“And I’m going to die,” Kieran muttered so only I could hear.
Students broke from their stiff rows and circled the mat in the center of the room. The mirrors surrounding the walls showed their eager faces; the windows showed nothing but shadows.
“The first point I’ll make is that if you’re wounded, you stay out of the fight. You run the hell away if you can, so you don’t endanger the mission or your team. If you can’t run away, you damn well win. Understand me?”
“Yes, sir!” The chorus reverberated with enthusiasm.
“And you follow orders, hear me?”
I knew that was for me.
“Yes, sir!”
I didn’t say anything. I had no intention of obeying.
“How would you fight me?” he demanded of Kieran.
Kieran already had a stake in his hand.
“Good. But you missed and I have you by the throat. Now what?”
Kieran gurgled since now Grandpa really did have him by the throat. “Another stake.”
“And?”
Kieran swept out with his foot, hitting Grandpa’s ankles. Grandpa staggered, stumbled. I hissed out a breath when he nearly fell over. Kieran didn’t react and I didn’t move. If we betrayed a single ounce of concern, Grandpa’s pride would be wounded. In fact, he was grinning for the first time that night.
“That’s my boy.”
Kieran turned his back, glancing at the students. “And then I run,” he said, to illustrate the earlier point.
Grandpa leaped to his feet. The floor shook. He grabbed Kieran’s ponytail, jerking him to a stop. In his other hand, he held one of the daggers from his belt. I didn’t have time to say a word, only to squeak.
The blade cut through Kieran’s ponytail.
His hair drifted to the floor and he whirled, bug-eyed with shock. Everyone else gasped. Grandpa looked smug.
“If you have a weakness like a broken arm, you rid yourself of all other weaknesses,” he said, sliding his knife back into his scabbard. “If you don’t learn anything else, learn this. Weakness is not allowed.”
His faded eyes pinned me where I stood.
Grandpa left without saying another word to me. Kieran paused only long enough to squeeze my arm.
“I’ll talk to him,” he promised severely, holding his ponytail in his fist.
I nodded mutely and stalked back to the dorm, boiling with anger and hurt and guilt. Chloe was sitting cross-legged in the middle of her bed. She looked up when I stormed in.
“Let’s figure out this TH thing,” I said before she could ask me about my mood. I just didn’t want to talk about it. I wouldn’t know where to start. “So we know someone’s selling the stuff at school and we know it’s a recognized Helios-Ra drug. Well, sort of recognized,” I amended. “It must be secret or it wouldn’t have been hidden so deeply in the files, right?”
“Definitely. We could get your number-one fan Lia to try to score some. See if we flush out the dealer?”
I wrinkled my nose. “I guess. But I’d rather not endanger her like that. And anyway, I’m thinking since the dealer’s a student he or she is just a small fish in a big pond.”
“Probably.”
“Okay, so then let’s make a list of the students who have gotten sick. There was that first guy—I don’t know his name.”
“And then Will. Or was that just a Hel-Blar thing?”
“He mentioned he was taking vitamins, so let’s add him to the list. Speaking of vitamins, have you talked to your mom yet?”
She grimaced. “No. She’s been at the lab and I know she won’t talk to me until she’s at home. Jeanine after Will,” she added. I added her to the list.
“Spencer,” I said quietly. “Though I don’t actually think he’s part of it.”
“Me neither. Jonas and James. Those ninth-grade twins, the really short ones?”
“Right. And then Savannah.”
“She was short too.”
“What, so the drug is for short people?”
She rolled her eyes. “I guess not.”
I paused, frowning. “Actually …”
She blinked. “What do you mean, actually? You think the school’s taking out short people? That’s just weird.”
“No, listen. What do they all have in common?”
“They’re mostly Niners? And short.”
“Will was in eleventh grade and tall,” I argued. “But gentle.” I raised my eyebrows. “All these students would have been considered weaker. Short, skinny, not into fighting.” I leaned forward while details fell into place. “And who picks on those kinds of people on a regular basis?”
“Bullies?” Chloe’s mouth dropped open. “York.” She slapped her bedspread. “That must be why my mom’s been feeding me steroids all summer. I would have been one of the weak ones without it! I found the info buried in her files just before you got here. She knew about it. She reads all the lab notes, but she didn’t want to pull a society-wide alarm before proper tests were conducted. You know how she is about research. Damn it, Mom.”
“So York’s been making sure the weaker students get the TH?”
“Looks like.”
I met her shocked eyes grimly. “So how do we take him down?”
Chapter 27
Quinn
Later Tuesday night
I got a text just before dawn. Marcus finally had results from the blood samples Hunter had given me.