Her Devils

by Mae Doyle

  I run faster, pumping my arms to try to keep up with the devils. Luca notices me falling behind and he and Caspian run back to job along behind me. They can’t protect me from back there, not really, and that thought spurs me on.

  We hit the library at a dead sprint, and even though my heart feels like it’s about to burst out of my chest, I run on through the doors, fleeing from the crowd.

  I have no idea what we’re going to do if we make it to the cave. Ms. Taylor isn’t anywhere in sight, and we don’t slow down until we get to her desk.

  I start pawing through the papers on it, looking frantically for the key. I know it’s here. I know that she keeps it on a cherry keyring and that she likes to put it right by her water bottle, but it’s nowhere in sight.

  “I can’t find it!” I cry out, my voice echoing through the empty library. The four devils immediately start to dig through papers too, all of us trying frantically to find the one thing that will allow us to hide from the angry crowd outside.

  “You’re sure she leaves it here all the time?” Caspian pauses for a moment, and when I nod at him, he keeps looking. He’s flipping through files and Asher, next to him, pulls out a drawer to dig through it.

  “Guys?” Even though we’re all frantically looking for the key, something in Asher’s voice stops the four of us and we all turn to him.

  “What? What is it?” I’m still focused on looking for they key, even though Asher’s voice tells me that there’s something wrong.

  When I look up and past him, I’m surprised to see Ms. Taylor standing by the door. Her face is twisted with rage and she’s holding up the key we need, letting it wave a little in the air.

  “You guys looking for this?” She grins and I hate her.

  I hate her for making me work on secret weapons for the school.

  I hate her for having the key when it’s the one thing that we need to be able to hide out from the Meyer’s Grove students.

  “We need that.” Taking a step towards her, I hold out my hand, even though I know deep in my heart that she’s not going to give it to me. There’s no way that she’s stupid enough to hand over the key, not when she has to know that I’m trying to barricade myself in the cave with my devils.

  She barks out a laugh and slips the key back into her pocket. “Not a chance, Kiera. You and your little man whores can just wait here now until the students come and get you. If I’m right, they’ll be here in just a moment, and let me tell you…they want you gone.”

  I know that, and I just roll my eyes, but she grins at me.

  “All of you. They want all of you gone, not just you, Kiera.”

  I don’t believe what she’s saying, and I shake my head at her. “Not a chance,” I tell her. “They love the devils. There’s no way that they’d do anything to hurt them.”

  She shrugs, and that simple gesture makes me even more nervous. “Fine,” she says, like she doesn’t care what we do. “Think that if you want. But if I were you, I’d make myself scarce. Too bad the cave is off-limits.”

  “Give me the key!” I know that it’s stupid and probably going to end up with us getting hurt or in even more trouble, but I don’t care right now. Screaming at her, I run, pushing past the devils to get to her. Her mouth falls open, like she can’t quite believe what’s happening, that I’m actually going to take a stand and try to get to her.

  But that’s exactly what I’m doing. Will it work? I honestly have no idea, but I’m not worried about that right now. All I’m worried about is my devils and making sure that they’re safe.

  If that means that I have to rush at Ms. Taylor and try to get the key from her pocket, then I will.

  If that means that I have to fight off a whole crowd of students who are coming for my devils, then I will.

  I’m willing to do anything and everything to ensure that they’re safe, and that’s the problem.

  Ms. Taylor doesn’t think that I’m so willing to go something stupid.

  She doesn’t realize how important the devils are to me and how far I’m willing to go to protect them.

  Honestly, though? Up until a minute ago, I wasn’t completely sure either how far I’d be willing to go. It’s obvious that the devils are having the same thoughts, as they all stand mutely by as I rush past them.

  “Give it to me!” I grab Ms. Taylor around the waist and swing her off balance, digging for her pocket at the same time. I saw where she stashed the key, now it’s just a matter of getting it away from her and getting my devils to the cave.

