The Wicked Awakening of Anne Merchant (46 page)

The scores are revealed: C for Finn, B for Dr. Farid, and A for Garnet.

Molly and I smile in relief.

The next question comes and goes just as successfully, with the audience falling for a beautiful and witty Garnet, who fawns over Ben the way only someone in love would do. The crowd eats it up. Garnet is doing a spectacular job of convincing the world that, should they make it through, the world will benefit from such a beautiful and well-matched couple. Even I have to wonder if they don’t belong together.

“Don’t be jealous,” Molly reminds me when Ben and Garnet kiss. “This is all part of the game. It’ll be over soon. And Ben will be free. After you destroy Dia, maybe, like, we should try to wake you up? Send you home?”

“But what about Meph? And what about all the lives here?”

“None of that is your responsibility.”

“Well what about
you
?”

She smiles and holds her hand to her heart, then says mockingly, “I’ll always be in your heart.”

The show goes on. It’s so hard to watch. Question after question. Kiss after kiss. The applause on the lawn from people who are actually entertained by Garnet. It would be unbearable if we didn’t see so many
A
s stacking up for Ben and Garnet.

They turn off the screen with the scores before the last question is asked, but it’s a done deal now. Nothing but
A
s for Team Ben. Impossible to beat.

I turn to Molly, whose eyes are bright with hope. “Done,” I say. “Ben’s safe. He’ll be paying Jeannie a visit at Harvard this time tomorrow.”

“You’ve saved him. Will you save yourself?”

Villicus stands, while Dia sleeps peacefully. Doesn’t Villicus care that Dia is so weak? Doesn’t he know that that must mean something?

“It is time to declare,” Villicus begins boldly, “the sixty-fifth valedictorian from the Cania Christy Preparatory Academy.”

Molly and I jump to our feet, unable to sit a second longer. Together, clutching each other’s hands, we stare wide-eyed at the screens, which are divided now into eight blocks featuring close-ups of Villicus, Dia, the competitors, and their Guardians and parents. Everyone looks terrified except Garnet, who is gripping Ben’s hands to her chest and beaming. She has it in the bag.

It’s a no-brainer.

We saw the scores.

The Big V is undeniably Ben’s.

“This year’s valedictorian and the winner of a second life off this island, complete with cash winnings and a relocation package is,” Villicus sets his gaze firmly on the camera as Molly and I prepare to hug each other, “Joie Wannabe.”

My breath catches.

I hear Molly moan.

The grounds spin. Everything spins. And I don’t even feel my head hit a chair, my fingers loosen from Molly’s, or my body collapse, in a slump, to the ground.

I
WAKE WITH
Teddy standing over my bed. At first I don’t know what happened. I was feeling elated, like the world was full of hope and wonder. And then.

I sit up fast.

I’m in my dorm.

Thank God I’m not in my California hospital bed.

“Ben lost.”

“Easy,” Teddy says. “You passed out.”

“How long has it been? Is Ben…is he already gone?”

I whip the covers off, jump up, and start for the door, but Teddy grabs me.

“Teddy!” I slap his hands to free myself, but he’s unyielding. He tugs me to sit next to him, but I don’t have the time or patience. I slap and then punch and then kick, and eventually I get free. “He can’t be gone. He can’t!”

I bolt out of my room. Down the hall. Round the corner. Down the stairs, my heels skidding. Teddy’s behind me—I can hear him calling for me. I push through the doors. Sunlight blinds me. I scramble forward. The quad focuses before me.

“No,” I utter when I see the worst: the chairs outside Valedictorian Hall have been put away. I whirl back to Teddy. “What the hell time is it?”

“You’ve been out for a half hour.”

A half hour.
No
. Only parents and the valedictorian leave Valedictorian Hall—those who fail have their vials incinerated within the hall.

I look up at the sky. A thin trail of smoke still twists out of the chimney.

Ben’s already gone. Ben’s already gone. Ben’s already gone.

“Is it over? Is it done?” I ask.

Teddy nods. “But our plan to end Dia lives on. Tell me, what did you have in mind?”

I’m sweating and shaking.

This isn’t happening.

All this work—it can’t be for nothing.

“I’m sorry Ben didn’t win, Anne,” Teddy says. Sealing my fate. Until he spoke those words, I still had a little hope. I slump to the ground, and he stands over me. “Your hair. Who made you do that?”

