Gideon led the way to the library at the heart of the school. Most people could count close friends on one hand; I could count mine on one finger. It was a hard fact to admit sometimes, but at least I had him. He got me from the very first day of middle school when we were the only two kids not laughing at fart jokes during lunch. Being Ember Williams, model student, was exhausting. It was nice to be around someone else and not worry about what they were thinking of me. Because Gideon would tell me exactly what he was thinking. All the time.
“I have something to tell you.” We’d settled on a couple of armchairs in the center of the library. The familiar old-paper smell wrapped around me like a cozy sweater and I soaked in the atrium’s abundance of natural light.
“Don’t tell me you’re breaking up with me. I couldn’t stand it. Who knows what I’d do?” Gideon’s gray eyes blazed with mischief. Smart-ass.
“How can I break up with you when you only have eyes for everyone’s favorite barista, Damien?”
“He does make the best lattes,” he said with a dramatic sigh. Gideon brushed a jet-black lock of hair, courtesy of his Korean heritage, from his face. I was envious of the way it seemed to obey his every styling command. Sometimes it was slicked back or combed to the side, but today he wore it tousled, which he managed to make look effortless and cool. My hair had a permanent ponytail crease. Le sigh.
“Really, though. Don’t flip out at me.” I pulled the card from my back pocket and slid it across the table.
He paused to read it and then picked it up and examined both sides. “What the hell is this? Because I know it’s not what I think it is.”
“Keep your voice down. It’s my invitation.” This was not the kind of news you broadcasted in a library with the acoustics of an amphitheater. The Red Court hadn’t survived for years because they invited girls who didn’t value discretion.
“Your invitation?! This isn’t a dinner party, Ember. This is the actual Red Court. I wasn’t even sure they were real. I always figured it was just a bunch of kids using the rumors to cover up their pranks.” His eyes scanned my face, seemingly checking my features to make sure I wasn’t a well-devised impostor who kept things from her best friend. “I didn’t know you wanted in!”
The last part sounded like an accusation. It probably was; I didn’t normally keep secrets from Gideon. The rest of the school typically existed outside our sphere of notice, but we were all each other had. This part of me, the one who knew the Red Court was real and needed to join, was secreted away from my best friend. It was born in the darkness of my anger, and that’s where I’d left it. It felt too big to talk about or even acknowledge to myself in the presence of others. It was easier for me to let it own a small corner of my life. But if my plan was finally working, it couldn’t remain that way anymore.
“I’m sorry. It’s complicated.”
He shifted back in his seat to a slouch, like an experienced interrogator waiting for me to break. “What’s going on? No bull.”
I took a deep breath. It was time to pull the Band-Aid off the truth. One, two, three. “I’m not joining because I want to.”
“Oh, I see. They abducted you and forced you to swear an oath to the Red Court. Cool, cool, cool.”
“Are you done?” I was feeling defensive and exasperated. This already wasn’t going well.
Gideon paused to let a gaggle of chattering girls pass. I recognized Gigi, Mrs. Martin’s daughter and the newest member of the debate team, in the group. She gave me a small wave and I waved back, fighting to smile against the strain of the conversation.
“I don’t know. I feel like I’m learning a lot about you right now. Why don’t we continue this sharing session with you telling me exactly why you’re getting involved with a clandestine group dead set on the destruction of others?”
Even with our conversation at an aggressive hiss, it was enough to make me reconsider our location. “Follow me.”
I rose from my chair and moved to the back of the library, where a few lonely chairs sat without a table. No one ever came back here unless they wanted to balance their work on their knees, which was no student ever. I sat and gestured for Gideon to join me. He threw himself down into the overstuffed chair with such dramatic flair that I wanted to applaud the performance. His expression was set to fiercely irritated.
“I’ve known the Red Court was real for almost two years, ever since April told me that they were the ones who caused her accident. They’re the reason she may never walk again.”
“So, you’re doing this for what? Like revenge or something?”
“Or something. I’m not becoming one of them. Not really. I’m joining so I can destroy the Red Court.”
I pulled out my battered journal, the one I’d been using since the beginning of the year, and flipped to the first page. “Here. This should help.”
Gideon took it, staring at me with a dark, questioning look. I didn’t let him look at my journal. Ever.
He mouthed the words I’d written to myself, ones I knew by heart.
1. Join the Red Court.
2. Find out the Queen of Hearts’s identity.
3. Take down the Queen.
4. Dismantle the court.
“How long have you been planning this?”
“A while,” I whispered. “In every journal I’ve kept since April’s accident, that’s what’s been on the first page. I’m going to find the Queen of Hearts and cut the head off the snake.”
Gideon’s expression turned thoughtful, with a level of intensity reserved for the things he truly cared about. It was something I saw only in flashes when he was talking about photography or his family. And me.
“How do you plan to accomplish this?” he asked.
“By doing to her what she does to everyone else.”
We all had secrets, things we’d rather not shine a spotlight on, but that’s exactly what the Red Court did. They found the one thing with the power to wreck your life and paraded it out in front of everyone. Just like the car outside, they made shows of the destruction they wrought, and that’s why someone had to stop them. Someone prepared to see it to the end. Whatever end that was.
Gideon chewed on his thoughts before speaking. “Be careful, Ember. We’ve all heard the stories, and you saw yourself what happened outside this morning. Remember Tessa, my lab partner from last year? She moved to live with her grandma in Phoenix after the Red Court revealed she cheated her way through Algebra—”
“Really? I didn’t hear that.”
“No one can confirm it was them, of course. But she was expelled, Ember.” Gideon paused and his face softened with a rare expression of remorse. “I’m sorry for what they did to April, but they mean serious business. What if the same thing happens to you? Don’t think you can swim with sharks and not get bitten.”