  It’s the only way that I can keep them all safe, and she’s the only thing standing between us and our protection.

  “Let me go!” Her voice is a loud screech as she tries to throw me off, but I grab her tighter, shifting my grip to her arm so that she can’t hit at me. At the same moment, Asher runs up behind her and grabs her arms, pinning them behind her back.

  “Find it, Kiera! Hurry up!” He sounds panicked and I work faster, digging deep into her pocket.

  I know it’s here, but I can’t seem to find it.

  Just when I’m about to give up, my fingers close on the keyring. I recognize the shape of the cherries, and I yank up, pulling it free from her pocket and letting go of her arm at the same time.

  “You bitch!” Ms. Taylor’s face is red with fury and she tries to break free from Asher’s grasp. “Don’t you see? You’ll ruin everything if you let anyone down there! Nobody’s supposed to know, but nobody would believe you! They’ll believe other students!”

  I pause, gripping the key so tightly that it cuts into the skin on my hand, and consider what she’s saying.

  Nobody else knows about the cave?

  There’s a chance that I could use that for our benefit, somehow use it as a bargaining chip to get out of here, but before I can really think about it and consider what to do, Caspian’s voice breaks through my thoughts.

  “We better move! Now!” He’s pointing and I follow the line of his finger to see that the student must have finally figured out that we’re in the library. They’re coming up the steps to the main doors, not running, but moving at a steady pace that makes my blood run cold.

  “Let’s go!” I’m yelling for all of the devils to listen to me, but my eyes are locked on Asher. He has to come too, or he’ll get caught up in the stream of students and then I won’t be able to protect him. There’s no way that I’m going to leave him here to try to survive on his own.

  He shakes his head, a quick movement that I almost miss, and tightens his grip on Ms. Taylor. “You go ahead. I have to keep her here or she’ll try to stop us.”

  “No!” I’m not going to let this happen. I can’t let this happen. If I don’t have all of my devils with me, then what’s the point? “You have to come, Asher!”

  He shakes his head again, firmly this time, and I feel Parker grab my arm.

  “Kiera, let’s go,” he says, but I ignore him.

  My eyes are locked on Asher, and I swear, this is not going to be the last time I see him. There’s no way that I’m leaving here without him.

  The crowd may be after all of us, but we all know that I’m the main target. If I stay here and refuse to go to the cave then there’s a very real chance that they’ll take just me.

  They’ll leave the devils alone and I’ll be able to rest easy knowing that I did everything I could to save them.

  “I love you.” Even as I say the words, I know how true they are, and I want Asher to understand and believe me. “I love you, Asher, and I’m not going to leave you.”

  “We have the key!” Luca’s screaming at me from a few feet away, trying desperately to get my attention, but I can’t tear my gaze away from Asher.

  He’s staring at me like he’s never seen me before. Like what I’ve just told him is completely foreign to him and he doesn’t know what to do about it.

  Like he’s afraid that if he looks away, I may disappear.

  I say it again. “I love you. I love you all. And I’m not going t
o leave anyone behind.”

  The room seems to still for a second, but the sound of the front doors opening grabs my attention and I rip my eyes away from Asher and Ms. Taylor to see who’s coming in.

  Lila and Clementine are leading the pack. They look nothing like the friendly twins that I met when I first came to Meyer’s Grove and I shiver.

  “That’s enough,” a rough voice whispers in my ear, and then I’m lifted up and off of the ground. Even as I’m slung over Parker’s shoulder, I try to fight and kick to make him let me go, but he just squeezes me tighter.

  “No! I won’t go! You can’t make me leave him, Parker!” I scream, slamming my fists into his back. But he’s made from muscle and used to taking hits on the field, and he simply runs away from the front of the library down the hall, ignoring that I’m screaming at him.

  Leaving Asher behind.

  Chapter 19

  Parker drops me roughly to the floor in front of the door to the cave. Miraculously, I land on my feet, reaching out to grab him for support, even though I’m so mad at him right now that I can barely see.

