by Chloe Garner
“On the specific topic of last night, I know that many of you have heard that we had students who did not survive. I am very sorry to announce that Patrick Rose and Conrad Smith died last night. We have informed their parents, and they will be coming today. If you happen to see them, please remain sensitive. Everyone is struggling, but losing a child is always the hardest thing a parent can face. Kit Memer has been transferred to a more capable medical facility, and we hope he will return before the end of the semester.
“That will be all. Please return to your dorm rooms in an orderly fashion and avoid spreading speculation and rumors. No one knows anything at this point, so anything that you hear is unlikely to have any real truth to it.”
Valerie watched as the guys filed out, then she turned her attention to Sasha.
“Stuck in the room full time,” she muttered, and Sasha nodded, still watching after Hanson.
“It’s lucky that we’re all alive,” the redhead finally said. “They’re doing the right thing.”
“Still,” Valerie said. “What do they expect us to do? Do you think it’ll take more than a day or so? Because, if so, that’s, like, prison or something. They can’t do that, can they?”
“You’re welcome to call child services and report it,” Ann said, sitting down next to Valerie. “Oh, wait, that’s right, you can’t. We don’t have cell phones. Or rights. They can do whatever they want. This is all about you, isn’t it? You know it is. They’re protecting you, and more of my friends die. They should just turn you out and let them have you. I mean, really, are you worth three of the Council’s best and brightest?”
“Lady Harrington would never do that,” Sasha said, and Ann tipped her head to the side, watching Valerie.
“Do you sleep at night, little Blake girl? Knowing that this school traded three lives for yours? And counting?”
“Where were you when it happened?” Valerie asked. “Running out the door for the woods? Or asleep in your bed? Ethan and I were running toward it.”
“You think he likes you,” Ann said. “It’s so cute. I’ve known him my entire life, and I can promise you, he uses girls like bubble gum. When you lose your flavor he’ll spit you out and go looking for a new piece.”
“Ladies,” Mr. Benson said. “Back to your rooms, please.”
Valerie stood, nudging Sasha as the redhead bristled at Ann.
“Was he at the library?” Sasha asked as they walked. “Last night?”
“What do you mean?” Valerie answered, glancing once more to make sure Ann had reamalgamated into a group of girls behind them and wasn’t following along to listen in.
“How were you and Ethan together when the attack happened?” Sasha asked. “You haven’t spoken to him in months.”
She hesitated at this, first because she hadn’t prepared a story for why she’d been able to meet up with Ethan, nor why she’d forgiven him, but then because she’d been with Ethan during both attacks.
Coincidence?
Was it even possible it was anything else?
Could he have been involved?
And if he had been, to what end? She hadn’t been there during the attacks because she’d been with him.
Could he have known and intentionally gotten her out during the attacks, then let them happen anyway?
For the first one, maybe, but… Could they have put together the second attack in the space of time it took Valerie to shower?
No.
It had to be coincidence.
Or something.
Sasha was still waiting for an answer.
“Right,” Valerie said. “Sorry. Just… a lot going on, you know?”
“Yeah,” Sasha said. “But… You two were together when it happened?”
Sasha was not the type to let something go.
“Yeah,” Valerie said. “We talked some and… I don’t want to be the one who makes it weird for you and Hanson. I still think you need to be careful and make sure that he’s really the person you want to be with, but… You shouldn’t not do it because of me.”
“What’s that got to do with Ethan?” Sasha asked.
“I went to talk to him and… I was ready to go on seeing him, right up until I found out about Hanson. So if I’m going to try to let things go back to normal with Hanson, I figured I could at least give Ethan a chance.”
“I’m glad,” Sasha said. “You were happier, there for a little bit, with him. At least you had something other than school that you were doing with your time.”
Valerie nodded.
She’d missed that part, too.
They got back to the room and went in, putting away their backpacks and sitting down on their beds.
“This is seriously like prison,” Valerie said after a minute. “No phones, no internet, no television? Seriously, what are we supposed to do?”
“Read?” Sasha suggested.
Valerie blew air through her lips.
“Who does that anymore?”
“I do,” Sasha said, and Valerie rolled over onto her stomach to hug her pillow. She’d actually had several shelves of books back home and loved to check out stacks of them during the summer from the library, but it had been a while since she’d really found something she wanted to dive into.
“I don’t have any, anyway,” she said. “Nothing but books about magic.”
“Well, you could borrow some of mine if you wanted, but you should probably spend the time studying, as much as you can. You still have a lot of catching up to do.”
Valerie wrinkled her nose.
What was the point of making up with Ethan if she wasn’t even going to see him?
“Can we sneak out, do you think?” Valerie asked.
“I don’t think you should,” Sasha answered, getting out the book she’d been reading the night before and rolling flat on her back to hold it over her head.
Valerie would have been in mortal peril, like that, because she was certain she would have fallen asleep and dropped the book on her face.
“Yeah, I don’t think I should, either, but it would give me something to look forward to.”
