The Setup

The air left my lungs. I looked at Maxwell, my jaw dropping. He stood there in his crisp school blazer, looking like a worried angel. But his eyes were like two pieces of flint. He was setting me up.

"Search her," Maxwell repeated. His voice was steady, but I could hear the hidden threat beneath it.

Professor Alden stepped forward. His face was pale. "Loveth? Is this true? Please tell me you didn't do this."

"I didn't!" I shouted. My voice cracked. "He’s lying! He was the one in the vault! He’s the one who took it!"

Maxwell sighed, a sound of pure pity. "Professor, she’s clearly panicked. She probably thought she could sell the ring and pay for her tuition. It’s a sad situation, really."

I wanted to scream. I wanted to lunge at him and scratch that fake look of concern off his face.

"Check her pockets, Professor," Maxwell urged.

Professor Alden reached out. I didn't move. I couldn't move. If they found that note, the one with the picture of my mother, they would know I was connected to him. But wait. Maxwell had the ring. He told me he’d stuffed it in his pocket.

If they searched me and found nothing, I could point to him.

"Go ahead," I said, my voice shaking. "Search me. I have nothing."

The Professor checked my pockets. He found my library card. He found a crumpled tissue. He found my house keys.

Empty.

"See?" I breathed, a small spark of hope lighting up in my chest. "I told you. Now search for him! He was there before me!"

Professor Alden turned to Maxwell. For a second, the Golden Boy’s mask slipped. His eyes widened. He didn't expect me to fight back.

"Maxwell?" the Professor asked.

"This is ridiculous," Maxwell said, his voice tightening. "I’m the Student Council President. Why would I steal my own school’s history?"

"Just to be fair, Maxwell," the Professor said softly.

Maxwell slowly raised his arms. He looked confident, but I saw a bead of sweat roll down the side of his neck. My heart was hammered. Please let the ring be there. Please let him go down for this.

The Professor patted down Maxwell’s blazer. He checked the side pockets. He checked the inner pockets.

Nothing.

The ring was gone. My heart sank into my stomach. How? I saw him put it in his pocket. I saw the sparkle of the diamond.

"It’s not here," Professor Alden said, looking confused. He looked at the empty vault, then back at us. "If neither of you has it, then where is the Founder’s Ring?"

Suddenly, the heavy silence was broken by the sound of footsteps. More security guards were coming. The flashlights danced on the walls.

Maxwell leaned in close to me, his shoulder brushing mine. "You're lucky I have friends in high places, Loveth," he whispered so low only I could hear. "But the game has just started."

"Where is it?" I hissed back.

"Gone," he mouthed.

Professor Alden turned to the guards. "We need to secure the area! Lockdown the library! Nobody leaves until we find that ring!"

In the chaos, Maxwell grabbed my wrist. His grip was like iron. He pulled me toward the shadow of a tall bookshelf while the Professor was busy talking to the guards.

"Listen to me," he said, his voice urgent and cold. "The ring is already out of the building. Someone else has it. Someone who is going to destroy both of us if we don't get it back."

"You expect me to believe you?" I tried to pull away, but he was too strong. "You just tried to get me arrested!"

"I had to," he snapped. "If I didn't blame you, they would have looked at me more closely. I needed a distraction. Now, look at your phone."

My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out with my free hand. It was a message from an unknown number. It was a video.

I pressed play.

The video was grainy, but clear enough. It showed a person in a dark cloak walking through the library tunnels. They were holding the Founder’s Ring. But that wasn't the scary part. The person stopped and looked directly at the camera.

It was Victoria Hale. The Headmaster’s daughter. The girl who ruled the school’s social life with an iron fist.

She blew a kiss to the camera and whispered, "Bye-bye, Maxwell. Bye-bye, scholarship girl."

I looked up at Maxwell. My face was white. "She... she saw us? She’s the one who has it?"

"She’s blackmailing me, Loveth," Maxwell said, his eyes filled with a dark rage I had never seen before. "She forced me to open the vault. She told me she’d ruin my family if I didn't. But she double-crossed me. She took the ring and now she’s going to frame us both."

"Why me?" I asked, my voice trembling. "I’m nobody."

"Because you're the perfect scapegoat," Maxwell said. "And because she knows I care about keeping you quiet."

He let go of my wrist. "The security is coming back. We have ten seconds. Either you walk out there and tell them everything and watch your mother lose her stall and your future burn or you follow me."

"Follow you where?"

"To the one place she can't hide," Maxwell said. He stepped toward a small wooden panel on the floor. He kicked it, and it slid away to reveal a dark, narrow ladder leading down.

The guards were getting closer. I could hear their boots on the marble floor.

"Five seconds, Loveth," Maxwell said, stepping onto the ladder. "Choose."

I thought about my mum’s tired eyes. I thought about the red circle around her head in the photo. I thought about Victoria’s cruel smile.

I didn't have a choice. I never had a choice.

I grabbed the ladder and climbed down into the dark. Maxwell closed the panel above us just as the library doors burst open.

It was pitch black. The air was cold and smelled like wet stone. I could hear Maxwell’s breathing in the dark.

"Where are we?" I whispered.

A match flared. Maxwell lit a small torch on the wall. The orange light showed a long, dripping tunnel stretching out into the earth.

"The foundations of St. Jude's," Maxwell said. "But look at the wall, Loveth."

I turned my head. Scratched into the stone were hundreds of names. Dates going back a hundred years. And at the very end of the list, written in fresh, red ink, were two names side by side.

Maxwell & Loveth.

Underneath the names was a single word that made my blood run cold: SACRIFICE.

The tunnel suddenly shook with a loud explosion from behind us. The way back was gone.