by April Marcom
Everyone around me booed and complained while, to my far left in the darker stands, everyone erupted in cheers and beat their feet against the ground.
I let out a breath and thought I would cry from the relief I felt.
“Relax, Kristine,” Sassy said, leaning over Harmony to hand me a bag of popcorn. “You’ll give yourself a heart attack if you freak out at every close call. They know what they’re doing.”
We watched the whole thing in slow motion as Connie informed us that, “Roman Armstrong is the first competitor out of the game.”
“Roman?” I asked. “Isn’t he our best player?”
“He’s been distracted since you got here,” Nadine said. “That’s what his coach told mine.”
I didn’t care. I didn’t even care that I would crush him completely in a matter of hours, because he was going to throw a deadly rock at Luke.
The picture on the big screen changed. It showed two doors slide open on the side of Southland Cinder High and a Cinder on a black snowmobile ride out. “The Southland Cinder High School Snow Rider, Titus, has entered the competition late.” North Haveners all around me began shouting their protests loud enough that we almost didn’t hear Connie say, “The penalty for this is that Roman Armstrong will be allowed to reenter the competition.” That turned them around.
Someone behind me let out a shrill whistle and then got everyone chanting, “Roman, Roman, Roman,” as we watched him roll over his snowmobile and climb back in.
“You’re kind of in the middle of this, Kristine,” Sassy said. “Who are you hoping will win?”
“Luke.” Even if he had left me confused and a little hurt only a few minutes before.
“You want your own school to lose?”
“No. I guess I’ll be happy either way.”
“Competitor Knight seems to be experiencing a problem. He will be leaving the game temporarily.” The screen focused on the black and purple snowmobile as smoke began pouring out of the back.
I stood up when I saw Roman riding toward him with the same big rock. “That’s not fair!”
I fell back from the deafening explosion that followed. Bright yellow scorched the arena as Luke’s snowmobile went up in flames and a thousand shredded pieces. The camera moved to focus on a motionless body lying facedown in the snow fifty feet away.
“LLUUUKE!” I let out an agonizing scream that drowned out Connie’s voice before I ran from my seat.
The fastest way to get outside was through the slit in the wall on the Cinder side. I tore through the blue section and into their dark arena hallway, hoping I would come out on the right side of the school at the end.
I swerved around two Cinders who were giving me peculiar looks, and slammed into a third one. He was a tall man wearing a belt loaded down with security guard stuff, so I figured that was what he was. We both fell back. I popped up and tried to keep going, but he grabbed my leg and said, “What are you doing over here?” harshly.
“I need to get to Luke.”
“Knight? He’s not in here. They’re racing outside, genius.”
I yanked my leg away. “There’s a tunnel to outside. I need to get to Luke!”
I made it a few running steps before I felt him grab me around my waist and roll me to the ground. “You can’t go running outside dressed like that. You’ll die.”
Two other men were making their way toward us.
“What do you care? One less Havener in the world.”
He grunted as I fought to get away. “Contrary to what you might think, we don’t want you dead. You’re a lot more fun alive.”
Hysteria rose inside me. Luke could be lying out there dead. I couldn’t lose him again. I kicked the man’s legs as I reached around and grabbed a fistful of hair.
He cried out in pain, finally letting go. “All men to section three, section three, right now!” he shouted into a radio.
The other two ran at me as I hurried to the tunnel. Each one tried to stop me, but I fought like I’d never fought before. For Luke. I could hear them all chasing after me as the two doors came into view.
Someone came at me from the side. My shoulder slammed into the ground. More and more men came to hold me down. “You’re not going anywhere, so just calm down.” The fat man who’d pushed me over pressed my shoulders against the cold stone floor.
I was out of my mind with fear and grief. “NO! NO! NO! I don’t want to live without Luke!”
“You’re not thinking straight. If you ran outside like this, you’d be a human icicle, okay? You’ve got to calm down.”
“Luke,” I moaned, tears pouring over the sides of my face.
A voice came on every man’s static radio at once. “Titus is being taken to a hospital room. He was on Knight’s ride. They’re showing it right now.”
Five of the guys got off of me, leaving two to hold me down against the hard floor.
“Hear that? Knight’s fine,” the first man I’d encountered said. “So no more trying to run outside. Are we okay letting you up?”
“Yes, yes, let me go.” I fought to get up again, this time so I could see that Luke was safe for myself.
The two men looked at each other and leaned back, letting go at the same time.
I ran through the nearest opening into the Cinders’ stands. Up on the screen, I saw him. Luke was putting his helmet back on and climbing on his snowmobile. It cut back to the Cinder being carried away on a stretcher. I cried harder as I laughed. It was like he’d been brought back from the dead.
“What are you doing here, Fayre?” a girl asked callously.
Looking over at one of the black half-circle sectionals and the menacing girls sitting on it, I realized I was surrounded by Cinders. I would have been a lot more afraid if I hadn’t just discovered the guards set in place right outside the arena to protect us as well as their own.
“Nothing.”
I turned around and left the stands. Still mostly in shock, I returned to my seat beside Harmony and stared at the floor, going through it all in my head.
