Good vs. Evil High (21 page)

It was impossible not to notice the cut on my
hand coming out from behind it on both sides. I smiled a little
wider, thinking that my heart could be pumping his blood through it
at that very moment. I couldn’t believe how something I would have
thought so sickening with anyone else felt so good when it was with
Luke Knight.

The cold flame fell against my chest as I
climbed out of bed, not wanting to wait another second to see him.
“Morning, Sassy,” I said, pulling open a drawer.

She was digging around in the neighboring
dresser. “Good morning.” She grabbed my face when she looked at me.
“Your cheek’s bruising. You better let me do your makeup today. I
can probably hide it.”

All three girls were awake, waiting for me in
my bed when I got there the night before. So they knew about
Roman.

Harmony leaned over the edge of her bed.
“Thank goodness Luke was there last night. Who knows what would
have happened if he hadn’t been.”

“Do you believe me now?” I asked, changing
into a red sweater with eight sparkly gold reindeer pulling an
empty sleigh across the front.

Harmony rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I know. All
Cinders aren’t bad.”

“I still think you should tell Headmaster
what Roman did,” Sassy said. “He would want to know.”

“If I thought anything else might happen, I
would. But it’s finally over...Should we wake up Nadine?”

“She left an hour ago. Soccer’s next Friday.
We probably won’t see much of her until after that.”

I changed into a pair of jeans and grabbed
some boots. “I’m gonna brush my teeth and see if Luke’s waiting for
me.” We hadn’t made plans the night before, but it was our routine
last weekend.

“Wait,” Sassy said. “Don’t you want me to
cover up that hideous bruise?”

“If you think you can.”

“Don’t insult me. I’m the makeup master.” I
pulled on my boots as she looked through the mess of makeup
scattered all over the top of her dresser.

A few minutes later, I was running down the
stairs to the first floor, bursting to see Luke. As much as I had
looked forward to seeing him every time before last night, it was
much more powerful now, like all I could think about was getting to
him and knowing he still loved me.

Roman was waiting at the bottom of the
stairs, though, so I forgot about this temporarily. I hurried past
him before he noticed me.

“Kristine, can I talk to you for a sec?”

“No.”

“I’m sorry about last night,” he said,
walking beside me. “I can’t believe I was such a jerk.”

“Neither can I.”

“I want to talk about what you said, still
being friends. It’ll be hard, but it’s better than losing you
completely.”

I continued to stare forward as I picked up
the pace.

“Kristine,” He grabbed my arm and spun me
around. “Talk to me.” The tears springing to his eyes didn’t bother
me a bit.

“No, Roman. We’re not friends. We’re not
anything. We’re done.” With that, I yanked my arm away and turned
the corner into the dining hall corridor.

“Wait!” He chased after me and grabbed my arm
again, harder this time. “I can’t remember what happened.”

“Let go. My arm still hurts from last
night.”

“First I need to know what happened. Someone
grabbed me, and then I woke up alone.”

“Hey, Armstrong,” Luke’s voice came from down
the hall. “Hands off.”

Roman gave him a puzzled look for only a
second. Then his grip loosened as a look of realization came to his
face.

I broke free and ran into Luke’s arms. He
looked smokin’ hot in his typical black wife-beater and jeans.

“Is he bothering you?” he asked me.

“He said he can’t remember part of last
night.”

“Go wait by the dining hall doors. I need to
have a talk with him.”

He left me for an enormously enraged Roman. I
watched them argue from the place where he’d told me to stand,
hoping it wouldn’t become physical. Roman kept looking down and
taking deep breaths, because Luke kept cutting him off
mid-sentence. After a few minutes of this, Roman walked away and
ignored me as he went in for breakfast, slamming his fist into the
door to open it.

“What did you say to him?” I asked Luke when
he came to stand in front of me.

“I made sure he understands that his personal
safety depends on whether or not he hurts you again.” He leaned
forward and put his hands around my back. I reached up to lay my
arms on his broad shoulders and neck. A shiver passed over me as I
stretched my neck to allow him to kiss me repeatedly, all the way
down my jaw line.

