by Ruby Vincent
There was no reply and his silence enraged me.
“I’m not doing this anymore, Eric!” I surged forward and grasped his forearms. “Tell me what you know about the Spades! Why did Ace choose you?”
Eric did not try to pull away. He was still in my hold. “Because, Val... I am a Spade.”
“W-what?” Shock stole my breath.
That can’t be true. It can’t!
“Valentina...” A voice broke through, closer but still faint.
“You can thank my grandmother for telling you more than you were supposed to know,” he continued. The pain and fear were gone from his voice. He just sounded blank. “To be fair, she didn’t know who she was talking to.”
“Your grandmother?” I whispered. “But she didn’t tell me anything.”
“She told you that it was all about legacy—one that went way back to the first class at Evergreen Academy. You thought that if family had to do with who was chosen as a Knight, then maybe that had something to do with the Spades too. You were right, which is why Ace wouldn’t let me give you those yearbooks.”
I tossed my head. “Eric, I’m not understanding any of this. What does the first class have to do with anything?”
Now he grabbed me. His hands flashed out and yanked me in. “Thirteen students. Thirteen families. Some of us become Knights. Some of us become Spades, but all of us have to protect Evergreen Academy.”
“Why?” I tugged at his hold, but he held me fast. “Why do you have to do that?”
He scoffed. “Why does anyone do anything? Money.”
“Money?” I ripped myself away, breaking free. “Someone is paying you to do this?”
“We’re all getting paid. Think about it, Valentina. After all you’ve been put through, why did you stay at this school instead of transferring?”
“I wasn’t going to be run out,” I spat. “Evergreen is the best school in the country. I had to think of my future.”
He snapped his fingers. “There it is. You’d do anything to be there because it’s not just the best school in the country; it’s the best school in the world. People will do anything—pay anything to get their little geniuses into Evergreen Academy, and that’s what it’s all about.
“Have you ever wondered why there are no limits on scholarships? Evergreen doesn’t only want spoiled, rich brats. They need the best and brightest.”
“The Spades need them? Need them for what?”
“They need us to be geniuses. They need us to fight and compete among each other to be the best so that when the time comes, they’ll be the first one to pounce.”
My head was spinning. All of this was barely making sense.
“I heard you guys in the sitting room,” he continued. “Maverick told you his dad came from a poor family of people who never graduated high school, but then Marcus gets into Evergreen Academy and wows his professors with lines of code the government can’t crack. When he inevitably starts talking of opening his own company, the right people are waiting to invest.”
“So... Evergreen is some kind of brain farm,” I replied, “and you Spades are lurking in the shadows, waiting for the next big thing so you can ride them to success. All of this for that?!”
“You make it sound like that isn’t enough. People kill over fifty dollars. Do you think they wouldn’t do worse for fifty billion? August Eden became one of the first African-American millionaires in history when he took a chance on Judah Shea and gave him the money to help start Shea Industries.”
“Shea Industries? But—”
“Sofia Richards.” Eric was on a roll and didn’t seem to be slowing down. “At thirteen years old, she invented a shampoo that penetrates the hair shaft better than anything else on the market. I wonder if her mother told her that single product has made them millions. Whether she takes over Honey Hair or starts her own company, there are people standing by more than willing to invest in whatever her brilliant mind comes up with next.”
“Valentina! Where are you?”
“Eric, can you hear me?”
We heard the faint shouts of the searchers, but we didn’t call back. We were locked in our own world as the truth finally came out.
“In this world, there are the people with ideas and the people with the money to make them reality. The thirteen families have the money, and the Knights and the Spades make sure the kids with ideas keep coming through the gates.”
I threw out my hands. “By doing what? Marking people? Bullying and intimidating them? That’s insane!”
“That’s a last resort,” he shot back. “What don’t you get? The marked are supposed to leave. Nothing happens to them if they walk away—which all of them did, until you and...”
“Walter and Nora,” I finished.
“Exactly.” He stepped closer to me, lowering his voice. “It’s not supposed to get that far.” I could hear something creeping into his voice. Anxiety was breaking through the coldness. “None of this was supposed to happen. They told me I was chosen to be a Spade. They said what was expected of me, but they didn’t prepare me for turning on my friends, following a pedophile’s orders, or dealing with that psychotic tyrant!”
I stiffened. “What tyrant? Who are you talking about?”
“Who else but Ace?!”
“Do you know who they are? Who is Ace, Eric?”
Eric roughly shook his head. It was like he hadn’t heard me. “You have to understand. It made sense when Grandma told me. She said that people don’t send their kids to schools with bad reputations. If news came out tomorrow that a human-trafficking ring was running out of an Ivy League school, admissions would drop to nothing no matter how prestigious it was. It’s all about perception, and we made sure Evergreen’s was perfect.”
I could practically hear Wilhelmina Eden speaking through Eric’s mouth.
“The problem of every boarding school are the students who go there,” he continued. “No rules will stop them all from sleeping around, getting their hands on drugs, finding a way to cheat, the list goes on. We make sure no one outside the gates hears of that stuff and we mark the ones who are scandals waiting to fucking happen.”
