. She set it level on top of her left hand and unzipped the case, trying to balance it and look at the drawings inside at the same time. There had to be at least a hundred drawings. All of her.

             
Julian moved toward her at the same time Devon leapt over a chair to try to get to her faster. Rae stepped back and pressed herself against the wall. Julian tried to grab the portfolio but Devon was quicker. His hands swept underneath the case, knocking it out of Rae’s unbalanced hand. Drawings fluttered everywhere across the room.

             
Julian’s arm drew back and he landed a solid punch on Devon’s jaw. “You bastard! You don’t know anything!”

             
Devon’s upper body twisted from the impact of Julian’s fist. He stumbled but managed to catch himself before falling. Wiping his cut lip he shook his wrist as fresh blood sprayed over the drawings. “Cat’s out of the bag, Julian.” Then lunged at his best friend. With that, the fight was on in earnest.

Run, Rae, Run!

Julian’s tatù
give him the heads up to move out of the way, but Devon must have expected it and shifted as well. The two fell back, knocking over a chair that protested with a loud crack.

Rae watched in horror. She had seen them fight against each other in training, but never like this.

They rolled on the floor, grunting and grabbing at each other. A small table toppled over as Devon threw Julian off of him and lunged immediately after him. Devon’s fist landed with Julian’s side.

Rae swore she heard a rib break. They were going to kill each other. “Stop fighting!” she screamed.

Neither guy paid any attention to her. Using Jennifer’s tatù, Rae raced over to them, and not one hundred percent sure it would work, she switched to Molly’s ability, forcing herself between them. She had to duck to miss a punch that landed on Devon’s shoulder. She spread her hands on both their chests.

It took more concentration than she anticipated, but she only had a millisecond before they would push her out of the way, or end up nailing her. With eyes shut tight she pushed as hard as she could. Using her strength and electricity, she sent both of them flying in opposite directions. Both of them released an “Omph!” as their bodies crashed into opposite walls.

“Enough!” she hissed, glaring at both of them. “What is the matter with you guys?”

Devon stood, panting, and swiped his lip. Julian leaned forward with his hands on his knees, heaving for air.

“Are you finished?” she spat at Devon.

He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not, but Julian is.”

“Freeze!” She waved a finger of warning at the approaching Julian. He hesitated a second. Rae looked at both of them and suddenly felt tears well up in the back of her eyes. “You guys are idiots. I thought you were my friends.” She turned and fled out of the room not bothering to look back. She switched her tatù back to Jennifer’s knowing Devon could try to run after her, but would have no chance of catching up.

Outside she raced to Julian’s car, pulling the keys out of her backpack as she ran. She glanced once behind her, but didn’t see Devon. It didn’t mean he wouldn’t follow, she just had a massive head start. The moment her feet hit the parking lot, she hit the unlock button to Julian’s car and swung the door open as soon as she reached it. The car revved to life as she shoved it into first gear and lurched forward. She peeled out of the parking lot.

She sped down the country roads, not sure at first, where she was going; partially blinded by tears, anger and confusion. There had to be a reason Julian had drawn all those pictures. How long had he been drawing them? Why had Devon freaked out? They weren’t dating anymore. What right did he have to get pissed over anything involving her? When the motorway came into view, Rae pulled onto it and headed toward Stoke-on-Trent. She never bothered to look back.

Mentally calculating the miles, she figured if she drove fast, she would have around two hours to try to forget the scene she had witnessed. The muffled sound of her phone vibrated from inside her school bag. She ignored it. She had no intention of talking to either Julian or Devon at the moment. Instead she flipped on the radio and cranked up the volume.

An hour and a half later, with no answers, and no rest from the thoughts pushing through her mind, she turned the music down and switched Julian’s touch screen radio to his built in GPS. She pulled over at a rest station and found the address for the old Wade Factory in her backpack. Westport Road.

She didn’t want to, but couldn’t resist checking her phone. Devon had called three times, and Julian had called and sent a text. Molly had sent a text too. Rae ignored them all. The only message she wrote was to Jennifer. Rae knew she was in a meeting with Carter and might be with him for hours, so she just let her know everything was fine. Hopefully Jennifer wouldn’t reply for quite a while. Rae also doubted Julian or Devon would be eager to let the Privy Council know what had just happened –
if
they were even worried about her.

Rae didn’t have her mother’s original coded message, just the scrap pages she had been working on. She closed her eyes to see if she could picture it. She pulled a blank sheet of paper out of a binder and frantically scribbled down what she saw behind her eyelids.

As she worked, she realized a picture was also forming in her head. A large room filled with rows and rows of porcelain teapots and things on shelves. If it was an old, forgotten memory, she didn’t know. It just appeared in her head. The large planks of wood on the floor and high, unique patterned windows would be her map. She just had to get inside the factory. Her gut told her she would know the room when she saw it. How to find what was in there, was another matter.

Her stomach rumbled, reminding her that she had not eaten lunch. She ran inside the rest stop, and bought a sandwich to eat on the road. Checking the GPS, she grinned when she realized she had made unbelievable time.
I’m probably about twenty minutes away from Stoke-on-Trent!

Her phone sounded again. Rae grabbed it and switched it to vibrate. She glanced at the
ID, Jennifer had replied ‘OK’ from Rae’s previous text. Rae didn’t bother reading the rest of it, she would check it later.

As she maneuvered Julian’s car back onto the motorway she tried not to think. Of course, that was impossible. She wanted to rewind and erase Devon and Julian fighting, erase all the drawings of her, the ancient drawing of her. Could she go back even further? Erase her mother dying? What would things be like now? How different would her life be?

Rae shook her head and focused on the exits and GPS.

What had her uncle told her once?
Things fall apart so things can fall together
. One of his silly proverbs of truth. “Whatever that means,” she grumbled.

She
switched lanes, flipped on the turn signal and exited off the motorway. A sign welcomed her to the City of Potteries. She went through the roundabout, and continued on as the streets narrowed. It took a while to find the correct way, but she slowed the car to a crawl when she saw the fence, and realized the closed factory lay behind it.

Parking the car up the road near a supermarket, she grabbed her backpack, locked the car doors and tucked the keys in her pocket.

Rae walked along the sideway to Westport Road and from there, up to the red brick front of the old building. At the corner, there was a boarded up, graffiti-covered sign that had once read “Reception”.  The small paned windows above the door sported broken glass from kids throwing stones at them. She moved down the road and turned left toward the front of the factory.

This part of the building had once been grandiose. There were six creamy white pillars that stood out against the red brick behind them. The original entrance doors had been closed off with newer red brick and fences now
prohibiting people from trying to use the crumbling stairs. She jogged to the low fence entrance with the word WADE painted in yellow. Looking around to make sure no one was about, she easily hopped over it and landed softly. Riley’s cheetah tatù kicked in without conscious thought.
Probably because I’m nervous.

She sprinted across the uncut, overgrown drive staring at the boarded windows for an opening. The doors were all either locked and boarded, or bricked up.
Next to impossible to break through. So much help.