I chewed on my lip, wanting to hold on to the bear and knowing I shouldn’t. “Ok, thank you.” A buzz in my pocket reminded me I had somewhere to be. “I better get moving. Lots to do today.”
Chase fell into step beside me as I continued toward the main stage. “Where’re you headed?”
“I’m going to make an announcement for the car wash.”
Chase looked questioningly at me. “I didn’t know they did announcements for that kind of stuff during the battle of the bands.”
“They don’t,” I muttered. “We’ve got a good team and several of us have a decent shot at Nationals. We need to raise enough for everyone to go.”
“Do you have a plan?” Chase asked, amusement sparking in his brown eyes.
“I’m thinking of one.”
“Are you going with anyone to the dance tonight?” Chase’s gaze was firmly fixed on the ground.
Was he asking me? “I’m not really the ‘dance’ type. I’m just hanging out with Gideon, watching movies.”
His shoulders relaxed. “I’m not, either. Well, not much of a dancer, I guess.”
“Are you saying you can’t dance?”
Chase’s cheeks tinged pink, but he didn’t respond. Interesting. Something Chase Merriman couldn’t do.
We came to the main stage at the center of the carnival. One of the bands was in the throes of a song on the stage, guitar and drums raging. I cringed at a discordant shriek of feedback coming from one of the amps. These guys needed some serious help. Not even the Red Court could rig a win for them.
Once the song came to a close, none other than Max Stanley came onto the stage to thank the band and announce a ten-minute break as the next act set up.
“Now or never,” I said to Chase and stormed the side of the stage after finding a safe place to stash his gift.
I leapt up the stairs and took a deep, steadying breath before I strode out from behind the makeshift curtain and stood next to Max.
“You got this,” a voice next to me said. Chase had followed me up the stairs and stood next to me, grinning at the crowd. He’d left his burden of bears on one of the amps.
A few hollers from Chase’s friends carried over the noise and he gave several waves and shout-outs to his admirers. Max only stared at us, dumbfounded by our appearance.
I plucked the mic from his grip and spoke. “I just wanted to remind everyone that the debate team’s car wash is going on in the faculty parking lot. Each wash is free, but please be generous. Our team is working hard to get to the national competition, and...”
No one was listening to my ramble. Worse, I couldn’t see Haley anywhere. She hung me out to dry without any help. What was I doing?
Chase leaned in and picked up where I left off. “Come on and help the debate team raise some money. If you don’t want a car wash, I’ll stand up here and sing the Heller fight song until we get enough donations for me to stop. No one wants that.”
Chase started to sing—his singing voice was terrible, like two tone-deaf raccoons shrieking—and more whoops reached us along with a few whistles. Some of his friends tossed bills and change onto the stage for his efforts. I finally spotted Haley on the outskirts of the crowd, arms folded across her chest, talking to someone with a serious expression. The girl she spoke to wore a beanie pulled low over her brows, nearly covering her eyes. With her face angled away, I couldn’t make out any distinguishing features. As she turned to go, the mystery girl pulled a phone out of her pocket. One that looked just like mine, a Red Court burner.
The crowd in front of the stage thickened and I lost sight of the girl in the gathering mass. Part of me wanted to jump off the stage and follow her. The Queen of Hearts. It had to be her. Could Haley have been lying this whole time about not knowing her identity? Was the QoH watching me to see if I could complete the job? My thoughts refused to organize amid the noise of the crowd and Chase’s off-key rendition of the Heller fight song.
A guy came up the steps on what looked like shaky legs. He marched purposely over to where Chase and I stood, and he held his hand out for the mic. His cheeks were flushed red against fair skin. He wasn’t StuCo, that much I knew. Honestly, it looked like he was about to be sick.
Chase took this cue and gave a bow before handing the microphone over and stooping to collect his earnings. He grabbed my hand to lead me off the stage. My feet dragged and my eyes lingered on the guy. What was he doing? Beyond him, I noticed Hell’s activities director giving Max a hard time for letting us on the stage.
Damn.
I didn’t want him to get in trouble.
“Umm. I wanted to say something to Ella Keyshaw,” the would-be Romeo said. “Well, I wanted to ask her something. Ella, will you go to the dance with me tonight?”
I stumbled over some cords on the stage and gave a yelp, but that didn’t drown out the resounding “yes” that came from someone in the crowd. Ella had her date to Homecoming.
I disentangled myself and tugged free from Chase’s grip. “Thank you for your help. I would have lost it out there without you.”
Chase gave me his brightest grin, one that made his eyes crinkle in the corners and my heart stutter. “I couldn’t let you go out there alone.”
I seriously needed a CT or ECG or whatever it was they used to monitor heart function when I was around him. Maybe they could give me a pacemaker for when my heart eventually gave out under all the strain. He dug out the bills and coins from his pockets, an impressive amount for such a short performance, and handed them over.
Behind the curtains, with the rush of adrenaline in my veins from the high of Red Court work, I felt bold. Bold enough to reach up on my toes and place a quick kiss on Chase’s cheek.
