by April Marcom
Then again...he was a whole other person when he was with them.
But he didn’t do it! Anyone could have put those things there. Titus could have done it. But he was the one in the explosion.
“Dang it!” I said to the room full of Cinders who I realized were all watching me. “He didn’t do it,” I said, before walking out of the room and through the Cinder boys whose numbers had multiplied since I got there.
Someone grabbed my arm in the midst of them all and began walking beside me. “I’ll walk you down,” Bane said.
“I’ll be fine.” I tried to pull my arm away, because I didn’t feel like being near any Cinder at that moment, but he held on.
“No, you won’t. It’s dangerous for you to be up here alone. Half of those guys would have jumped all over you if those security guards weren’t here.”
“Fine.” My mind spun uncontrollably as we walked past bedroom doors. “Knight will be okay, won’t he?”
Bane didn’t say a word until we were at the bottom of the stairway and he’d lit a torch in the long hallway. “Look—you can’t talk to our headmaster like that. I can’t tell you why, but—in Cinder matters, you can’t get involved. I want you to promise me that no matter what happens, you’ll stay out of it.” He looked really angry, as we moved through the passageway, and it felt like he knew something he wasn’t telling me.
“Why? What’s going to happen?”
“I don’t know, but whatever it is I want you to stay out of it. Knight wouldn’t want you to get involved.”
“I love him, Bane, and I’m not going to stay out of anything. If he needs me, I’m gonna be there.”
I tried to open the door at the end so I could head back to my bed to think, but Bane put a hand on it and slammed it shut.
“You have to listen to me. Knight can handle himself.” He looked down and stared at the floor self-consciously. “You’re always so happy, and it feels good to be around you. You’ve been like a little sister to me and I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
I felt a deep tugging in my heart for him. Until that moment, I’d never thought of him that way. It always felt like he was above me, the top dog in the Cinder world. I was touched, honored, to mean so much to him. I had to put my agony over Luke aside to be grateful for that. So I set down the safe and wrapped my arms around Bane’s waist.
“Wh—” He leaned away for a second, clearly not expecting it. And then, slowly and awkwardly, he put his arms around me.
“Thanks, Bane,” I let him go and picked the safe back up. “But I’m going to do whatever it takes to be with Knight.”
I opened the door again and left him behind this time.
Chapter Thirty-Three
~ Wedge ~
When I walked back into the half-destroyed girls’ quarters, I was met by cots and fresh mattresses being dragged up the stairs and into the room. Men and women were picking up and putting everything back in its place. I doubted I would get to sleep anytime soon.
Sassy, Harmony, and Nadine were all waiting for me in Harmony’s bed. I climbed on up, still stunned. “What happened?” Harmony asked me.
“It was awful.” I found myself crying unexpectedly. No matter what the end result was, Luke was about to undergo a lot. And our Christmas evening together was ruined, along with my beautiful dress. “They, they found the suit and the wire and all the things that’ve been stolen in Luke’s stuff...He’s in big trouble, guys.”
“What suit, Kristine?” Sassy asked.
“The one Rose’s attacker was wearing—They found the wire from Luke’s snowmobile—But why would he try to blow himself up?!”
“Oh, Kristine,” Harmony pulled me close. “The Cinders’ minds have been warped by their past and by their school.”
I sat up straight and stared at her in outrage. “He didn’t do it!”
“I know it’s hard to accept something so horrible, but you have to at least consider it.”
“Cinders are always getting in bloody fights and even they don’t trust each other,” Nadine said.
“You seriously—I can’t listen to this,” I said, before climbing off Harmony’s bed and into mine. I pulled the curtains closed and hated them for thinking he could be the culprit.
I lay down and pulled my blanket over my dirty dress. They can’t prove an innocent man guilty, I thought. And he couldn’t have been the one to destroy our room, because he arrived at the dance when girls were still leaving it. And he was always by my side after that. Except when we were casting votes.
“This whole thing is stupid,” I said, rolling over onto my stomach and reaching under my pillow. Something thin crunched against my fingers. I let them glide over a sheet of paper. Pulling my pillow halfway up, I took out a folded piece of notebook paper and a bigger, heavier piece of shiny black paper, which had been rolled up and tied with a gold ribbon. Letting the pillow go, I rolled onto my back and slid the ribbon off of the heavier one. I unrolled a poster of Luke—or Knight, as it said.
The guy in the picture was different from the one I knew. Someone else almost. The man version of the kid I once knew and was now completely in love with. As I stared into his dark eyes and felt that overpowering attraction he always caused, I saw him in a new light—a Cinder light.
Perhaps the happy childhood memories and feelings he brought about every time I saw him made me blind to all the changes he’d undergone over the years. Could he really have committed all those crimes?
He sneaked into my room sometime during the day to leave me this present. But he was with me when the room had to have been wrecked. He couldn’t have been in here, leaving this for me, when it happened.
It was really confusing.
Setting the poster aside, I opened the piece of notebook paper.
Dear, dear Kristine,
First, I love you more than anything. I always have. That’s why it could never be anyone else. Now that I know you love me too and that you’re mine, I can never go back. I can never go back to life without you. It would hurt more than ANYTHING else ever has.
