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.