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“I don’t have time for this!” I shout. “I’ve got to go right now. So come or don’t, but get the hell out of the way.”
Sabrina looks startled, then intrigued.
“You’re not taking Nix anywhere without me,” she says.
“Hurry up then,” I say.
With that, I throw Nix over my right shoulder and start jogging down the stairs.
Leo, Anna, Dean, Hedeon, and Kade scoop up the suits and the heavy metal canisters. Sabrina grabs several canisters of her own and trails after me.
The stone steps spiral down, down deep under the school. Sometimes the tunnel flattens out, sometimes it descends steeply. Sometimes we can hear water running behind the walls.
Our footsteps echo all around us. Once or twice someone stumbles behind me, the passageway gloomy and lit only by the flashlight Kade carries.
I’m careful where I put my feet. I don’t want to drop Nix.
At last we come to the berth where the Chancellor hides his private cruiser. Long, gleaming, and shaped like a bullet, it’s painted black so he can come and go from the school at night without anyone noticing.
I’ve stolen it once before.
Tonight I won’t be bringing it back.
I carry Nix on board, binding her hands and feet and cuffing her to the railing for good measure. She’s starting to rouse as I do it, and she stares around at Anna, Leo, Hedeon, and Sabrina with an expression of absolute betrayal.
When she turns her gaze on me, there’s far more than hurt in her expression. Her eyes burn with pure fury.
30
Nix
Isit on the deck of the boat, bound hand and foot, while Ares steers us out of the limestone cave, out onto open water.
It’s cold and windy, the waves rough and black, tossing the speedboat like a cork. I can see the strain on Ares’ arms as he steers us through the wild currents and unexpected rocks, away from Visine Dvorca, out into open ocean.
No one is speaking because we all understand that distracting Ares at this moment might lead to us being smashed to bits in the frigid January sea.
Though I’m silent, my mind is working a thousand miles a minute.
I’m looking from face to face of each of these people I considered my friends, everyone I trusted at this school. Understanding now that they were lying to me all the while. Conspiring against me.
Kade, Dean, and Hedeon are huddled in conversation inside the protected shelter of the bulkhead. Leo and Anna are up at the wheel with Ares, helping him watch for obstacles in the water.
Sabrina sits on the deck a few feet away, watching me.
Once Ares has us pointed toward what I assume is Dubrovnik, he lets Leo take the wheel.
He comes to speak to me, tall and upright, the wind whipping his dark hair around his face. He hasn’t shaved in a day or two. Stubble shadows the hollows of his cheeks and jaw, and the cleft in his chin. His shirt, damp with salt spray, clings to his chest.
“Don’t be scared,” he says.
“I’m not scared,” I hiss at him. “I’m fucking furious.”
I yank hard on the cuffs binding my wrists together, that clamp me to the railing. The chains rattle, the metal biting into my flesh. The railing makes a sharp, splintering sound as it jerks against the wood.
Ares’ jaw tightens, but he makes no move to release me.
“I’m sorry it has to be this way,” he says.