I take the note you wrote me out of my pocket every night and let your voice read it to me as I fall asleep. You’re the last thing I ever see or hear. I want to be the same thing for you. I want you to feel like I’m there with you every night, especially when you’re back at North Haven. So keep this under your pillow. Let me be the one to put you to sleep every single night.
And always remember that we share blood, never to be contaminated by another. The same blood pours through our veins. The same blood—something no one else shares with you—keeps me and you alive. And know that I love you. I live for you. I would die for you. And you are mine, only mine. Never forget that.
I love you, Kristine.
Love, Luke
It made me cry. Everything was making me cry. It was a rough night.
“Kristine,” Harmony said from the other side of my drapes, “can I please come in?”
“If you bring me some tape.” I unrolled the poster and smiled at my sinfully hot boyfriend. I was sure he was innocent. But either way, I was so in love. I would do whatever it took to prove Luke’s innocence if it came to that, even offer myself in his place. Let them throw me out into the cold instead of him.
Harmony opened the curtain and handed me some scotch tape before she sat down beside me. “I’m sorry,” she said as I tore off a long piece of tape to stick a corner of the poster to the bottom of her bed. “If you say Luke didn’t do it, then he didn’t. I don’t know him very well, but I know you. And I trust your judgment. Will you please forgive me?”
“Yeah. I’m not really mad at you. I’m mad at whoever stashed all that stuff in his room.”
The other curtain opened and Sassy sat down beside me. “Then you can forgive me, too?”
“You didn’t say anything, Sassy.”
“I know, but I thought it.”
We giggled and hugged each other as Nadine sat by my feet, not looking as sorry as the othe
r two had. “I’m sorry you’re upset, and I’m sorry that you got dragged into this. But I think it could’ve been Luke.”
“He didn’t do it,” I said, shaking my head.
She shrugged and went to lie on her bed.
I sincerely hoped this wouldn’t drive a wedge between friends.
Chapter Thirty-Four
~ Guilty ~
I hardly slept that night. Any sleep I did get was the restless sort, only making me feel worse every time I woke up. When I finally fell into a real sleep, it felt like I only blinked before Harmony was shaking my arm because my con was bubbling and it wasn’t enough to wake me up. My head throbbed as I pulled it out from somewhere under my blanket.
“Headmaster wants us in the dining hall,” Harmony told me as it opened.
“Good morning,” Connie said. “Headmaster requires the presence of every student in the dining hall immediately. Tobias Veziamo will be making a very important announcement shortly and won’t be waiting for late-comers.”
“Come on, girls—Up, up, up,” Miss Tripside came calling from the end of the room. “Out of bed and downstairs. You can shower and get dressed later. Come on, let’s go.”
Harmony helped me get out of bed and kept a hold on my arm as I stumbled down the stairs.
I forced my mind to wake up enough to search the room for Luke when we got there. Nothing. My stomach churned as I took my seat.
We sat nervously in our usual spot for a few minutes before Luke’s headmaster walked into the room and went to stand behind the teachers’ table, where our headmaster already sat. The noise died completely, as did any hope I had for Luke. The look on his headmaster’s face was far more dangerous than usual, something I wouldn’t have even thought possible.
“Your minds may be put at ease in knowing we have discovered the young man guilty of attacking North Havener Rose Jennings, attempting to murder Cinder Titus, and destroying the North Haven girls’ quarters last night,” he began. “While these things are not uncommon for a Cinder and usually would not be cause for such drastic measures, he has broken a sacred trust between schools and nearly destroyed our greatest tradition, the Winter Competitions. There is no greater crime and there is no forgiveness. Cinder Knight will be expelled from this school tomorrow.”
I gasped and put my hands over my mouth. Warm tears began their descent. This couldn’t be happening.
“He will be taken somewhere far from here and left to fend for himself. Unfortunately, he should have no trouble with this. That is all.”
“No, it’s not,” I said, rising from my seat as he took his. I trembled with fear as I made my way to him and stared across the table into his hellish eyes. “Luke Knight is innocent. Didn’t you check the evidence for fingerprints or hair or something?”
Tobias gave me his most hateful look as he rose to his feet and leaned against the table. “This is not America, and its laws do not apply here. When I say one of my students is guilty, he is. End of story.”
“But what about the cameras you put up everywhere? Did you even bother to check out the footage?”
“I don’t have to; Knight’s guilty.”
“That’s not fair—Where is he?”
“That is none of your concern.”
“Tell me!”
“No. Leave this table or I will have you removed.”
The desperation that had been rising since the night before pushed me to breaking as I realized I might never see Luke again. “Please—I have to see him. This can’t happen again. You can send me away instead—please.”
The Cinder headmaster looked past me. “Hanghard, Ripper, take this North Haven child away.”
“Good gracious, Tobias,” my headmaster said, letting the red liquid he was drinking spill out all over his clothes. “I can take care of her myself.” He wiped at his shirt as he stood up and came around the table.
That’s it, I realized. My headmaster can rescue Luke.
I hadn’t realized until Headmaster put his arm around me and began walking me to his office that the room was still deathly quiet. Every single occupant was now wide awake and staring at me.