“Do you regret anything?” he asked me.

“Nothing. Do you?”

He dragged his bottom lip back up over my jaw
and laughed softly. “I’ve waited half my life for last night. Now I
can die a happy man.”

“Just don’t die too soon.” With the finger of
one hand, I stroked the back of his neck. “I need you, Luke.”

He got this desperate look as he pressed me
against the wall and kissed me. I only leaned away when I heard
kids coming down the hall.

“Will you sit with me—in there?” he
asked.

“Like, with the Cinders?”

“Yeah.”

I
really
didn’t want to, but my
yearning to be with Luke far outweighed anything else. “I guess
so.”

The group of North Haveners I’d heard coming
entered the hall right in front of us. Then I let Luke lead me by
the hand to the end of the second table.

“Hi, Bane,” I said enthusiastically when I
recognized him sitting right across the table from me.

His big blue eyes looked up at me in
surprise. The two guys beside him began scooting away, staring at
me like I was some freak of nature. “Get back over here,” Bane
ordered them. “And stop acting like idiots.”

“Try not to be so happy and nice with these
guys,” Luke whispered to me.

Okay, not nice, and not happy
. That
would be hard.

“Armstrong’s girl,” Bane said with a truly
Cinder smile. “What are you doing here?”

Not nice, not happy.
“I
know
you’re not talking to me, because I am
not
Armstrong’s
girl.” I jabbed at the table with my finger for emphasis. “I’m
Knight’s girl. And somebody pass me the bacon!”

All four guys stared at me in shock—before
they started laughing. I wondered if it was because I’d suggested I
was with a Cinder or if they found it hilarious to hear me talk
that way.

“I like you, Fayre,” Bane managed to say as
he handed me the bacon.

When they were done laughing their heads off
and I felt mildly comfortable, I ate a few pieces. “Does anyone
know how Titus is doing?” I asked halfway through my third
piece.

Thorn glared at me when she sat down on
Bane’s side of the table and saw that I was the one who’d asked.
“What do you care, Fayre?”

I pounded the table with my fist and tried to
sound tough. “That could have been Knight.” Bane tried to suppress
his laughter, I could tell.

“So?” Thorn asked.

The guy she was sitting by waved his finger
back and forth at Luke and me. “They’re a thing.”

Thorn gave Knight a disgusted look. “You’re a
traitor.”

“You’re just mad that she can run faster than
you,” Bane said.

“What?!” Thorn stared at Bane, stunned for a
minute. Then she stood up and left, muttering about traitors.

I noticed Harmony pointing me out to Hunter,
who was wearing latex gloves and holding a small tube of something,
at the other end of the room. He had a doctor’s patch on his chest.
“I’ll be right back,” I said before going to see what was up.
Hunter waited for me right where he was. “Are you looking for me?”
I asked.

“Please tell me this isn’t going to become a
regular thing,” Sassy said from her seat, “you sitting with
them.”

“Probably not. Luke has training most
mornings,” I said.

“Miss Janey wanted me to look at your hand,”
Hunter said, reaching for the one with band-aids all over the
inside.

“Why?” I asked.

“She said she couldn’t find the cream she was
looking for when you came in last night. She found it this morning,
so she sent me down here with it.” Carefully, he peeled the
band-aids away. The long cut looked pretty gross to me.

“What happened?” Sassy asked. She and Harmony
stood up to get a better look. Even though I’d spilled everything
to them about Roman, I’d kept the hand thing to myself.

“I fell against a sharp edge of a wall,” I
lied.

Hunter opened the tube he was holding and
squeezed a bunch of clear goo onto his fingers. My entire hand
tingled as he rubbed it on and wrapped gauze around it.

“Is Titus all right?” I asked him.

“He’s got a few broken ribs and he’s in a lot
of pain.”

“That’s too bad.”

“Yeah. Put this on once a day, okay?” He
handed me the tube of cream. “See ya, Kristine.”

Luke got up to meet me halfway as I returned
to him. He held his hands up. I pressed mine against them, our
fingers criss-crossing through each other’s and holding on. He
arched our arms outward and down as he leaned forward to kiss me.
“You’re the cutest thing banging your fist around, but you might
want to tone it down. Some people just can’t do mean. With you,
it’s like watching a beautiful rainbow get trampled.”

