But that’s not totally true, is it? Sebastian’s been fighting for me, in his own way. Fighting to keep me safe from the thing he thinks is most dangerous. Himself.
He really is an idiot.
I throw a few rocks into the water until my eyes dry, and then I just stand, remembering how scared I was when he almost drowned, the look of surprise on his face when I said I’d pulled him out—like he couldn’t believe anyone would bother.
“I want you back,” I whisper, and then I bite down on my finger to shut myself up.
This time there really is no way I can chase after him.
I walk slowly b
ack to the school, feeling numb. It’s pretty dark now. Several parties are in full swing. I can hear them echoing across the campus. I’ve never wanted to celebrate less.
I can’t stand the idea of going through the main campus walkway and dodging drunk students, so I take a shortcut through the dining hall parking lot, which is mostly empty—everyone with cars has taken them to the clubs. It’s a lit
tle cold, and I hasten my steps, an odd sense of nervousness creeping down my back. Like I’m being watched. But I’m too tired to pay the feeling any attention.
When I’m halfway across the lot, something moves behind one of the cars. Suddenly, there’s a person in shadow standing in front of me. My heart leaps into my mouth and I jolt back.
“Sorry, you startled me—”
Before I have time to think, he raises his arm and swings—a spike of pain lances through my head—then nothing.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
MAY
I wake up piece by piece. First thing I notice is that my cheek is pressed against something cold and hard—concrete. Then the chill seeps through my whole body. Next I try to open my eyes, except I don’t know if that works, because even when I think I’m looking, all I see is darkness. Confusion first—what happened? Someone hit me? Then panic—I’m blind?
I shift and hear clanking, seemingly in the distance. With relief, I realize that I can discern shadows here and there. A wall. I’m not blind. There’s just no light.
“You’re up,” comes a voice to my left. A familiar voice. “About time.”
I swing around, but I’m stopped short by a hard band of metal around my wrist. Cuffs. That clanking was chains. Fear sinks into my chest, pulsing along with the pain in my head. “Is that…?”
“Opal,” the voice finishes. “I’m your damn roommate, I’d hope you’d be able to recognize my voice.”
The lights come on,
and for a second I’m as blinded as I was when it was pitch black. A new swathe of pain sweeps through my skull, and I blink against it. Slowly, my eyes adjust until I can make out the person standing in front of me, though I almost wish I couldn’t see who it is.
It’s
Opal, her long hair in the ponytail she always puts it in when she’s studying or working out. Her face is stony and her arms are crossed.
“
Opal,” I croak. “What…?”
She doesn’t answer, just watches as I eventually manage to sit up. As far as I can tell, this is a warehouse, the ceilings high and moonlight glimmering against the jagged shards left in the frames of broken windows. Abandoned.
“I was waiting for you to wake up on your own,” Opal says. “Nice of me, right?”
I shake my head, more to clear it than anything else. It’s like my ears are filled with water. “What the hell is going on?”
“Now that takes some explaining.” Her face doesn’t shift from that odd stone-expression, but I see a flicker of excitement in her eyes. “I definitely don’t want to have to repeat myself. I guess we’ll get
him
up.”
She steps to the side, and I see what’s been hidden behind her: Sebastian, tied to a chair at the opposite end of the warehouse.
I make an involuntary sound. He’s slumped to the side, just close enough that I can make out the blood matted in his hair. Sleeping, unconscious or—
But no, she said she could wake him up.
Opal strides away from me—toward him—the click of her expensive shoes echoing in the huge space. When she reaches him, she takes a water bottle from her bag and dumps it over his head. Almost immediately, he twitches, then splutters through the liquid. His eyes open.
I’m unable to push back a stab of happiness at seeing him again, though it’s eclipsed by the horror of seeing him here—wherever, and whatever, “here” is. All I know is that it’s not good. And
Opal is not who I thought she was.
“Morning, sunshine,” she says, and I can hear the hatred in her voice.
“What the fuck is this?” he growls, hiding a wince as he turns his head. And then he spots me. Fear transforms his expression with the most power I’ve ever seen him give an emotion. Fear and shock.
“Are you okay?” I cry out before he can say anything.
Instead of answering, he jerks hard at the ropes binding his arms to the chair. The chair groans, but apparently it’s bolted to the floor, because it doesn’t move. He fixes Opal with a glare that I can’t even keep my eyes on, it’s so frightening, but she stares back at him evenly. “Let us go,” he says. “Now.”
“No.”
“I don’t know who you really are or why you’re doing this, but if I don’t see May walk out of here in the next thirty seconds, you’re going to regret it.” His words burn. Sometimes it’s easy to understand why everyone at school was so afraid of him.
“Somehow threats are less intimidating when they’re coming from a person tied to a chair, don’t you think?” Her voice snaps with bitter loathing. “But don’t worry. I’ll explain. I’ll tell you exactly why I’m here—”
“Goddammit, Sebastian, will you answer my question.” The words burst out of me in a terrified escape.
He seems a little startled. “What question?”
“Are you okay?” It’s a lot of blood that’s in his hair.
“How could you even be thinking about that when—”
“Just answer me!”
“I’m fine,” he says. I heave a huge sigh of relief.
I expect Opal to get angry, but instead she gives a smile that’s almost smug. “You really do love each other. Perfect.”
I’ve never been more confused in my life.
Meanwhile, Sebastian’s still straining at the ropes so hard I’m worried he’ll hurt his wrists. Opal frowns. “There’s no point in doing that. I made sure you wouldn’t be able to get loose. I wouldn’t be stupid enough to underestimate you.”
