“I knew she wouldn’t,” Devin said, composed again. “I was only being stealthy when I took it from his desk in case he came back before we were done. There wasn’t time to explain to Maddy what was going on then.”
I thought of the longing Maddy directed James’s way. If Devin really hadn’t spotted that, he made for a less-than-perceptive king.
It was also a reminder that they all knew each other way better than they knew me.
But Maddy and Devin were here, backing me up and pitching in with the battle on Anavi’s behalf against the Warheads. They were becoming my friends too.
I hoped they couldn’t see this sappy reaction reflected on my face, or they’d think I was a hopeless cause. I didn’t want to scare them away.
“No,” Anavi said, with force. “No.”
That broke the moment, along with any lightness in the conversation. I exchanged glances with Devin and Maddy. Anavi still didn’t seem tuned into our channel: reality, cafeteria, the here and now.
“Hippopotamus?” I tried.
Still nothing.
Maddy reached out and touched Anavi’s shoulder. “Anavi?”
Anavi blinked. Once, twice, three times. “Sorry,” she said, “sorry. Just distracted . . . I keep thinking of that fight in the game. Replaying it different ways. I never kill the big monsters, not unless I have to. I leave them alive . . .”
She trailed off, humming three weirdly tuneless notes before going quiet. We gave her a chance to pick back up, but she didn’t.
Devin seemed to be the most skilled among us at keeping things on an even keel, so I was relieved when he tried to reach her.
“Smart,” he said. “Means you can take whatever loot they have again, once the game reboots them. Finding the tranqs is almost as hard as taking them out anyway. That’s one of the ways I amassed my wealth.”
Maddy bit her lip against a laugh at his phrasing.
“I want to kill it,” Anavi said, and Maddy sobered. We all did. “Isn’t that strange as dysphoria or euphoria for no reason? I want to slaughter it. I want to prove that I can, to demonstrate my ability . . . ”
The bell rang into the disquiet that Anavi’s comments had created.
I didn’t want to abandon Anavi when she was in such a strange headspace. But I needed to put an end to this. Anavi had been tired earlier, worn thin, but not like this. Not talking about a bloodthirsty urge to murder trolls.
I pulled out my phone and sent a text to a local taxi service.
“I have to go,” I said.
Maddy and Devin exchanged a look with each other, then with me again. No doubt they were surprised I was taking off when Anavi was losing it.
I wanted to tell them why, but I couldn’t. Not yet. And maybe not ever, if I was honest. Not if I really wanted to be friends with them. And I did.
Devin said, “Okay. I’ll stick close to Anavi. Walk her to class.”
Anavi gnawed her lip again, but if she was preoccupied with death and destruction she didn’t share more about it. Devin was a game insider, so maybe he could find an entry point to try to pull her back from wherever she’d gone.
I scanned the cafeteria and found my quarry. The Warheads were already on their feet, the room emptying. Unfortunately, they were also staring directly at the back corner of the room. At Anavi.
That was it.
I headed toward them, dodging the few remaining people in the cafeteria.
The Warheads didn’t act like they noticed me coming their way. And I had no idea what I was going to do to distract them, get their focus off Anavi. Drawing their attention might complicate my plan for the rest of the afternoon, but I had to do something—
To my relief, at the last second before they’d have to spot me, they turned away from Anavi and went out the doors. There was no sign they’d noticed me.
On one level, that was irritating. But it did make following them that much easier.
Anavi had said they left campus each day, and their schedules and Butler’s telling me it was none of my business and subsequent freak-out indicated it was true. I wanted to know where they went, and so I was going to tail them. This was a road that could only lead to the increasingly sinister Project Hydra.
I stayed a distance behind them in the hall, close to the lockers, intending to whirl and pretend to be opening one if they turned around.
But they didn’t even slow as they went down the emptying hallway and out the far doors. I counted to ten before I pressed open the door, hoping I hadn’t lost them.
I almost had.
A van was parked at the curb, and the driver was putting it into gear. I jogged across the grass in the opposite direction, out to the street. A security guard called, “Hey!” But I sped up, and from the lack of more shouts, he didn’t come after me.
Butler would probably get a report of my hasty departure, but I didn’t care right now. There’d be plenty of time to care later, if he called my parents.
The van was in motion.
I was about to lose them. I couldn’t lose them.