Good vs. Evil High (33 page)

He smiled over at me. “I’ll bet you could use
a good rest and some ice for that ankle. I’ll call the hospital
wing and have them send someone down.”

“Could you see how Luke’s doing?” I asked,
grabbing his arm.

“Certainly.” He took his con from his pocket.
“Call Dr. White, please,” he said when we saw Connie.

“Calling Dr. White.”

An extremely attractive man appeared a minute
later. “This is Dr. White. Oh, hello, Headmaster. Is everything all
right?”

“Not exactly. I need a medic to come have a
look at Miss Fayre’s ankle. It’s hurting her pretty badly. And
she’ll also need something she can rest on here in my office.”

“Did you say Kristine Fayre is there?”

I leaned into the picture. “I’m here, but
how’s Knight doing?”

“The Cinder? Well, he lost a lot of blood and
we had to take the bullet out of his abdomen. He’s a lucky kid,
though. It barely missed his liver.”

“So he’s okay?”

“Yes, he’s asleep right now, but he’ll be
fine.”

I let out an unsteady breath as tears came to
my eyes.

“He’s in a lot better shape than Roman
Armstrong. That kid’s going to need some pretty extensive surgery
to repair his arm.”

“You have Mr. Armstrong?” Headmaster asked,
as I felt relief in knowing he wasn’t still out there.

“Yes indeed. A couple of North Haven kids
brought him in. He put up quite a fight, even though his bones are
all over the place in that arm and he’s got a bullet in his
shoulder.”

I must have shot him. In spite of everything,
this really bothered me.

“Is it true that he kidnapped Kristine and
he’s the one behind the attacks?” the doctor asked.

“Yes, unfortunately it is. I’ll be in to
check on him later, but right now could I get those things for Miss
Fayre?”

“Couldn’t we just go up there?” I asked.

“I’m not sure you should be walking
around.”

“It’s okay. I really want to go see Luke.” I
could suck it up and deal with the pain. Those few precious minutes
I had with him that morning weren’t enough.

“If you’re sure, I suppose we could go
up.”

“Thank you.” I reached out to hug him.

“I’ll send someone to meet you halfway with a
pair of crutches,” Dr. White said.

“Thank you, Doctor. Headmaster Con, return.”
He helped me out of the chair and kept an arm around me as we left
the office.

“Oh—just a minute.” Headmaster left me beside
the table closest to his office to go back inside. He reappeared
with a con in his hand. “My brother refused to tell me where he
found this. Wherever it was, we couldn’t track it. But he brought
it to me the day after you disappeared.”

“Is that my con?”

“It is.”

“Thank you!” I gave him a good squeeze as he
put his arm back around me.

Hunter was already running down the hallway
with a pair of crutches when we walked out of the dining area.
“Hey, Hunter,” I said, happy to see him.

“Hey, Kristine. Let me help you.” He handed
me the crutches and walked beside me, doing his best to help
Headmaster in helping me. “How are you feeling?” he asked me as we
started to go up the stairs.

“Better, since Luke’s okay.”

“He’s the Cinder, Knight, isn’t he?”

“Mm-hm.” I needed to remember to use that
name, even around the North Haveners.

“We’ve got him in here,” Hunter said when we
reached the medical floor, stopping in front of the third door to
our right.

Inside the room, we found Luke in a hospital
bed with a blanket tucked under his arms, looking just as pale as
before. It was scary to see him like that.

“Can I wake him up?” I asked.

“Probably not. We had to give him some
anesthesia when we took the bullet out of his side, and it’s
probably better to let him sleep as long as he can.”

I nodded and moved to the chair against the
wall. “Can we wait here for his headmaster?” I asked mine.

“Of course we can, but I still think you need
to rest.”

“I’ll get a cot and some ice,” Hunter said
before he left the room.

I laid down the crutches and scooted my chair
closer to the bed so I could hold Luke’s hand. It was freezing, so
I rubbed it between mine until Hunter came back.

“Here you go, Kristine,” Hunter said a little
later, pushing a cot through the door. “Why don’t you climb up here
and I’ll look at your ankle?”