I latched on to something he said. “You make sure? Knights and Spades? Teenagers. You’re the ones who are supposed to police the damn school? That’s what the professors and the headmaster are for.”
“No, no, no, Val!” he exploded. “Stop pretending you don’t understand.”
I edged back. He reminded me of Roundtree—disappointed in me for letting him down. Why didn’t I understand what was so perfectly reasonable in the kingdom of Evergreen?
“If a professor gets involved, then they have to report it. People have to be notified. Parents called and the harder it is to contain, but not if the students handle it themselves. It’s all legal that way.”
“Legal?” I repeated.
“Yes. You and I didn’t sign any contracts saying we have to report bad students. If we take care of it, no one is in a position of having to cover things up, and they like it that way. That’s why Evergreen hasn’t changed and never will. We make everything so simple.”
“We police ourselves. We punish ourselves. We expel ourselves,” I stated. Eric was right. It makes a twisted sort of sense. “All so Evergreen remains a shining beacon of perfection, drawing in the brightest kids of our time so the thirteen families can keep investing in them and getting richer.”
“That’s...” Eric trailed off. Through the gloom, I saw him frown.
“Eric?”
Suddenly, he spun around. “What is that?” he hissed. “Did you hear that?”
I pricked my ear to the sound of desperate shouts, calling our names. “Of course, I hear them. They’re looking for us. We can get out of here sooner if you talk to me.” I grasped his shoulder and spun him to face me. “Who are the thirteen families?”
“Well, there’s the... Edens,” he began. He sounded distracted as his head turned this way and that. “And there’s... uh...”
He tried to turn around again.
I gripped him harder. “Eric, look at me. You said Shea, but the Sheas weren’t one of you, right? They were just one of the people your family used.”
“No. How do you think August and Judah met? They were both in the first class. The Sheas are one of the thirteen.”
“But that’s not...” Shock gripped my throat. Ryder is one of them? He’s been playing me this whole time? How could he do this? How—
“But Ryder doesn’t know.” Those four words halted my downward spiral.
“How do you know that?”
Eric wasn’t looking at me as he answered. “My dad told me. Benjamin told him Ryder wasn’t to have anything to do with this. He said this wasn’t his legacy and he had no right to claim the honor—whatever that means. None of us were allowed to tell him after his father disappeared, but of course, he became a Knight anyway.”
“Baby, please!” Jaxson’s voice found me through the swamp. “Tell me you’re okay!”
It killed me hearing his panic, but I was finally learning the truth.
“But if you’re right,” Eric continued. “The reason why Scarlett chose him... wasn’t because of his father.”
“No,” I replied, voice hard. “That was entirely because of her.”
“I still can’t believe it,” he breathed.
“She was one of you, wasn’t she?”
“She was more than that.” Eric stopped looking around and looked me in the eyes. “She was Ace. She was Ace when she went to school at Evergreen, and then she took over again when she became a professor. Of course, no one questioned her when she marked you, and I’m sorry for that. None of this should have— Val, look out!”
There was no time for me to react as hands seized me from behind. A hard blow to the back of my knees made me buckle, and I collapsed to the ground. I screamed as my head was shoved down into the marsh. Water rushed into my airway as I frantically kicked and twisted.
Yanking my head to the side, I sucked in air before a hand clamped down over my eyes.
“Guys, stop! I didn’t— Ugh.”
“Eric!”
A thud shook the ground. Through the space between the fingers, I saw one thing clearly—Eric’s wide, unblinking eyes. In the next moment, they were replaced by feet.
“Deal with him,” said a familiar high-pitched voice.
My blood ran cold. Who the hell is that?
“As for you, it’s time to end this.”
I cried out when my hands were roughly yanked behind my back. Something wrapped around my wrists, binding them together. I tried to buck them off, but a knee pressed on my back, keeping me still. There was more than one person here. This was not just Ace.
The hand over my eyes vanished for one blessed second only to be replaced by a dark cloth. “Stop! Let me go!”
I bucked again as the hands slipped under me and lifted me up. I was being moved.
“I’m here!” I screamed. “The Spades have me! Help!”
Jaxson. Ryder. Maverick. Ezra. Where are you? Why can’t I hear your voices? Why can’t you hear me?
I could not hear anyone, not even the voices of my captors. Their silence made me even more afraid. If they were arguing, shouting, panicking over whatever they were going to do next, that would have been better than the cold, efficient way they took me and Eric out. They knew what they were going to do next, and there was no hesitation about it.
“W-who are you?!” The tight band I had not felt in so long constricted my chest. I thought I knew fear, but nothing compared to the terror that shook me and tore my lungs. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think about anything other than what Eric said.
“People kill over fifty dollars. Do you think they wouldn’t do worse for fifty billion?”
Were these faceless monsters going to kill me?
“Let me go!”
“Valentina?!” The tiniest thread of hope broke through when I heard him.
“Jaxson? Jaxson! I’m here!”
The cry was barely out of my mouth before they stopped.