They stayed there through lunch - Valerie fell asleep for almost two hours - and then they went to sit at the cafeteria table with the much-reduced Council brats. Even adding in Hanson and Sasha, the table felt conspicuous.
Elvis came to sit down next to Ethan, and the rest of the freshmen went silent as the upperclassman started eating as though his presence was normal.
“They’ve locked all of us in our cottages,” the older boy said by way of explanation.
“So?” Ethan asked. “What are you doing here?”
“Getting out,” Elvis said. “Normally we eat there, because the food is so much better, but being stuck in there all morning sucks.”
“Then eat with your own friends,” Ethan said. “What are you doing here?”
Elvis looked down the table at Valerie. He was every bit as attractive as Ethan, but he had that older-boy thing going on, and she still saw exactly why she and Sasha had been so stunned when he’d come to talk to her on the first day of school.
It just felt like he didn’t belong with them, with the stubble on his chin and the subtle-yet-undeniable difference in the way he was built.
And man, oh, man was he hot.
“You need to go,” Elvis said.
And that was why Valerie still didn’t even like being around him.
“Why?” Ethan asked. “Why would you say that?”
“Oh, are you two a thing again?” Elvis asked. “I hadn’t heard.”
“Why would it be any of your business?” Ethan asked. “It doesn’t matter.”
“I think it does,” Elvis said, then leaned further across his tray to look at Valerie again. “You shouldn’t be here. The Council has safe-houses that they could put you up in, but you’re risking everyone’s lives, being here.”
“My mom sent me here,” Valerie said, not actually believing it, but refusing to engage Elvis at all.
“This is where I’ll stay until Lady Harrington kicks me out.”
“Lady Harrington has too much pride wrapped up in this school being a fortress,” Elvis said. “She won’t do what’s best for the students.”
“If the Council was offering, they would send the offer through Lady Harrington,” Ethan said. “Not you.”
“She won’t say it,” Elvis said. “So I am. The Council could take care of her, and the school would be safer.”
“You expect us to believe that Dad got in touch with you to try to talk her out of staying here?” Ethan asked. “They could just as easily send someone down here.”
“She won’t let them in,” Elvis said, picking up his tray and standing. “I’m the only one who can get close enough, since you and she stopped talking. She needs to leave, and the second she’s ready to admit it, I can get a car here and get her out of here.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Ethan said as Elvis stood and walked away.
“Why not?” Ann demanded. “Not only does he make sense. He’s right.”
“I’ll think about it,” Valerie said. “But Lady Harrington isn’t stupid, and neither is my mom. The safe-houses, whatever they are, they existed before I came here, and the dude who snatched me off the street would have known about them. There’s a reason for me to be here, and I’m not just going to ignore it because you don’t like me here.”
“I hate you here,” Ann said. “You took a slot that someone more valuable could have had. But what I don’t like right this second is that I might die tomorrow and it would be your fault.”
“Only if she kills you,” Hanson said, and Ann shot him a fiery look. He shrugged, immune. “Look, I can tell there’s stuff going on here that I don’t actually know about. I’ll figure it out, eventually, but I can be ignorant for now. What I do know is that murder is only ever the fault of the guy with the gun.”
“Or the one who left the door unlocked and a welcome sign posted out front,” Ann answered.
“Enough,” Ethan said. “She isn’t leaving. The safe houses are… They’d be indoctrination tools. The Council wants her to be their tool, and she isn’t going to do that.”
Valerie looked over at him as the table went very, very quiet.
Every word of that was going to make it to the ears of three Council members, at least, and his father would hear it very shortly after that.
Ethan returned to his meal, unconcerned, and Valerie looked around the table.
“All right,” she said, fed up. “All right, this is all enough. We’re literally dying here, and you guys are all still running back to your parents playing politics. At what point are you going to decide that we are the ones on a team, like each other or not, and start playing like that?”
“I am not on your team,” Ann said.
“I am,” Shack said after just a moment, then glanced at Valerie with a quick smile and went back to his meal.
“I am, too,” Hanson said. “For whatever that’s worth.”
“I am,” Sasha said, her voice quiet. Valerie could hear the need to qualify that with some kind of self-denigrating statement, but Sasha managed not to do it.
“So am I,” Ethan said, very familiar and very close. Valerie avoided looking at him because she was afraid that her goosebumps might actually be visible from across the table.
Milton cleared his throat and glanced at Ann.
“I’m going to do what my mom tells me I need to do,” he said after a moment. “I think they have a lot more visibility to what’s going on with the war, and I want to win this war.”
Valerie couldn’t say he was wrong.
But apparently Ethan could.
“We tattle on each other,” Ethan said, leaning across the table. “It means that we’re never actually on the same side. The Council is fractured and we all know it. As soon as they get a grip on the war, they’re going to start jockeying for position for coming out of the war, and if you guys read the histories the way I do, they just about lost the war twice doing that, last time. And that was with a brand new Council that didn’t have any clue how to be petty and power-hungry like our parents are.”
“That’s sedition,” Milton said.
