Page 59 of The Tribes of Magic
“I get it, Dutch. Rhett is your best friend, and you don’t want to wreck that. Ihaveto speak with him. But that doesn’t meanyouhave to too. If you want to sit this one out?—”
“I don’t sit things out,” he cut me off. “Yes, Rhett is my friend, but you’re my teammate, and I promised I would help you. Knights always keep their promises. It’s like you said, Savannah. If we want to be Knights, we need to act like Knights.”
“Thanks, Dutch.”
“No problem. Everything works out in the end. You now owe me one, Savannah.”
I laughed. “I think I can live with that.” I took a slow, steadying breath. “Ok. Rhett is over there, on the other side of the Oval. Are you ready?”
“I’m ready.”
Rhett and two of his teammates were sitting on the low metal fence that surrounded the Oval, laughing and joking around as they watched the Fixers clean up the area. One of those teammates was Sara, the ultra-competitive girl who’d yelled atme and Dante on our third day in the Fortress. The other was a boy called Wayne.
Even from a distance, anyone could immediately see that Rhett was the leader. The other two were turned toward him, as though he were the sun in their solar system.
“Rhett.”
His gaze snapped to me the moment I spoke. The corner of his lip twitched. “Savannah Winters. And my man Dutch. Great to see you. Have a seat. Your girlfriend can stay too, if she must.”
“I must,” I said.
The fence rattled when Dutch sat down. I remained standing. The last thing I wanted was to be sitting on that fence when Rhett lost his temper and decided to push me off of it.
“We wanted to talk to you about the Scoreboard.”
“Yeah, that was really weird what happened to your friend Bronte.” Rhett casually pulled his fingers through his short dark hair.
“So, you have no idea how it happened?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Well, I guess it happened because she broke the rules.”
“Or someone made it look like she broke the rules.”
“How would someone do that? I heard there’s video evidence.”
“Videos can be faked.”
Rhett laughed. “That’s crazy talk.”
“Is it? Because to me, the idea of Bronte Vance entering a restricted area is the really crazy story. Anyone who’s met Bronte knows she wouldneverbreak the rules.”
“Well, I guess you don’t know your friend as well as you think you do.”
“Bronte would never jeopardize her dream of being a Knight. She’s spent her whole life working toward that dream.”
“We all have. But your theory is crazy. Are you really suggesting that someone plotted to get Bronte disqualified?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“So that other people could take her place at the top of the Scoreboard.”
Rhett blinked. “Other…people. You meanme.”
“Well, it is your name sitting at the top of the Scoreboard now, isn’t it? And you are a very competitive person, aren’t you?”
“Careful,” Rhett warned me.