“Untie me, you crazy—”
“Let me make something very clear.” That dreadful, unnatural voice stopped me cold. “It’s been fun playing this little game, but it’s over now. You’re done at Evergreen Academy. You do not come back next semester. If you do, you’ll go the same way as Walter McMillian. Goodbye, Valentina Moon.”
I opened my mouth to curse them when the hands reared up and sent me flying through the air. I screamed as I splashed down into the bayou. Water rushed into my mouth and nose, choking me as I sank below the depths.
I scrambled to get my feet under me. My knees found purchase on something hard and I burst from the water in time to hear him.
“Valentina, where are you?!” Twigs snapped as he crashed through the brush. “Talk to me!”
“I’m over here! I’m in the—”
I cut off as I felt something brush against me.
“Jaxson! Jaxson!” Terror brought my screams to an inhuman pitch. I scrambled up and tried to run. I made it one step and slipped, sinking into the murky depths.
Something clamped down on my hands and hauled me out of the water. “Baby, it’s me. I’ve got you.” He ripped the cover off and I buried my face in his chest, sobbing my eyes out as he held me. “It’s okay,” he crooned. “I’ve got you. You’re safe now.”
Chapter Eight
The clock read three a.m. but sleep was a far cry. In five hours, we would be getting on the bus that would take us home.
A bus with the people who did this to me.
The pillow crumpled in my fist. If I was in my room, I would have gotten up and crawled into Sofia’s bed. We both had one hell of a night, and enduring it together was infinitely better than being here alone.
Eek.
I shot up when a sliver of light escaped through the opening door. “Who’s there?!”
“Shh. It’s me. We don’t want to wake her.”
I relaxed as Jaxson eased the door shut and padded across the room in the dark. The bed dipped as he slid in next to me. “What are you doing here?”
“You know why I’m here.” He put his arm around me and I burrowed into him, clutching him tightly.
“You’ll get in trouble,” I whispered into his chest.
“It’s worth it.” Jaxson gently stroked the shell of my ear. “I understand why Markham moved you into her room and posted herself outside the door, but you shouldn’t be alone—not tonight.”
I squeezed my eyes shut as tears threatened to leak out. “Is she still there?”
“She’s sleeping on a cot in front of the door. I had to step over her to get in.” He laughed. “Not so great as a bodyguard, but that’s why I’m here. I’ll protect you, baby. You can get some sleep.”
I don’t know how he knew I was sitting in the dark, too afraid to close my eyes, but that it worried him enough to bring him here broke me. The tears spilled out hot and fast.
“I was s-so scared.”
“I wouldn’t have let anything happen to you.” Jaxson kissed along my forehead and down my cheek. “I’ll always be there when you need me.”
“Who did this? Markham rushed me inside and made me shower and go to bed after I told her what happened. Please tell me you caught them.”
“I want to, but the entire class ran out looking for you. It was chaos with all of us tromping around in the dark. Ryder and I separated from Maverick and Ezra. We ended up on our own. Markham and Patchett freaked, of course. They shouted at us all to go back inside and then I finally heard you, but when we came back, there was no telling who came from where.”
“What about Eric? Is he okay? It sounded like they hurt him.”
His grip on me tightened. “The last I heard... they still hadn’t found him.”
I choked on a sob. “I was so stupid. I never should have followed him out there. If I had responded when you were calling to me, you would have gotten to us before they could.”
/> “This is not your fault.”
“Yes, it is. I’m a fucking idiot who thought she could take down a psychotic secret society that’s existed for over a hundred years. They were ready for me.”
“You’re not an idiot. They are the idiots because they’ve made their last mistake. I’ll make them pay for what they did to you tonight.”
“If you hadn’t saved me—”
“I’ll always save you.”
“There was something in the water,” I cried. “I thought I was going to die, Jaxson. Alone in the dark with no one to help me like I’ve dreamed so many times before.”
Jaxson pulled back until he was looking me in the eyes. Gently, he brushed away my tears. “Next time, I’ll be there sooner. But I’m hoping there won’t be a next time. I can’t stand the thought of anything hurting or scaring you. I... love you, Valentina. I love you so much.”
Those beautiful words reached deep inside of me and ignited a place fear couldn’t touch. “I love you too.”
My tears had stopped when our lips met. Our clothes came off beneath the sheets, and I gave myself over to him completely. Jaxson made love to me slow and passionate and soon I drifted to sleep in his arms.
Hours later, the sun woke me. A beam of light cast directly over my eyes, blinding me as I squinted at the clock.
10:45
I shot up like the bed was electrified. After ten meant the bus left over two hours ago.
How could they leave me? The boys and Sofia wouldn’t just ride off without me.
I hurried into my clothes, shoved my feet into my shoes, and threw open the door.
Markham blinked at me with her hand poised to knock. “Ah, you’re awake. Do you feel up to some breakfast?”
“Breakfast? But the bus—”
“The bus left hours ago. There were loud protests, but I sent them on ahead. I did not think you would be able to handle the ride back after what happened.” She held up a hand when I opened my mouth. “Don’t worry, your mother has been contacted. She knows you will be late and why.”
I slumped against the doorframe. Markham was right. The last thing I wanted to do was get on a bus I knew was filled with my attackers, but how would I explain this to Mom?