I moved my chair so he could put the fresh
cot right next to Luke before I climbed on. Hunter ran his fingers
all over from my toes to my knee. Then he turned my ankle around
slowly. I winced a couple of times, but he didn’t seem too
concerned about the injury. “It’ll probably hurt for awhile, but I
don’t think anything’s broken. You’ll want to use the crutches for
the next couple of weeks, though.”

A terrible thought came to mind suddenly.
“Will I be able to run in the next race?”

“Uhhh,” Hunter glanced at our headmaster.
“Rose ran the last races two days ago.”

“Are you serious?” I stared with wide eyes as
I felt hot fear rush to my cheeks.

“Yeah...are you okay? You look like you just
saw a ghost.”

I looked down and shook my head. Thorn
probably wanted me dead. “Did she win?”

“No, her leg was still pretty weak. She lost
both races. On the plus side, Nadine’s team won in the soccer
competition.”

I let out a breath of relief. Maybe Thorn
would let it go, since she’d still won. “How about if I take some
x-rays to be sure everything’s okay in there?” Hunter asked me.

“Okay.”

“Couldn’t we let her rest for a little while
first?” Headmaster asked him. “She really has been through a
lot.”

“Sure. I’ll come back to check on her
later.”

I tucked Luke’s far arm under the blanket and
decided to hold his other hand, as I lay down and closed my eyes. I
didn’t think I would be able to fall asleep, but I was more than
happy to lie beside Luke until he woke up.

Chapter
Forty-One

~ Nine Lives ~

When I woke up, I was surprised to feel
someone’s arms wrapped around me. I lifted my head and found Luke
watching me, looking more like his old self. “Luke!” I said,
pulling my arms free so I could wrap them around his neck.

He gave me a kiss and said, “Your friends are
waiting out there for you to wake up, but I’d rather keep you to
myself for a little longer.”

“What time is it?” I asked.

Luke leaned over laboriously to look at the
clock on the wall. I sat up and looked for my headmaster, but he
wasn’t there. “Three o’clock.”

“In the afternoon? How long have you been
awake?”

“Not very long.”

The door opened and Harmony peeked in. She
gasped and threw it open. “She’s awake!” Sassy and Nadine burst
into the room with her and they all came to give me a hug.

“We thought you’d run away with Luke and we’d
never see you again,” Sassy said into my hair.

“I wouldn’t do that. We’re sisters,” I said,
pulling my legs toward me so they would all have room to sit on my
bed.

“I told them that,” Harmony said, pretending
to give Sassy and Nadine reprimanding looks.

Then she dropped my purse in my lap. “I
brought you something. Headmaster said you’d be staying here until
Luke leaves, and the doctor said Luke has to stay overnight for
observation. Now you won’t get bored.”

I looked in the bag and saw a fashion
magazine, my gold notebook, colored pencils, beef jerky, and a
coke. “Thanks, Harmony.”

“I brought your favorite,” Sassy said,
holding out a napkin wrapped around a bunch of bacon. “It’s from
this morning, though, so it might not be good anymore.”

“That’s okay.”

“And I didn’t want to be the only one to come
empty handed—” Nadine said, going to get something from the hall.
She came back carrying two small plates, each with a big piece of
chocolate cake on it. “I know how much you love cake, Kristine.
Hopefully you do, too.” She handed one to me and one to Luke.
“Sorry I thought it was you,” she said to him. “I should have
believed Kristine when she told me you didn’t steal all that
stuff.”

Luke shrugged indifferently and sat up slowly
so he could take the cake from her.

“I’ll go get Hunter so he can take an x-ray
of your foot,” Sassy said as she stood up to go find him.

“Could you shut the door, Nadine?” I asked
when Sassy was gone.

“Sure.”

I waited for her to come back to ask Harmony
my question. “Do you still have Luke’s safe?”

She and Luke looked at each other.

“Yeah,” she answered. “When you both came up
missing, I thought the Cinders might come looking for it, so I hid
it under the sinks in the bathroom. I wrapped a robe around it and
put my shower bag in front of it. That way everyone would know it
was mine. You can have it back whenever, Luke.”

He gazed at her solemnly. “I owe you one.
Seriously, let me know if you ever need a favor.”

“You saved Kristine. I’d say I’m the one who
owes you.”