“Who do you think?”

“Why?”

For Ben. For Jeannie. For a vain, stupid hope. I should have known Villicus would never let Ben off this island. Never. Not in a million years.

Like my body is filled with ants, I jump to my feet and shake out my limbs. I just want to scream. Or hit something. I tear away from Teddy. I run as fast as I can to Cania College, to the grand opening. I sail through the campus gates and follow the sound of Cania’s brass band, short its seniors, playing in front of the stone cathedral, which is surrounded by brightly colored streamers. Parents are mulling about with their kids. I dart around them all and burst into the cathedral. I stop short. Look up at the painted ceilings. Around at the stained-glass windows. And start madly searching aisles of seats for the Seven Sinning Sisters. Maybe there’s still time. Maybe Dr. Zin has another vial of Ben’s blood; surely he couldn’t have left it all in Villicus’s possession! The sisters can create a new life for Ben. I need to convince all seven of them to serve me.

No
, I think.
I need to kill off Dia. As planned. Then the sisters will be without a master. They’ll choose me—I’ll make sure they do
.

“And then I’ll ask them to vivify Ben,” I say, careless to how crazy I look talking to myself.

The Seven Sinning Sisters will serve me. Superbia will be easy enough to win back; she was trying to say something to me earlier
today, to warn me of God knows what. I know she’ll serve me. Invidia, the one I’d have the hardest time winning over under normal circumstances, was the first to leave Mephisto. She’s unlikely to want to return to him, and I’ll be her only other option. The missing link is a vial of Ben’s blood. Dare I hope Dr. Zin has more?

I spy Lou and Pilot carrying my painting of Dia. They disappear behind a set of curtains behind the podium on stage. I chase after them.

“Get your hands off that,” I shout, shoving them away from the precious painting, the only thing standing between me and reclaiming the Seven Sinning Sisters. “Get out of here!”

Pilot swears at me. But, to my surprise, Lou bows. I grab his arm.

“You still serve me, Lou?” I need a little power to finish the painting.

“If I had a token of your leadership,” he says softly, “I would.”

I tug off my cardigan and hand it to him. “Serve me. Tell others.”

“With pleasure, Master,” he says and takes Pilot with him.

When they’re gone, I whip off the sheet. I’m taken aback by my work, which radiates an energy unlike anything I’ve captured before or ever will again. I peek out from behind the curtains, looking for Dia. Where the hell is that guy? I need to put the finishing touches on this, but I can’t without him.

My blood is still racing through my body when I see, across the vast room, Molly enter.

I almost call out her name.

I almost don’t notice the boy at her side.

She waves with her free hand.

Her other hand is on Ben’s arm.

“Ben,” I utter.

But how?

Together, Molly and Ben run past the rapidly filling rows of seats and right to me.

Ben doesn’t say a word. He just wraps his arms around me and kisses my face in spite of the curse that would make him hate me. He kisses my eyelids and my forehead and my nose—everything. I can’t even understand what’s happening. As he kisses me, Molly explains: Dia had mentioned there’d be a small change to the Big V this year. I passed out before I could hear it.

“That change,” she says as Ben wipes away my tears, tears I didn’t even realize I was crying, “was that the two other short-listed graduates would get the chance to enroll at Cania College. Ben and Veronica are the first members of the freshman class here. Dia’s gonna fill the rest of the school this summer, and classes will officially begin in September.”

This should be good news.

It almost is. Almost.

“The tuition,” I say, wild-eyed as I look at them both.

“Villicus said we’ll sort that out after this ceremony,” Ben says, “when everything calms down.”

“They’re taking souls,” I blurt. “No. We can’t let this happen.”

“What are you talking about?” Ben asks.

“Dia. He told me what he’s going to take as college tuition. Pure, clean souls. Souls the underworld would never otherwise see. ‘The most beautiful thing’ he’s ever seen. Does your dad have more of your blood?” I ask Ben hurriedly. The ceremony’s bound to start any second; nearly all the seats are taken in here now. “On the yacht? Did he keep, like, backups?”

“Um, yeah, I think so.”

“Do you
know
?”

“I can find out.”

“Do! Go now!” I insist, but he stands uncertainly.