“I better get back.” I barely recognized the breathy voice as my own.
“I’ll see you around.”
I gathered my bear and walked back to the car wash in a daze, thinking about the girl I saw with Haley, trying to match her face with any in my memory, but snapped back to attention when I noticed the dark-clad figure shadowing my steps across the crowd. When I found a quiet spot behind a concession stand, I stopped and waited for the shadow to emerge.
“That was interesting,” Haley said when she appeared around the corner.
“Something interesting always happens at the carnival.”
She made a noncommittal noise. “And Chase?”
“Things didn’t go exactly as planned. But you have to admit it all worked out in the end. I even got fifty bucks for the car wash.”
No use telling Haley that Chase came on the stage with me on his own and was not actually part of my scheme.
“How did you do it?” I asked her.
“The other team did most of the work. Our lovebirds just needed one last shove to send them over the cliff.”
Haley made their date for the dance sound about as appealing as actually being sent over a cliff. I waited for Haley to fill in the rest of the story. Finally, she relented.
“I merely mentioned that the two of you appearing on the stage was bound to result in you getting asked to the dance, a ‘promposal’ or whatever they’re called, and how that was the best idea ever. When that didn’t happen, our boy decided to steal the show.”
It was amazing how little effort the Red Court had to expend. So much of what we did were tiny moves here and little corrections there to set things in motion.
“So glad I could help you out. What would you have done if Chase hadn’t gone up there with me?”
“I’d have figured it out. I always do.”
“Did I see you talking to someone in the crowd? Was she in on the job?”
Haley narrowed her eyes. “No, not really. I was talking to a lot of people. It’s hard to push through a crowd and be polite at the same time. I was probably apologizing for stepping on her foot when she wouldn’t budge.”
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I snorted. Haley wouldn’t give up anything so important as the identity of the Queen of Hearts that easily. If anything, her cagey response was encouraging. There was something there; I just had to find the right thread to tug and watch it unravel. “I better go.”
“Ember,” Haley said when I brushed past her. “Did you get a card in your locker yesterday?”
My feet sank into the pavement, trapping me where I stood. Something in Haley’s tone triggered warnings in my head. I glanced back at her pale face and wild hair. She looked like the goth ghost of Christmas past. “Why?”
“Sometimes the Queen of Hearts leaves us notes after our jobs. Sometimes she even offers us favors.”
“Favors?” I kept my voice light, betraying only a hint of interest.
“Just be careful what you ask for.”
Haley turned her back to me and ducked around the corner on quick feet.
“I’m always careful,” I whispered to no one. The lie caused a sudden pang in my chest. As much as I wanted to find out the Queen of Hearts’s identity to bring her down, I also felt something else when I caught sight of the girl in the crowd. I wanted to please her.
CHAPTER 20
AFTER MOVIE NIGHT at Gideon’s, I spent the rest of the weekend considering the favor I would write on my card for the Queen of Hearts. Did I need to write a real request if I was planning to bust her when she picked it up? I wasn’t sure what I was going to do when she showed up. If I wasn’t able or ready to confront her, I’d have to have a real favor on the card to buy me some time.
The problem was finding something that wouldn’t hurt anyone if the Red Court acted on it. Who would even secure something for me? It couldn’t be one of the other teams. They’d know I asked for something, and if they thought to check, my name wouldn’t be on the list of people who owed favors. We weren’t in the Red Court because we were slow on the uptake.
So it would have to be the Queen giving me what I wanted. My head swam at the thought. I could have the Queen of Hearts herself doing my dirty work. Would it be the girl from the carnival?
With nothing to go on but the quickly fading image of her face in my mind, I flipped through my and April’s yearbooks. After an hour of scanning page after page of school pictures, I was no closer to putting a name to her face. I turned to some light Instagram stalking, checking through followers from some of the more notorious Hell High students, including Chase. Even though it was public, it felt like an invasion to scroll through his photos. He still had some posted with his ex-girlfriend, and I had to click away before I transformed into a green-eyed rage monster. With any luck, I wouldn’t need to track down the girl in the beanie. She would be coming to me.
When I walked into school Monday morning, the whole place was abuzz about the carnival and the dance. Who showed up with whom. Who wore what and who copied them. All of it seemed a million miles away from my reality.
The hallway next to my locker was noisy and crowded. I used the cover of voices and crush of bodies to my advantage and opened my locker unnoticed. It was time to leave my own note for the Queen of Hearts. The playing card, an Ace of Spades, felt like a brick in my pocket, awkward and heavy. I’d chosen the card on a whim. It didn’t have any special meaning, but maybe putting my request on it gave it meaning, made it mine.
I palmed the card and reached up to place it on the top shelf, where all the Queen’s notes appeared.
“What are you doing?”
Gideon startled me and I dropped my card. It floated slowly down before Gideon neatly grabbed it from the air.
“Don’t!” My fingers grasped the edge of the card before Gideon pulled it away and held it in the air where I couldn’t reach it. “Don’t be a child. Give it back!”
