I could already hear the wailing of sirens as I pulled David through the empty halls of the school, heading for the doors that led to the courtyard. He was safe now, so I didn’t feel like my chest was in a vise, but my stomach still churned. The English hall hadn’t totally gone up in flames, but the damage was going to be huge. We’d probably have to move classes out of there for the rest of the semester, a thought that made me feel angry and sad and sick. My school. The place I’d spent so much of my time trying to make perfect. But since I couldn’t even begin to process that right now, I turned to David.

“Why were you in there?” I asked over the various sirens, and David pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

“I forgot that I had some photographs I wanted to develop, and the assembly seemed like a good time to get them done.”

Now that David wasn’t in imminent danger of becoming charcoal, I whirled on him right there by the front doors. “I told you I was speaking this morning.”

He frowned, folding his arms over his chest. “Yeah, but just about the dance, right? You already told me everything you were going to say.”

It was the worry getting to me, I think, the worry and the knowledge that my school had been attacked and pretty seriously damaged. I couldn’t freak out about all of that right now, but I could snap at David. “So you didn’t care?”

He blinked at me. “Are we seriously going to do this here?”

He was right; now was definitely not the time, but if I could have shoved him out the door, I think I would have. Instead, I opened it and steered him toward the steps. “Go to your car. I’ll meet you there in a minute.”

David ran a hand over his sandy blond hair, ruffling it. “You’re going back in there?” he asked, and I nodded.

“I knocked Headmaster Dunn unconscious, so I should probably deal with that.”

His eyebrows lifted up into his hairline, but he didn’t say anything else, jogging down the steps toward the group of students milling around on the grass.

I darted back inside, running back for the gym, trying to tell myself that it wasn’t that big of a deal that David hadn’t come to the assembly. I was probably just mad because it had put him in danger.

But then, as I rounded the corner back toward the gymnasium, I realized: If this was one of the trials, why on earth would the Ephors put David in danger? They said they wanted him.

Unless this was all a trick, and I was right about Alexander being evil.

Man, I really hoped I was right.