He grinned as the door opened and Hunter
walked in with Nadine. “Ready to get your picture taken?” Hunter
asked me.

“You bet.” I left my things on my cot and
grabbed the crutches.

All three of my friends fussed playfully over
helping me all the way to the x-ray room, even though I would have
been fine on my own.

“Which room is Roman in?” I asked Hunter as
he walked us back down the hall.

“None of them. He’s in surgery right now and
then Headmaster’s having him locked in a room upstairs until he
decides what to do.”

I really hoped my headmaster wasn’t so naïve
as to let him roam freely around North Haven again.

When my friends and I got back to the room,
Luke was pretty quiet until Bane came to visit. “So, you survived
even with our entire school out for your blood,” Bane said, coming
to pat me on the back. “You’ve got nine lives. You know that,
Fayre?”

We laughed and he went to sit by Luke so Luke
could tell him everything that had happened since he was
imprisoned. I did the same with my girls while trying to listen to
everything Luke was saying. It was impossible, though, so I figured
he could tell me what his last thirteen days had been like
later.

Everyone left pretty quickly after that. On
their way out the door, Bane asked Harmony if she wanted to hang
out later. Maybe they understood that Luke and I needed each other
after all we’d been through.

“Your headmaster came by while you were
gone,” Luke said when we were alone.

“Really? What did he say?”

“He offered to make me a Havener.”

I gasped so loud that I coughed a few times.
“That’s great!”

“I turned him down.”

The excitement instantly drained out of me.
“You said no? I thought you wanted to be with me.”

“I do, but I wouldn’t belong there. Not as a
Havener, anyway.”

“But we could see each other every day, like
now. We could go to classes together and go out on the balconies.
North Haven’s the most beautiful place on earth.”

“I like it here, though. I like it dark and
underground with these guys. I’d rather be with you, but...what if
my headmaster asked you to be a Cinder? Leave your friends and
school to be one of us? Would you say yes?”

“No.” Southland Cinder High was the last
place I’d ever want to live. And I understood what he was
saying.

“I’ll still come see you every chance I
get.”

“I know.”

A knock came at the door. Luke let out an
irritated sigh. “When will everybody leave us alone?” he said.

“Come in,” I called out, hoping they hadn’t
heard Luke.

“Sorry to bother you,” Hunter said, opening
the door enough to stick his head in. “I wanted to let Kristine
know her x-rays were fine. I’m still recommending you use those
crutches for the next two weeks.”

“Thanks, Hunter.”

“So,” Luke said in a near whisper once the
door was shut. “How did you get to the prisoner’s cells?”

I’d sworn on my life I would never tell
anyone what Thorn did for me, but I’d also never kept anything from
Luke and I knew he would take my secrets to the grave. So I told
him the story, the whole story, filling in the gaps from that
morning, since he couldn’t remember anything after passing out
while he was chasing Roman.

“I can’t believe you did all that for me,” he
said, lying down when I was finished, and cringing with the stab of
pain on the way down.

“Roman would’ve killed you if I hadn’t and
that would have been a hundred times worse.”

“Guns don’t scare me.”

“They should.” I leaned over to kiss him.
“You’re not immortal, you know.”

“I know.” He put one arm behind his head and
used the other one to pull me down next to him and keep me there.
“But the way I love you is immortal. It makes guns and anything
else that tries to come between us seem trivial.”

“Yeah.”

Just thinking about the last two weeks made
me feel exhausted. That very morning, I was still chained to a
wall, convinced the guy beside me was dead. I didn’t want to think
about it anymore.

“I got my con back. We could watch
something.”

“Sounds good.”

I took it out of my pocket and let it rise
from my open hand. “Kristine Con, play the SpongeBob Christmas
special, please.”

For Luke and me, a good cartoon was always
the best medicine.

Chapter
Forty-Two

~ The Six ~

When I woke up later that night, the only
light in the room was cast by a solitary torch. The clock on the
wall told me it was five until midnight. Luke was passed out on his
stomach in the next bed over, with his fingers spread out over my
stomach.

Nature was calling, so I climbed out of bed,
being careful not to wake up Luke, and hobbled down the hall to the
bathrooms. The ones on the medical floor were extra-spacious, but
also extra-cold. I went as fast as I could.