“Anne, calm down,” Molly says, gesturing at the people watching us. Under her breath, she reminds me, “Dia won’t be here after the ceremony. Remember? Ben and Dr. Zin can sort tuition out with Villicus. We’ll figure this out.”

“I’ve already figured it out.” Just as I say the words, the Seven Sinning Sisters enter the room.

Superbia is followed by an eye-drawing Invidia; by Gula, who’s eating a handful of chocolate; by Avaritia, who swipes the Rolex off a man as she shakes his hand, with Luxuria distracting him; and by Ira, who is angrily dragging Acedia inside and forcing her to stand when she just wants to sit. There they are. Ben’s solution. I’ll just have to be Saligia again, and that’s simply the way it is.

Ben turns my face away from the Seven Sinning Sisters.

“Everything’s going to be okay,” he says.

When I shake my head, he lowers his lips to mine. I pray I can make this work without terrifying him and pushing him away. I would do anything, go to any lengths, sacrifice anything to be in a moment like this with Ben forever.

Molly says something. I don’t hear her. She has to manually push us apart before we see what she was trying to warn us about.

“Garnet,” she says, pointing to the end of the aisle.

Garnet is staring at us. I can almost see her pale skin filling with blood. When Ben stays at my side, her eyes bulge. I have to look away; she fought so hard for Ben, she deserves better than this.

“He’ll use you, Anne,” Garnet hollers at us, her voice icy. Half the room looks. “Mark my words.”

With that, she storms out.

“She’ll get over it,” Ben says.

I’m not so sure. I don’t let on, though, as Ben and Molly, who wishes me good luck, join Dr. Zin, Mr. Watso, and my dad at the back of the room. I promise to meet them once the painting has been unveiled, but that might not happen if things go as Molly and I have planned. A shitstorm is likely to erupt if things go as Molly and I have planned.

Behind the curtains again, I wait anxiously for Dia and wonder if he deserves what he’s about to get. A sophomore pops his head in.

“Sorry, I thought Headmaster Voletto was in here,” he says. “Have you seen him?”

“I’m waiting for him, too.”

“Well, if you see him, can you tell him we got those things corralled and put them back in the little room upstairs, where he told us to?”

“Sure. Upstairs here?”

“No, at his house.” He’s about to leave when he adds, “That old lady in the big, ugly sweater was a real bitch to catch, but we managed to lock her up. Oh, never mind. Here he is—he just walked in.” The boy darts out.

There’s only one lady on this island who wears big, ugly sweaters. I lived with her once. She wanted her body to be thrown into the ocean on the off chance it would float back to shore and she would vivify. Did Dia find Gigi, vivified without her soul, and lock her up?

Dia staggers down the center aisle, past gasping onlookers, and joins me behind the curtain. He crashes against the wall.

“You…ready?” he asks.

“You didn’t get rid of those monsters. You added to your collection. You added Gigi.”

“I what?”

This is what he gets for lying to me.

This is what he gets for tampering with human lives.

This is what he gets for treating a soulless Gigi like just another human experiment.

“Never mind. Yes,” I say. “I’m ready.”

On the other side of the curtains, the crowd is quieting. I hear Villicus, who’s taken his place behind the podium steps away from where Dia and I are waiting for the unveiling.

“Care for one last look before they pull back the curtains?” I whisper to Dia.

He totters toward me and looks at it. He smiles.

“Do you love it?”

“If only I could be it,” he says. “So beautiful. Forever.”

“Touch it.”

Tentatively, he reaches out to it. When his fingertips graze the portrait, I whisper my incantation, and his whole appearance changes. He stands straighter, lifts his chin like he used to. His eyes reclaim their sparkle. Even his tattoos glow brighter.

He looks at me.

He knows I’ve trapped his soul within it.

“Your gift is to cast souls,” he utters.

“Cutting my hair didn’t take my own power from me.”

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

My heart races, and I watch his eyes widen. I’m certain Gia has risen to the surface. Just briefly. Just to say good-bye. And then she is gone, and my pulse returns to normal.

“This isn’t revenge for you cheating on Saligia,” I explain.

“Then why?”

“I need the Seven Sinning Sisters.”

“I’ll give them to you.”

“I need you gone. Teddy and I do. It’s been our plan all along.”

He looks confused by the name
Teddy
, as if he doesn’t know who that is.