  How could he do this to Asher? How could he willingly and so easily leave him behind when he knows what all of the devils mean to me? I feel like it’s hard for me to breathe and, even though I know that we don’t have much time, I want to hash this out with him.

  “What the hell was that for?” I slam my fists into him again, this time hitting him in the chest. As expected, he doesn’t step back, but his eyes darken and narrow as he stares at me. “How could you leave him?”

  “Give me the key, Kiera,” he says, ignoring how I’m hitting him like I’m nothing more than a small fly that’s trying to bother him. “We have to get inside the cave now or we’re all fucked.”

  That gives me pause. It’s not just me and Parker. Caspian and Luca are also standing next to us, their faces white and drawn as they wait to see how this is all going to play out.

  I know that it’s wrong for me to talk them all down with me. I can save them – keep three of them safe – even though I couldn’t do that for Asher, but what’s the end game here? How long can we hide out in the cave until one of us has to come up for air and to see what’s been going on?

  It made sense at the time, back when I thought that all five of us were going to be able to hide out together, but now I’m not so sure.

  Slowly, I hold out the key. It’s heavy in my hand, and as Parker reaches for it, I throw it. It sails up and over his head, catching light from the bulbs in the ceiling as it flips over him and lands behind him in the hall.

  “For fuck’s sake, Kiera, we’re trying to save you!” Parker whips around and leans down to grab the key. Luca and Caspian are both watching him, and that’s when I decide to make a run for it. I can’t just stand by and hope that things are going to be okay for Asher.

  That’s not who I am.

  Turning, I pump my arms, running as fast as I can back to the crowd. My three devils behind me can escape into the cave and they’ll be fine there, but there’s no way that I’m going to leave Asher behind.

  I can’t sacrifice him so that I can hide out away from all of this. He didn’t do anything wrong. He’s even more of a victim in this than I am.

  “Kiera!” Luca’s voice echoes down the hall after me, and I risk a glance over my shoulder. They should be entering the cave by now, all of them hiding out until I can guarantee that they’ll be okay, but the three devils I left so close to safety are running after me.

  What the hell? This wasn’t part of the plan, and I consider turning around to argue with them about how stupid they’re being, but it’ll only give them time to catch up to me and then take me back with them, so I turn back towards the main part of the library and keep running.

  Luckily, I don’t have very far to go. The group of students who had come to the library to find me has swelled to something much larger. They’ve surrounded Asher and made him give up Ms. Taylor who, I’m angry to see, is standing off to the side, her arms crossed, looking triumphant.

  Bitch.

  I skid to a stop in front of the crowd. They’re all so busy gloating over catching Asher that, at first, they don’t notice me.

  “Hey!” I shout as loudly as I can and my voice echoes around in the space, making the crowd quiet back down. “Hey, you assholes! I know that you want me, not Asher! Let him go and you can have me!”

  “Kiera, no!” Asher screams, fighting against the guys holding him back to try to get to me. I recognize the ones pinning his arms down at his sides, not by name, but because I know that they’re on the lacrosse team.

  Sick. His own team has turned against him.

  “Asher, I love you! I love you all!” A snicker runs through the crowd, but I don’t care. I have their attention, and that means that I actually have a chance of getting my devils out of here in one piece. I don’t care what happens to me.

  I’ve already lost all the other people I love. It almost destroyed me, but I managed to survive it. There’s nothing that can hurt me now, and if I can guarantee the safety of the four boys I love, then that’s good enough for me.

  “We could take them both.” I know the voice that rings out above the crowd, and it only takes me a moment of searching it to find Lila. She’s standing next to Clementine, as usual, her eyes locked on me, a horrible expression on her face. “Why don’t we get rid of them both? We can bring back Eric and get someone else.”

  A murmur of assent runs through the crowd, but I’m too busy paying attention to the movement out of the corner of my eye. My other three devils have slipped behind the crowd unnoticed, and it looks like they’re going for the door.