“Lucky break, huh?” Sassy asked.
I tried to tell myself to look over at her, but a whimper came out instead.
“Kristine?” Harmony asked, putting her arm around me.
Leaning over, I sobbed into her shoulder. I was trembling, I realized. It was my mother’s death all over again, having to watch him fall and die. I loved Luke, and I wasn’t strong enough to go on without him. In only a few days, seven of the happiest days I’d had in years, he’d become my life force. I couldn’t shake the anguish I’d just suffered.
It took me several minutes to pull myself together enough to look back at the screen. Even after that, I stayed close to Harmony with her arm around me as I watched, terrified something would go wrong.
But I saw that Luke could take care of himself. Four North Haveners had already been overthrown and Roman had taken out three Cinders. I watched Luke shoot out from behind a snowdrift right in front of someone and hit them so they flipped over. That player was out. Then he came flying up behind another North Havener and pulled him right off his snowmobile with one hand. That only left two on our team, Roman and the girl Snow Rider, Kelley Bridge.
Roman knocked a Cinder out cold with a different rock. Kelley managed to knock a Cinder off his snowmobile with a stick. Then a Cinder rode past her and pulled her off by her ponytail, which had come out of her helmet, dragging her a few yards before he let go.
“This is brutal,” I said, sitting up for the first time.
“Yep,” Sassy said. “It’s kind of a Cinder sport. They started it, and it’s their favorite part of the competitions, but there’s always enough guys from our school who get into it to keep a team going. Kelley’s the first girl to join.”
The three remaining Cinders did their best to dethrone Roman, but he somehow took down two.
“Only one remaining competitor from each school,” Connie said. The screen split and showed each one. “North Haven’s Roman Armstrong
and Southland Cinder’s Knight. Who will come out victorious? It looks like we’ll soon find out.”
The Snow Riders approached each other from different ends of an expanse of snowy field. The screen slowly zoomed in, keeping them each at the edge the entire time. It reminded me of two jousters as they got closer and closer. Neither had anything but themselves to fight with.
I could see Roman getting ready to kick Luke. I hoped Luke saw it, too.
The sides of each snowmobile must have scraped against the other as Luke shoved Roman’s leg out of the way with his foot and leaned way over to grab him around the neck, lifting him right off his seat. Roman’s snowmobile and body flew out from under him as Luke threw him down in the snow on his back.
A sound almost as loud as the earlier explosion beat against my ears as the Cinders stood up and roared like thunder.
Luke had won the Snow Riders’ competition.
Chapter Twenty-Five
~ Eternal Bond ~
I was pretty nervous as I began walking down the hallway leading to the competitors’ room. Nervous about what Roman’s reaction would be. Nervous about whether or not Luke would even be there when it was all over after he’d been acting so odd.
Thomas and James, both North Haven Snow Riders, walked out of the boys’ room when I was nearly there. “Hey, Kristine,” Thomas said. “Roman’s almost done in there. He’ll be happy to see you after such a harsh game.”
“It’s not safe for you to be out here alone,” James said, stopping right beside me. “Someone wired Knight’s ride to go up like that. Probably the same guy who put Rose in the hospital. We should stay with her until Roman comes out, Thomas.”
“Someone tried to kill Luke?” The whole attacker thing suddenly became a whole lot scarier.
The door to the boys’ competitors room opened and Roman walked out, looking pretty miserable. It all changed when he saw me. “Hey, Kristine!”
“See ya, Roman,” James said, walking away with Thomas.
“Luke’s bike was fixed to blow up?” I asked Roman, unable to think of much else.
“I don’t want to talk about him tonight. I wanna hear what it is you needed to tell me.” Moving closer, he let his hands glide over my sides as he walked me back against a wall. “I have a feeling I know what it is.” He smiled and tried to kiss me, forcing me to slide against the wall in order to get away.
“I wanted to tell you somewhere we won’t be interrupted. Will you come with me?”
“Oh, I’ll come with you all right.” He had this stupid drunk look on his face as he came close enough to whisper. “But I want to hear you say it first.” He began trying to kiss my neck, making me seriously consider kneeing him in the groin.
“Roman, please!” What in the world did he think I was going to tell him?
“All right, I’ll be patient. Where did you want to go?”
“Come on.” I began walking down the hallway away from the stairs. Roman chased after me and decided to try and hold me around my waist from behind as we walked, which was awkward and annoying, but I forced myself to put up with it until the bright hallway faded into torch-lit stone up ahead.
Using my hands to pry his away, I said, “There’s a storage room we can go in. I don’t think the Cinders use it anymore.” I saw the lonely door to the left of the changing point and two burning torches hung on either side of it on the wall. We each grabbed one and walked into something bigger than a closet, closer to a regular bedroom in size, but empty of anything other than a few dusty brooms and droopy cobwebs in every corner.
“You were right,” Roman said, setting his torch in a holder. “No one will find us in here.”
I barely had time to hang up my torch on the other side of the room before he was all over me like a leach. His hot minty breath came out in heavy puffs as he kissed my shoulder and neck. “Say it,” he whispered. “I want to hear you say it.”
“Back off, Roman. I’m pretty sure you’ve got the wrong idea about what I’m going to say.”