The great hall doors opened and students
began pouring in, herded by Haven and Cinder teachers. It looked as
if every student on both sides had been dragged out of bed or
practice to be there. Some kids were still in pajamas and barely
made it to a table before they slumped down and fell back asleep.
Even Nadine and the other soccer players came in together.

Luke and I stood in the middle of it all as
kids milled around us. “I wonder what’s going on,” I said.

“We better sit down before we lose our
seats,” Luke replied. Once we sat down, I could feel the scrutiny
of every noticing eye—me sitting at a Cinder table, leaning against
Luke with his bare arm around me.

“Hey, Knight,” One of the Snow Riders sat
next to Luke. I think his name was Spinner. “What’re you doing with
that skank?”

I was shoved forward as Luke twisted around
to grab Spinner behind the neck and bash his head into the empty
plate in front of him. “You better
never
let me hear you
talk about her like that again.”

“Dude, what’s your problem? She’s a
Havener.”

“She’s
my
Havener.”

Straining against Luke’s hand, Spinner picked
up the fork near his face and tried to stab Luke with it, but Luke
let go fast enough that Spinner poked himself in the neck instead,
drawing blood and a pitiful cry.

“Could I have everyone’s attention, please?”
Headmaster called from the teachers’ table, interrupting the
murderous looks the two guys were giving each other.

His brother rose from the seat beside him,
like liquid night.

“Yesterday,” my headmaster went on, “a Snow
Rider’s vehicle was tampered with in an attempt to kill its driver.
Not long ago, Rose Jennings was attacked and could have died if the
right people hadn’t been there to save her. We’ve had this school
searched for any uninvited guests and turned up nothing. We still
have no idea who is behind these attempted murders, which means
that the culprit is still among us, presumably in this very room.
With no evidence to assist us, I am at a loss for what to do. We’ve
never had this sort of problem before. Since it began after our
arrival, perhaps it’s associated with the Winter Competitions. I
fear for the safety of each of you and have consulted with the
North Haven staff about returning home early this year.”

“No,” I said to myself as the hall echoed
with angry shouting. It was too soon to leave Luke.

“SILENCE!” Headmaster’s heavy rolling voice
washed out the others until they all had ceased. “I have not yet
made this decision. There are as many teachers with objections as
there seem to be students. I have decided to take each of your
opinions into account. My brother is against our calling the
competition off early and has spoken for his school on the matter.
I wanted them to be aware of the situation, though.”

He nodded to the North Haven teachers who had
ushered everyone in, and they began walking toward the back tables,
half of them carrying stacks of blank white paper and the other
half carrying pens.

“I ask my students to write down what you
prefer and why. It’s up to you if you would like to sign your name
or not. If you wish to wait and write it later when you are alone,
that’s fine. Be sure to turn it in to me, to one of my teachers, or
to whoever takes care of your hall some time during the day. If you
fail to turn one in, you will have no say whatsoever in this
matter.”

I left Luke to sit with my friends, since
none of the teachers bothered to pass me a paper. Plus, I was
hoping I could make sure they voted to stay.

“My staff and I will meet together tonight to
read your responses and decide what the best course of action will
be.” He looked at his brother, who nodded, and then they sat
down.

I turned to Harmony and Sassy before I
thought about writing anything down. “You’re not going to vote to
leave, are you?”

“No,” Sassy said incredulously “I’ve been
looking forward to the competitions all year. We can’t leave before
it’s even started. And we haven’t gotten to dress up for the dance
yet.”

“I’m voting to stay, too,” Harmony said, “but
I’m also going to tell Headmaster that maybe we should have someone
we’re actually assigned to stick with all the time. That way, if
the attacker’s one of us and he can’t go anywhere on his own, he
wouldn’t be able to do anything.” Her eyes got a little wider. “And
if he
did
do something, Headmaster could ask us whose
partner wasn’t with them when it happened.” She leaned over her
paper and began writing away.