All That Lives Must Die

murder Eliot? Maybe. Then he could find a replacement for Eliot on the team, too.

Eliot scrambled up onto the beam.

Jeremy had already made it halfway across the beam to the stairs. He had his hands outstretched for balance.

Eliot ran. He didn’t worry about balance. He was concerned only with momentum. He plowed shoulder-first into Jeremy-shoved him off the beam. Not so hard, however, that he’d go flying off as Eliot had, but enough so he fell down.

Eliot stepped in the middle of his back and ran over him.

He didn’t look back. He’d wasted enough time and breath on Jeremy Covington.

Eliot bounded the stairs three at a time-just like he was racing Fiona at home-until he emerged at the top of the jungle gym.

Wind whipped his face. There were layers fog and cloud, and far overhead, crows circled and cawed. Eliot saw the entire campus, and beyond, all the way to Pacific Heights and the bay.

Robert, Mitch, and Amanda yelled to him and waved.

Eliot snapped out of it and sprinted for the flag.

It seemed like he ran forever. . never quite making it to his goal. . never getting closer. . like some nightmare. Then his hands brushed the black silk.

Far away on the ground was a gunshot: Mr. Ma’s signal to end the match.

Mitch clapped him on the back. “Well done! You won it for us, Eliot.”

Amanda gave him a hug, blushed, and withdrew.

Robert nodded to Eliot. His eyes, however, warily locked on Jeremy as he climbed the last of the stairs and joined them.

Jeremy smiled like nothing had happened. “Excellent,” he said, and then added softer, “Sorry we got bunched up back there. No hard feelings, eh?”

“Sure,” Eliot said with a smug shrug.

“As long as we won,” Jeremy murmured, “what does it matter.”

Eliot didn’t need any Infernal senses to weigh Jeremy’s sincerity. It did matter. There was something driving Jeremy far beyond healthy competitiveness.

This wasn’t over between them. Not by a long shot.

Eliot glanced down through the jungle gym. His heart ached, hoping Jezebel was okay.

If he could have, he would gladly have taken her place-fought Van Wyck and the others-knowing he’d lose. It’d be worth it to spare her.

He could almost hear Jezebel telling him he was a “fool” for such thoughts.

But Eliot couldn’t help it. The only reason he’d come up here was to stop the match by winning it. To keep her safe.

She mattered to him. . more than any stupid gym match. . even more than Paxington.

32. BOY TROUBLE

Fiona sat on the edge of her seat. This was the most fascinating stuff in the world. . no, that wasn’t right; it was the most fascinating stuff out of this world.

Miss Westin had finished her lectures on the magical families yesterday, and today had moved on to a new topic in Mythology 101. On the blackboards of Plato’s Hall were maps of the Purgatories, the Borderlands, and more places that she called the “Middle Realms” between Earth and the end of places known.

Fiona had always wanted to travel, and last summer she had seen Greece and the Bahamas. She’d even been in Paris.

These places were different, however. What would it be like to go to wander among the Lost Floating Gardens of Babylon? Snorkel among the ruins of Atlantis? Or find the Temple of the Fountain of Youth? Or glimpse dread R’lyeh?

Or maybe not. Her enthusiasm was tempered by her recent visit to the Valley of the New Year, where she’d almost gotten stuck forever. And her visit to the Borderlands near the Blasted Kingdom of Hell-that was a place she could do without ever seeing again.

“Travel to the Middle Realms is perilous for mortals,” Miss Westin lectured. “Humans were not meant to exist there. An analogy would be deep-sea diving or a journey to the moon. These things are possible, but complicated. . and if mistakes are made, lethal.”

Fiona struggled to keep up, take quick notes while she tried to copy the map of the Butterfly Vales of the Fairylands.

She imagined herself there, splashing her toes in Gabriel’s Wishing Well and exploring the Cavern of Floating Lights that connected their world to hers-places just on the edge of imagination that beckoned.

“Some realms,” Miss Westin said, indicating the map, “are mere legend. For example, the Fairylands or the Land of Gray and Gold has never been visited by any human. . or if they have, they have not returned.”

Fiona frowned at this and made a note.

Miss Westin pulled down a new blackboard covered with mountains among a Milky Way’s worth of stars. “Others, such as Heaven, seen here as portrayed by Dante Alighieri’s first crude map in his Paradiso-have not been visited by mortals since the fourteenth century, and may be forever closed to two-way, living travelers.”

Eliot sat next to Fiona in the dark classroom, head propped lazily in his hands. He wasn’t taking notes. He wasn’t even paying attention.

Fiona didn’t understand him. Just last week, he’d been fascinated with stupid Hell.

Ever since their last match, he’d been moping around. He’d won the match for Team Scarab! What more did he want?

Okay, so that match hadn’t been all roses and sunshine. Gym was tough. Fiona was horrified at the carnage and mayhem. They’d all gotten cut and bruised. Sarah had a few busted ribs. Donald van Wyck and two other Team Wolf members had torn kneecaps and dislocations.

But Team Scarab’s record was now one win, one loss-50 percent, which placed them far from the bottom of the freshman team ranks. A few teams had two losses and might not graduate to their second year.

At least she wouldn’t have to worry about that. . for a while.

Just as important to Fiona, her plan had worked. She shouldn’t feel good about it; it was really Eliot and a lot of luck that got them the win, but she couldn’t help it. Her teammates had followed her strategy. Maybe she could lead them.

“Today I end with a question,” Miss Westin said. “One that we may never find an adequate answer for, but is nonetheless worth pondering.” She pushed her glasses higher up on her nose. “If so dangerous, why travel the Middle Realms at all? Why have so many tried and failed, so many tried and died, but we are all still drawn to these most exotic of places? Why. . when it is not only life and limb in peril, but one’s very soul?”

Fiona thought the answer was obvious.

What was the point of any travel? The thrill of finding someplace no one had ever been before. You could learn new things and meet new people. Maybe someone could start some trade between realms.

But that remark about peril to one’s soul bothered Fiona.

What if she had never escaped the Valley of the New Year? Would she have gone crazy with its never-quite- done New Year’s Party? Forever stuck in Purgatory with Jeremy Covington? Ugh. She shuddered.

And how did this all fit with Mr. Welmann’s claim that even the dead didn’t stay in those places forever? Where did they all go?

“I’ll expect an essay on this,” Miss Westin told them. “Two thousand words by Friday. You are dismissed.”

The gaslights in the room warmed and the students filed out. Fiona packed up her notes.

Eliot grabbed his books and bolted out like he’d been a caged animal.

“Hey, wait!” she called after him, but he ignored her and was out the door.