I would not jump to reach it. I would not jump to reach it. I would not jump to reach it. Desperation got the better of me and I jumped like a five-year-old with my hands in the air.
Gideon gave a wicked laugh. He so delighted in reminding me that I was short. “Calm down. I’ll give it back. I just want to see it.”
His laughter stopped when he looked at what he held in his hand. His eyes scanned back and forth across the card, soaking in the words and their meaning.
“I can explain,” I said. The noise in the hall was loud enough that a conversation would have to involve shouting. I so didn’t want to do this right now. “Later. Let me explain later.”
Gideon handed back the card. “Sure. Whenever it’s convenient for you.”
“Please trust me. I know what I’m doing.”
I took the card and placed it on the shelf. Shutting my locker with more force than necessary, I turned back to Gideon. He was already gone, swallowed by the sea of bodies coursing through the hallway.
* * *
Gideon wasn’t waiting for me after second period. He wasn’t waiting for me in the library. He didn’t respond to my text messages, either.
I decided to wait for him at his next class. If I blocked the door, he couldn’t avoid me. I’d make him listen. I needed him to understand.
I sat in the hallway and pulled out my journal. There wasn’t anything to say. I couldn’t remember a time when there wasn’t something to write, something I needed to get out of my head. Frustrated, I jammed it back into my bag.
I rolled my head around, attempting to release the tension in my neck. My favor was a good one. The only thing I could think of that wouldn’t hurt anyone. In fact, I was helping. When I’d tossed around ideas of things I could do, I remembered Max was in trouble because of something I did.
Word had spread as far as the car wash that after my stunt, Max was in detention and at risk of losing his spot in StuCo. Apparently, the faculty advisor didn’t believe that Max wasn’t in on the antics. If I could do something, I wanted to help him. So I asked for him to keep his spot in StuCo. The detention wouldn’t do any harm in the long run, but losing his spot as junior class secretary seemed extreme.
The bell signaling the end of third period rang and I watched students pour out from their respective classrooms. A few minutes passed, and a familiar dark head surfaced in the mass of students.
“Hi,” I said when he got close enough. “Can we talk?”
“Now’s not a great time.” Gideon tried to sidestep me, but I moved into his path.
“You said whenever it was convenient for me.”
Gideon’s lips twitched in an almost smile. “Fine. Speak.”
I grabbed his hand and guided him down the hall to a more secluded spot. As secluded as you could get in a crowded hallway.
“My favor is gratis.”
“Pardon?”
“The Queen of Hearts gifted that favor to me. I decided to use it to help Max because my stunt got him in trouble at the carnival.”
“So, you don’t owe anything for it?”
“Nope. I already paid up.”
Gideon didn’t seem pleased, but at least he was talking to me.
“I don’t remember seeing this in your plan. You promised not to keep anything from me. I can’t watch out for you if I don’t know what’s happening.”
“This is part of the plan.” I weighed the potential danger I’d be exposing him to by telling him against the idea of him pulling away from me. Selfishly, I didn’t want to lose my friend. “The Queen of Hearts is coming to get the card from my locker at the end of the day. Phase two is now in motion. Do you want to join my stakeout?”
His face brightened at being included in my scheme for sabotage. “I don’t have any plans.”
“Great. Meet me after school by the girls’ bathroom on the main floor.”
* * *
At 2:45 p.m., Gideon and I bustled over to the pillars in the hallway by my locker. Short of being an ideal hiding place, it was actually pretty terrible. But there wasn’t much cover in the hall. We could have hid in the trash cans,
though there wasn’t a sum of money large enough to convince me to squat in those petri dishes.
By 3:15 p.m., Gideon was quickly losing patience. “Where is she?” he demanded.
“Shhh! I’m sure she’s waiting until everyone goes home before breaking into my locker.”
The clack of heels on the tile silenced us both. We adjusted our positions so we were out of view from the direction of the noise. My line of sight was partially obscured by the other pillars. I held my breath as I glimpsed a pair of feet stop in front of my locker.
“Stay here,” I whispered to Gideon.
“No way!”
“She can’t see you. What if it goes wrong? You can’t have a target on your back, too.”
The distance between pillars was only a few feet. I moved quietly from one to the other, trying to get a better look at who was there. I peered around the corner and saw an auburn head bent close to the locker door. I leaned forward, trying to get a better look. She was taller than the girl from the carnival.
She was also visibly shaking. Why would she be shaking?
And crying. She was crying.
The Queen of Hearts would never...
It wasn’t her.
I looked back to Gideon. He was making frantic shooing motions, urging me to confront the girl at my locker.
I nodded, but I wasn’t about to confront this girl. She wasn’t who I was looking for.
I stepped from my hiding place and approached the girl.
“Hey,” I said.
She spun around and threw her back against the locker.
“Hey,” she replied and swiped at the tears on her face.
“Are you—”
“I’m fine.”
“Clearly.” I raised my brows like I was Gideon, a borrowed tactic that always got me to break.
“No, I’m fine.”
The silver of the locker master key glinted in her hands.
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