Perfect Lies (2 page)

I shake my head. Fia’s future is always a mystery to me.

“MISS FIA, YOUR SHOULDER—” THE SECURITY GUARD
says, eyes wide.

Ignoring him, I skip inside, the opulent, open lobby of the school swallowing me whole. James turns a corner, his suit all well-tailored lines of professionalism, sleek and slippery and mature. I hate it when he wears a suit. When he wears a suit he is Mr. Keane. His easy smile freezes before it can touch his eyes. He’s scared for me.

It’s adorable.

“What happened?” he asks. Ms. Robertson (I hate her I hate her I hate her I hate her) is behind him, a sheaf of papers clutched to her starched chest.

I shrug—it hurts—then flop onto one of the leather couches. I’ll get blood on it. I’ve poured a lot of blood into this school, but it’s still thirsty, it’s always thirsty.

“Ran into an old friend. And his knife. Why do so many of my old friends have knives?”

Ms. Robertson stomps toward me, glaring at my arm like it’s personally offensive. “My office. We’ll see if we can patch you up without stitches. Who did this?”

I smile at her.
Hello, Doris! Hello, Doris! Hello, Doris! Hello, Doris! Hello, Doris! Hello, Doris! Hello, Doris! Hello, Doris! Hello, Doris! Hello, Doris! Hello, Doris! Hello, Doris! Hello, Doris! Hello, Doris! Hello, Doris! Hello, Doris! Hello, Doris!

She glares at James. “Make her stop.”

James raises an eyebrow at me. “Fia?”

“What? All I said was hello. It’s polite to say hello. Hello, Doris.”

Huffing, she leaves and I stand, slightly woozy, to follow her. “Who was it?” James whispers.

“Dmitri. Russian mobster? He was mad that I stole millions of dollars from him. Silly man, doesn’t he know money is imaginary?” It’s paper that turns into numbers on screens. It’s there, then it’s gone. I put it places, I take it out, I move it somewhere else. Imaginary. Most things are imaginary, when you think about it.

Sometimes I think I’m imaginary.

“Dmitri,” he growls, nodding. “If I had been there …”

“I still would have fought him and won, but then I would have had to worry about you, too.”

James gives me a wry half smile. “At least let me pretend I can defend you sometimes.”

I pat his cheek. “You’re so cute when you’re delusional.”

“And you’re sexy when you’re on a post-fight high.” His eyes search mine, more serious than his tone would indicate, and I know he’s looking to see whether or not I’m falling apart. He doesn’t need to.

I’m better than I was a month ago. A week ago, even. It was bad, but James held me together. He whispered dark, secret things to me and helped me escape myself with promises of flames and freedom. I narrow my eyes but smile, to let him know I know what he’s looking for and that he won’t find it.

“Don’t tell Doris about Dmitri. I’ll be there in a minute.” James brushes a kiss along the top of my head. I lean into him, breathing in, wanting to lose myself there, needing to lose myself there. “Where were Johnson and Davis?” he asks.

I take a step back. “How am I supposed to know? It’s not my fault if my shadows can’t stay attached to me. Call Wendy Darling. Maybe she can sew them to the bottoms of my feet.”

He swears, pulling out his phone. “They’re there to protect you.”

“Do I look like I need protection?” I hold out my hands, one with streaks of blood on it, and give him my best crazy crazy crazy crazy grin. “You know, I like Dmitri. I crippled him, but I like him.”

Whoever he’s calling picks up and he starts yelling about doing a job and consequences and cleaning up messes. I wonder if the Russian guy is the mess or if I am. There’s a smear of blood on James’s suit jacket from where I hugged him, and I think it looks nice there, like it belongs.

I leave him and make my way to Ms. Robertson’s office. She’s already got a massive medical kit out on her desk and I sit, peeling off my shirt. It’s hot in here, the heater in the corner working too hard, drying out the air and making everything feel small and scratchy.

“What did you do this time?” she asks through gritted teeth, fingers surprisingly gentle as she cleans the wound on my shoulder.

“Someone took my parking space.”

“You don’t have a car.”

“That doesn’t mean I should let someone take my parking space now, does it?”

She tears off strips of medical tape, lining them up to pull the edges of the cut closed. “Why don’t you tell me who did this?”

Do you really want to get into my head?
I think.
It’s not a friendly place. You’ll regret it
.

She sneers. “Are you going to kill me?”

I twist away from her, ripping open a package of gauze and slapping it over my arm. “Is there a reason I should?”

“I don’t know. Was there a reason you killed Eden?”

I tap tap tap tap against the table, then use my teeth to tear off enough tape to keep the gauze in place. I hated Eden. I hated her. I can’t think about it, can’t think about what happened, won’t think about what happened. “She deserved it.” I look at Ms. Robertson with the full force of my baby-blue eyes. “Do
you
deserve it?”
They’ll let me
, I think at her.
They’ll let me do whatever I want, and we both know it
.

“And your sister? She deserved it, too?”

I explode out of my chair, inches away from Ms. Robertson’s face, which is no longer sneering. “She was in my way.” Ms. Robertson is standing between me and the door, and I look pointedly at it. “You are in my way.”

She moves.

As I walk past, her voice shakes with anger or fear (I can’t tell, I’m not Eden, Eden Eden why’d she bring up Eden?) as she says, “And Clarice?”

I pause, my hand on the doorway. “I just didn’t like her.” Letting my mind go blank, not thinking anything at all, I turn and smile pleasantly at Ms. Robertson.