“Come on, sweetie, say it.” He pressed his lips against mine as I pushed him away as hard as I could.
I had to grab his face and twist around in his arms to break free. “Cut it out!”
“What’s wrong with you? No one’s around.”
“What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you? And what the heck do you think I wanted to talk to you about?!”
“We’ve been together long enough now; aren’t you going to say you love me?”
“No!” Was he serious? “I came here to break up with you.”
He turned and stared at the wall to his left, the luster of tears already staining his eyes. “You...this can’t be happening.”
“I’m sorry, Roman. You’re a lot of fun and everything. But I don’t want a boyfriend right now. You never even asked me out; you just started saying I was your girlfriend.”
Still staring at the wall, he shook his head and laughed. “You don’t want a boyfriend...” His eyes flashed blue as he looked back at me. “Are you seriously telling me this isn’t about Knight?”
“No...well, maybe. A little bit.”
He grabbed my wrists and snarled, “Do you really think he wants you? He’s a Cinder. All they care about is themselves. He’ll hurt you, Kristine, something I would never do. For the rest of my life, I will love you and look out for you. Knight won’t do that.”
“I didn’t say he would, and I don’t know if he wants me or not, but he’s not like the other Cinders. He has a good heart...And yeah, maybe I do want him. But even if I hadn’t found him here, I still wouldn’t have wanted to be with you. I never have. Why can’t we just be friends?”
Roman growled angrily as bitter tears spilled out. It felt like a brick hit me as he let go and struck me in the face without warning. He grabbed my arms hard enough to bring tears to my eyes and a cry from my lips. “No. You’re not breaking up with me. Not now, not ever. Do you understand?”
Suddenly, something came out of the shadows. Then two giant hands wrapped themselves around Roman’s neck from behind and began squeezing, forcing Roman to let go of me so he could try and free his airway. He strained and kicked as I fell to the floor, scooting away from them both. I watched in horror as Roman’s body became limp, and then fell into a heap on the floor.
The dark figure came and knelt beside me. Luke’s face moved close to mine, his beautiful eyes staring at me with concern. “He’ll come to eventually...I’ve always wanted to be with you. A day hasn’t gone by that I haven’t wondered whatever happened to you and wished for the old days we spent together to come again...I couldn’t say anything because I’m a Cinder, and I didn’t think you could ever feel the same way.”
“But, why...before...” I couldn’t put two words together, because my brain was still trying to process the fact that he felt the same way.
“It hurt when you kissed my arm back in the gym. I wanted more so bad, and I had to walk away. It hurt even more to know I would always have to walk away from that.”
He reached behind his head to take off the black ribbon with the gold flame dangling from it and put it around my neck. “This belongs to you.”
“No, I can’t—”
“They said it took seven men to take you down when you thought I was in that explosion. They said you don’t even want to live without me.”
My eyes begin to water at the thought. “I don’t.”
He smiled and leaned forward, his dangerous thorns of black hair shining in the firelight. And then I felt myself being slid back across the floor as Luke put a hand behind my head and slammed us both against the wall, kissing me until I couldn’t remember who I was. A searing heat burned though my entire body and I felt the explosive fireworks I could never feel with Roman. A long moan drew from deep inside me just before he let go.
He rested his forehead against mine and tried to catch his breath. “I love you, Kristine. I’ve loved you since the day I saw you sitting in the back of that classroom seven ye
ars ago."
A feeling of pure ecstasy came as I said, “I love you, too, Luke.”
He leaned back and took my hand. I felt something warm and wet. I held up his hand and saw blood all over the back where it had hit the wall. “You’re bleeding.” I tried to wipe it away, but it kept coming. I lifted his hand to my lips instead, hoping he wouldn’t think I was strange as I kissed it and let his blood smear across them.
His own lips parted slightly. He let out a ragged breath and ran his other thumb over my mouth. He looked down at his injured hand. “Kristine...do you love me enough to let my blood flow through your veins?” He looked up at my chest. “Would you let a part of me pump through your very heart?”
Even though the question was a little twisted, it excited me somehow. It felt like something eternal that would bind us together forever. No one would ever be able to sever that bond. It even felt like everything in my life had been leading up to this intimate moment.
So I held out my hand. He drew a knife from under his boot and turned my hand over before he slit the center of my palm, sending dark blood dripping down my arm. I sucked in a breath with the sharp sting of it.
Luke held out his hand for me to lay mine on. It had to be my choice.
I laid my freshly cut palm over his bleeding knuckles and felt the blood running from his hand into mine and from mine into his. I felt a closeness like I’d never felt with anyone else before, as our blood poured into each other. For a few minutes we only stared at each other, the soft dripping of thick crimson falling from our hands to the floor.
And then he pulled my cut to his lips and let my blood run over his chin as he kissed the inside of my hand. “You’re mine now,” he said tenderly.
“I know.” It was the sort of thing I’d longed to hear him say.
He leaned over to kiss me again. “Go to the dance with me.”
“But—I thought you didn’t want your school to know we’ve been seeing each other.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore. I don’t want this to be a secret. I’ll protect you.”