“It’s pragmatic,” Ethan answered. “They’re going to screw it up. And it doesn’t matter what we do, they’re going to screw it up. I’m not talking about us fighting the war, not yet. I’m talking about us doing something to increase our chances of survival and our chances of winning, once it’s our job to do it.”
“The war isn’t going to last that long this time,” Ann said. “No matter how hard Susan Blake tries to stretch it out for her own agenda.”
“What?” Valerie demanded, but Ethan put his hand out to the side, physically intervening between Valerie and Ann. “My mother would never…” Valerie went on, but Ethan interrupted her.
“We said that last time,” he said. “But the Superiors were ready for us at every turn, and they killed way too many of our best fighters for us to even hope to have a big advantage this time.”
“Should have wiped them all out,” Milton muttered, and Ethan held up a finger.
“I don’t want to discuss what they should have done last time,” he said.
“We have to,” Milton said. “If we plan on doing any better, next time.”
“It’s different,” Ethan said. “Different war. Different people.”
“I say we all tell our parents that we’re done,” Shack said. “No reporting back on each other at all.”
Valerie looked around the table, and Ethan nodded.
“That’s what I’m saying,” he agreed.
“My dad isn’t going to take that as a final answer,” Ann said.
Milton watched Ethan for a long time.
“My best friend died last night,” he said. “And as far as I can tell, it’s her fault.”
“Not her fault,” Shack muttered, returning to his food.
“You expect me to side with her over my own father?” Milton asked.
“I’m asking you to at least tell us if you’re with us or against us,” Ethan answered.
“I’m not with you,” Milton said. “I won’t do that. The Council is trying to win a war.”
“A war we have almost nothing to do with,” Ethan said. “They’re spying on us because of politics, not tactics.”
Shack nodded at his pile of spaghetti, slurping it up and looking down the table at Milton.
“I’m still on their side, in the war,” Shack said as he finished chewing. “But this isn’t the war. Not us. I’ll tell my mom anything she wants to know about the attacks. But not about you guys. Not anymore. Ethan’s right.”
“No,” Milton said after another moment. “I won’t do it.”
“Then you need to leave,” Ethan said evenly.
Valerie looked over at Ethan, feeling simultaneously like he was being over-dramatic and unkind, kicking Milton off of the lunch table, but also that he was right.
“All right, I’m in,” Ann said. “If only because it’s going to take the amount of work I have to do down by at least half.”
Ethan nodded, and put his hands out on the table in front of him.
“It’s settled, then. We’re our own team, now.”
“You know that none of us are actually headed for power,” Ann said after a moment. “They’re only looking at Light School grads for the Council.”
Ethan looked at her sideways and shook his head.
“We can do whatever we want,” he said. “If you want to take the Council and the rest of us agree to it… we’ll take the Council.”
She frowned at this, then lifted her chin.
“And what if I do?” she asked.
“We’re seventeen,” Valerie said. “I don’t think we really need to hold a vote on it just yet.”
“This is when it starts,” Ann said. “And I didn’t say that you got a vote. There are three of us without Milton, and I only need Shack or Ethan to say that they want to take the
Council…”
“Four of us,” Ethan said. “She’s one of us.”
“Hey, I said I was in almost first,” Hanson said, but Sasha elbowed him and he coughed into his fist. Ethan ignored him and looked at Valerie.
“She’s not wrong, though. We have to know if we want to lead the Council. Because it’s got to be single-minded.”
“I just want to survive and have my mom come home,” Valerie said. “And I’m sick of people spying on me.”
“You can’t not want anything,” Ann said.
“Why not?” Valerie asked. “I don’t.”
Ann shook her head, then looked at Ethan with exasperation.
“Are you going to make me say it?” she asked, and he twisted his mouth, turning his whole body to face Valerie.
“They aren’t going to let you,” he said. “You’re too powerful. They all know it. Everyone does.”
“What does Dr. Finn want?” Valerie asked. “I’m no more important than he is.”
Ethan glanced at Ann, then shrugged.
“The council consults with him on a lot of things,” he said. “And he uses that access to get favors. He runs the research group, too. They kicked out the old guy so that he could do it.”
“No,” Valerie said. “He’s… That’s not what he’s like. He wouldn’t trade favors or steal someone’s job.”
“It isn’t like he’s telling it,” Shack said. “Dr. Finn’s a good guy. He took over research because he was the best anyone had seen in twenty years, and he does work for the council so they care about his interests. It’s not… The research facility has a lot of good equipment and all of the ingredients and books and stuff that they could ask for. They take care of him. But it’s not about personal gain and whatever.”
She shot a look at Ethan.
“Was that so hard?” she asked.
“Then you tell her,” Ethan said to Shack.
Valerie raised an eyebrow and looked back across the table again.
“They’re right,” Shack said. “Dr. Finn knew what he wanted to do, and they were happy to let him do it, but they’re all still trying to get him to prefer working with them over the others, so they can use him more frequently. They’re buying him stuff and trying to keep track of what he wants and stuff… You can’t just not be involved. They’re all going to chase you around and try to get you to do what they want you to. He knew what he wanted. If you don’t? They’re going to try to convince you to want the same thing as them.”