In the hall I nearly bump into a girl. She does a double take. “Fia? What happened? Where’s your shirt?”

I glance down, my black bra in stark contrast to my pale torso, then laugh. “I knew I was forgetting something!” I try so hard not to remember their names, so very very hard, but I can’t sleep because I see their faces. Mandy. Twelve. From New Orleans.

I wash myself clean of guilt, of pain, of fear, of emotion. I am the ocean. I am empty. I am nothing. Mandy lets out a little sigh of relief. She loves being around me. Silly Mandy.

“I cut my shoulder and there was blood on my shirt. I was going to find another one.”

“You can borrow one of mine!” She holds out her hand, smiling shyly. I take it and let her lead me to her room, and I do not feel anything, not a thing, not a thing about this life or this girl or working in the school that I will burn to the ground.

When it gets to be too much, I picture the flames, imagine their heat. The noise they’ll make as they devour everything Phillip Keane has built. It’s better than the ocean for calming, and if any Readers look at me funny, I add marshmallows to my thoughts and am just a girl in want of a campfire.

I am a girl in want of complete destruction. But I am patient.

James finds me thirty minutes later, lying on my stomach on the floor of the main dorm common room, looking at fashion magazines with a gaggle of twelve- and thirteen-year-olds around me. They all jockey for position, each trying to slide in next to me, be close to me, be near me, because these girls know nothing.

They know nothing.

I think happy thoughts and feel happy things and I do not let myself near the swirling black edges of the hole that is my soul when I look at them.

I try not to spin. In third grade we did an experiment where we rubbed a needle on a magnet, then dropped it onto water. The surface tension let it rest on top of the water, and the magnet sent the needle spinning.

I used to be a compass, trained on the true north of protecting Annie. Without her I lost my north.

But James is my north now. The flames are my north now. Our dark secrets are my north now.

I tap tap tap tap on the magazine. Annie. Annie. Annie. Annie.

Don’t think about Annie.

James holds out his hand to help me up and I take it, squeezing harder than I need to, willing it to be my anchor. This is what I chose, and I always choose right. James saved me. He’ll always save me.

“Are you leaving already?” Mandy asks, a whine creeping into her voice. “You never stay!”

“That’s my fault,” James says, giving the girls his winningest lie of a smile. “I’ve got to take Fia to New York.”

“New York?” I ask.

His smile goes deeper, sharper. “My father wants us working there. With him.”

I don’t know what to do with this sudden flood of uncontrolled emotion. Finally. Finally. All the things I’ve done, all this blood and betrayal and wrong will be made right. We have a plan (don’t think about the plan, never think about the plan). It will happen now.

It is happening.

James pulls me close, his arm around my waist holding me up. I am dizzy with anticipation. The beginning of the end.

“Will you come visit us?” Mandy asks. “You said the school will always be your home.”

I try to smile, but my eyes dart around the room, tracing the contours of the walls, my finger tap tap tap tapping on my leg. Always.

“Take me away,” I whisper to James, and he does.

I PULL THE PHONE OUT OF MY POCKET, TAP IT ON THE
table. The noise reminds me of Fia. Who hasn’t called. It’s been two weeks.

Two.

A throat clears. “Hey, Annie.” Adam always announces himself when he enters the room. I appreciate it.

“Can I sit?”

I nod and feel the motel couch give under his weight. Without a word I hand the phone to him. He’s been as anxious about getting word from Fia as I have; he’s the one who tracked down a charger so the cell wouldn’t die.

“No missed calls or texts,” he says, stating the obvious.

“Who’s ready for some lunch?” Sarah chirps, bringing with her the scent of grease. My stomach turns uneasily. I hate myself as soon as I think it, but I really miss the Keane school chefs. I also miss my own cell phone, with raised buttons so I could use it without help. And my white cane that folded neatly into a purse. And my braille display for my laptop.

And … I miss knowing where I am. Being stuck in the school for so many years has turned me into an unwilling agoraphobe. I spent all that time either knowing the exact confines of my space or out with someone I trusted completely. Being untethered is kind of terrifying.

I miss Eden.

“Where to today?” I ask, needing distraction. We’re all staying in a suite in some motel outside Denver. Our travel pattern deliberately makes no sense. Cole decides on the spot where we’re going, and we never stay anywhere for long or plan more than a few hours in advance. Sarah says it’s the best way to avoid anyone on the lookout for us, though she seems confident no Seer is going to have an eye out for me.

I’m dead, after all. So is Adam.

“Do you want me to cut your food for you?” Adam offers, and I shake my head. He’s constantly trying to help me. I wondered at first if maybe he had a crush on me, but it doesn’t feel like that.

Then again, how would I know? This is the most I’ve been around guys close to my age since I went to the school.

“I have good news,” Sarah says. “I haven’t seen anything. I think we’re safe to go to home base.”

“Finally,” Adam says, his voice desperate with relief. I bite my lip guiltily. He lost his parents, his schooling, his apparently brilliant future. And it’s my fault. I put him on Keane’s radar.

Cole surprises me by talking. Once again I didn’t realize he was in the room. “Settles that, then. We’ll go to the California house and make reintegration plans for our two corpses.”

“Actually, we’re headed to Georgia.”

Cole’s voice is suddenly cold. “Why Georgia? I don’t see any reason to involve them further.”

“We need help, Cole. We can’t do this on our own.”

“We’ve been doing fine.”

“Did you even hear what Annie was telling us? He has women in the White House! This is so much bigger than we can fight, and if working with Rafael is what we need, then—”