  Good. I want them to get away. I’m not even angry that they may survive and escape. I hope that they do and that they can somehow get away from this hell of a school without anyone noticing that they’ve made a run for it.

  But I am worried that someone in the crowd is going to turn around and see that they’re trying to leave, so I clear my throat and throw my arms open as theatrically as possible.

  “I’m here!” I can’t look at Asher, he looks horrified, and even though he’s stopped fighting against his old teammates in an effort to get to me, I can tell that he’s about to fall apart. If I look him in the eyes then I may not have the guts to continue doing what I need to do.

  “You guys want me? You want me gone? You want to get rid of me so that you won’t ever have West Virginia trash darkening your door again? Then now’s the time. I’m yours.”

  Luca, Parker, and Caspian manage to slip out of the door, and I breathe a sigh of relief when it shuts silently behind them. Asher and I are stuck in here, but I hope that I can save him, too.

  I want to save them all, and I don’t care what that means for me.

  “You think you’re so brave?” It’s Madison. I didn’t see her standing next to Lila and Clementine before, but now she steps forward, her eyes glittering with rage. “You think that sacrificing yourself to us is going to save your devils? You’re wrong, Kiera. You never should have come here, of it you really had to, you should have at least gotten the protection you needed from your aunt and uncle.”

  A slight titter runs through them all. They all know that I was dropped here on my own and that my aunt and uncle aren’t going to help me. Madison is right. If they had offered any protection then I wouldn’t be in this predicament, but they left me out here on my own, and now look.

  Look how truly fucked I am.

  “Grab her.” Madison hasn’t moved, but as soon as the words leave her mouth, a handful of students walk up to me and grab me by the arms, holding me in place. I don’t fight. There’s nowhere for me to run to, nothing for me to do.

  Even if I managed to shake them off for a moment, they’d be back in an instant, holding me in place, taking me with them, making me do whatever they wanted me to do.

  I can’t win.

  The realization hits me and I slump forward, but I don’t have long to wallow in my sorrow
before the crowd starts to move. I’m pulled through the main library doors, past Ms. Taylor, who can’t manage to keep the look of sheer glee off of her face.

  I hate her. If I ever get out of this, I’m determined to take her down.

  Hell, if I ever get out of this, I’m leaving Hawaii and never looking back.

  Even though I stumble going down the stairs from the library and into the quad, the students holding my arms don’t slow down. It’s like we’re caught in a tide, and no matter what I do, there’s no way for me to force myself out of it. I’m caught in it now, and it’s going to sweep me where it wants.

  I don’t have a choice in the matter.

  “Where are we going?” It’s a long shot, and I’m not surprised when nobody answers me. The guy holding my right arm grins at me, and my stomach drops. He and I were in math together, and he hadn’t seemed like the guy to participate in a public lynching then, but things change.

  Nobody wants to be on the losing side, especially when that means getting kicked out of your school. Or dying.

  Yeah, nobody wants to be on my side.

  Somehow, I manage to catch a glimpse of Asher. He’s stoic, his face a stone wall, and he’s walking where the crowd forces him to, but he’s not doing anything to make it easy on them. Taking a page from him, I start to drag my feet, trying to slow us down.

  I mean, I know that we’ll get to wherever we’re going eventually, but there’s no reason to hurry it along.

  “Can you please stop dragging your fucking feet? God, you’re worse than my grandmother.” The girl on my other side digs her perfectly manicured nails into my arm to spur me along. “For fuck’s sake, you can’t honestly act like you didn’t know this was going to happen to you. All you had to do was leave, you know?”

  “You don’t have to do this.” I don’t know why I’m trying to connect with her or get her to let me go, but I feel a surge of hope. Maybe, just maybe, she’s not so bad.

  Maybe she doesn’t want to do this to me, and there may be a chance that I can get her to stop.

  But she just laughs, jerking my arm to get me to walk faster. “Kiera, I don’t have to do a fucking thing. I want to do this. That’s the difference.”