The second his door closed behind him, I said, “Can you help him?”
“I’m sorry, Miss Fayre, there’s nothing I can do for Luke Knight.”
“But he’s innocent.”
Headmaster sat behind his desk and pressed his aged index fingers together under his chin. “Innocent or not, he isn’t my student. His fate does not lie in my hands.”
I dropped into a chair. How could this be happening? Luke was such a good guy, deep down. He was the one who saved Rose’s life, for goodness’ sake. In the midst of the abysmal darkness, I had a tremendously bright idea. “Couldn’t you adopt him into North Haven? He didn’t attack Rose. He saved her. And he saved me from Roman when he attacked me.”
He pointed to me with both fingers as he leaned forward. “Roman attacked you?”
“He hit me the night I broke up with him—and he would have done more if Knight hadn’t been there.”
“Why haven’t you informed me of this before?”
“Because I thought it was over after the break up.”
“I will certainly have a serious discussion with Mr. Armstrong, but I need for you to understand that there is nothing I, or anyone else, can do for Knight. You’re going to have to let him go.”
“I can’t...I can’t go back.” He’d phrased it perfectly in that letter. This made me cry even harder.
“I’ll do everything I can to help you get through this, but you have to be more careful when you speak to my brother. The penalty for disrespectful behavior toward him is being locked in a giant oven and cooked alive. Hanghard and Ripper are his personal bodyguards. These are demons of men—the biggest, brawniest, most merciless ones he could find. They are men of no remorse. They’re always with him, hiding behind those suits of theirs. They were probably right behind you when he called on them, ready to take you away.”
It sounded absolutely, horrifically, inhuman. “He really kills his students when they’re disrespectful?”
“Yes, but he’s never tried to kill one of mine. I’ll have to speak with him about that. But you see, he cares nothing for anyone but himself. His only purpose in bringing youth to this school is to try and beat me in our competitions. It seems we were born this way, always having to be better than the other. I can’t explain it. But aside from everything I’ve said, my brother’s pride alone is enough to keep him from changing his mind. He declared Knight guilty and he won’t take it back. Even if someone else admits to all those misdeeds, he will never say otherwise. I’m sorry.”
“Can’t you at least tell me where he is, so I can see him?”
“I don’t know where he is. There are things my brother will only allow Cinders to know, and where he keeps prisoners is one of them. It’s against Cinder code to share certain things with anyone else, including the navigation of the unknown parts of their school. If you managed to convince one of them to reveal this to you and it was discovered, Tobias would let Ripper and Hanghard have them. I would strongly advise you against this.”
I pulled my knees to my chest to cry against them as utter hopelessness set in. “Headmaster—I can’t just do nothing. He’s all the family I have. What would you do if someone said you would never see your brother again?”
He took a deep breath. “Family does complicate things. That’s why those recruited have none whatsoever...I doubt I would be able to sit back if Tobias was being sent away, though. I just can’t tell you what to do here. I have no answers... Why don’t you go have a shower and think on it? It may clear your mind enough to help you find your own answers.”
I nodded and got up to leave, somehow managing to hold the tears back as I walked through the dining hall and girls’ quarters.
After grabbing some clothes and shower stuff, I headed for the bathrooms and stopped dead in front of one of the mirrors. I was a mess. I’d fallen asleep in my dirty dress,
so I still had it on. And my hair and makeup were all over the place. A lot of kids had been forced to go downstairs with a bit of ‘bed-head’, but no one looked as torn up as I did.
“Oohhh,” I groaned as I climbed into a shower stall. My rigid muscles relaxed as the warm water washed over them and I tried to think straight, put all emotion aside and search logically for a way out of this.
Who could I turn to when there was nothing Headmaster could do? Luke. He was always the first one I went to about anything. I felt helpless without him. I’d gotten accustomed to him always looking out for and taking care of me. Of course that got me crying again. My friends can’t help me. No one can... “Connie!” I said out loud when an idea came to me.
I grabbed my towel as I climbed out of the shower and wrapped it around me. My con was lying on the bench with my other stuff, just on the other side of the curtain. I turned it on and waited impatiently.
“Good morning, Kristine,” Connie finally said. “What can I do for you?”
“I need to know where Luke Knight is being held.”
“Held?”
“Yes, I need to know where Cinders are kept when they’re in enough trouble to be expelled.”
Connie looked so human as she gave me a sympathetic look. “It isn’t in my database. Any part of Southland Cinder High School that I’m not aware of will only be known to a Cinder. Is there anything else I could help you with?”
“No...Kristine Con, return.” I set it down on the bench and climbed back into the shower.
So—only a Cinder could help me now, but I doubted any of them would risk their lives to help out a Havener. How could I convince them? Luke said that Cinders like to make deals, I remembered. So, if I could figure out what I could offer one of them...I closed my eyes and let the water rinse my shampoo and soap away as I pictured each of the Cinders I personally knew. Nothing came to mind until I got to Thorn. My eyes opened wide as it came to me, the shred of hope that all was not lost. I would let her win. If she would get me to Luke so he and I could figure something out, I would let her win the next race.