“But you were stupid enough to do this in the first place.” He’s trying to scare her, but it’s too obvious that he’s the one who’s scared. And judging by the way his eyes keep finding mine, it’s not himself that he’s scared for.
“Not stupid. I’ve planned this for a long time. Ever since I found out what you did.” Her voice trembles with restrained rage.
“I’ve never met you before this semester, not in my life,” he spits.
“No. But you did kill my mom.”
What?
Sebastian goes utterly silent. The enormity of what she’s said seems to bounce around the warehouse, making the air feel tighter, hard to inhale. Her mom? But—
“I wouldn’t expect you to know much about her past. Not when you assume the world revolves around you.” She swallows, her jaw tight. “Before
our mom
married your disgusting father, she had a different life. With a different man. And they had me.”
I don’t know if I should be hearing this—Sebastian’s family secrets. I glance at him, but his face is completely drained of color. For the first time since he woke up, he’s not continually looking at me.
“Except my dad was an asshole and he left. Left my mom. Left us with a lot of debt. And then your father comes along, promising to make all the money troubles go away, promising to give her beloved daughter a good life—if she’ll just do one tiny thing for him.”
Opal
’s dad left her too. I want to tell her I know how it feels. But somehow I doubt she’d listen.
“Mom had to give me up.
Mr. Crane
didn’t want some other man’s kid inheriting all his cash someday. He promised to get me rich parents, a way better life than I could ever have had with Mom. And so she finally said yes.”
Opal
is Sebastian’s half-sister. It’s like a thunderclap explodes in my chest.
“I grew up with these people who gave me anything I wanted, except what I needed—a real family. I could feel that they were strangers to me. So when I was old enough, I decided to find my mom. And I did. In a graveyard.”
She’s crying, just slightly, two tears halfway down her cheeks. “The woman I dreamed about, spend months tracking down—and then I was too late. And you, the selfish, spoiled rich kid who stole my life, who took her from me.”
Sebastian is so pale he looks like a ghost.
“So I vowed that I’d take away the person you loved most. You deserved to feel what I’d felt.” The vicious anger takes over her sadness. “But you didn’t love anyone, did you? You were a cold-hearted monster. I still figured eventually you’d meet someone, so I enrolled at your school. Waited. Still nothing. Until finally, fucking finally—”
She points at me.
“It wasn’t his fault!”
I stand up, the chains just long enough that I can. “I’m sorry about what happened to you, Opal, but you can’t blame it on Sebastian!”
I have to say it to shove back the tide of shock, to stop it from drowning me. My roommate, who I always thought was so nice—maybe a little odd, but nice—tricking me into approaching Sebastian so she could use me against him. This whole time she was lying in wait, readying herself to pull off her plan with the first person Sebastian let himself love. I have to fight to keep from vomiting.
Opal stares at me with utter indifference. “Sorry, May, but I don’t really care what you think.”
I’m just a tool to her.
“So what now?” Sebastian asks coldly, though his voice is breaking. “What is your plan?”
In answer,
Opal holds up a remote. She presses a button. Just like that, the cuffs on my wrists click and slide off. I’m free, but so surprised I’m momentarily rooted to the ground.
“You can go,” she says. “But you might not want to.”
I shift from foot to foot, knowing I should run but unwilling to leave Sebastian. “What do you mean?”
“May, run.” There’s a kind of pleading in Sebastian’s eyes that I’ve never seen before.
Opal taps another button on her remote. And that’s when I notice the device strapped to the underside of Sebastian’s chair, half-hidden by shadow. I notice it because a small red light starts blinking there. I swear I can hear beeping.
“
You have five minutes,” Opal says smoothly. “Before it goes off. You can untie him, if you want. I promise I won’t do a single thing to stop you. But I can’t make any promises for him.”
She gestures toward one of the broken windows, and I realize it wasn’t only glass I saw glittering there. The long barrel of a gun is resting against one of the rotting frames.
“See, all he knows is that he should shoot anyone who tries to free the guy in the chair. So you can give it a shot—pun unintentional. If you’re fast, I bet you could get the ropes loose before my friend decides to fire. Then at least Sebastian could make a run for it. Right?”
Every inch of my body is ice. This can’t be happening.
“Or you could walk out that door.” Opal points behind her. “And see how fast you can make it to a phone, call the police, and have them drive out here. I guarantee it won’t be done in five minutes.”
“May.
Go
.” It’s Sebastian, speaking before I can even register what’s happening. His voice is hoarse and desperate. “The door. It’s behind you. Run, right now, please.”
“And leave you to die?” My voice cracks. All I can see is the way he looked down uncomfortably when I got him to admit he bought groceries for my mom.
“Don’t think about that. I’ll be fine. Go, just go, okay?” He leans forward feverishly, not even straining at the ropes anymore. “This one time, will you do what I ask you?”
“I’m stubborn, remember?” I whisper. There has to be a way I can undo this. Break apart what must be a nightmare. But I glance at
Opal, see the way she’s smiling, and understand that there’s no way in hell I’m getting through to her. Not in five minutes. Not in ten years. She’s here because this is what she wants.
I remember what I thought when Sebastian was drowning—
I can’t let him die.
And I
can’t
. I just can’t. It’s like something in me is preprogrammed to stop bad things from happening to him. Ever since I saw him at the pool, where his eyes were so cold. Now, they’re anything but.
He takes two deep breaths, tilts his head back briefly, then returns his gaze to me. His expression is darker than it’
s ever been. His teeth are gritted as he says, “May, you walk out of this place and don’t look back or I swear to God—”
“What, are you trying to intimidate me now?” I half-laugh, half-sob. “That didn’t work on me before, Sebastian, it’s not going to work now. I always saw through your stupid act.”