Eve of Destruction Read Online Free PDF Page B

to this stage so easily. She had underestimated Connor’s will to compete.
    â€œGod, this is twisted,” said Kate. “What would you even do if you had them?”
    At this, Mrs. Goring offered a fleeting smile that lasted only a moment.
    â€œI can’t get back what he stole from me. I’m cursed to hold the rank of seven, like Avery, and we are among the few who can never go back. But you I can help. Your wretched blood can be your antidote.”
    â€œYou’d insert our blood back into us?” asked Ben. “That doesn’t sound like such a good idea.”
    â€œAll of your vials together, that’s the antidote.”
    â€œWhoa, hold on,” said Kate. “You mean we go find these things—these vials of whatever—then you make some sort of witch’s brew and stick a needle in my arm?”
    â€œAnd then I pump you full of blood from this bunch of idiots,” said Mrs. Goring, leaning over the table and staring down at Kate Hollander. “Yes, that’s the cure.”
    There was a certain logic to it, in a black magic sort of way, that somewhere within all our mire lay a cure for what ailed us. But I didn’t trust her just the same.
    â€œHow do you know it will work?” I asked. “And why should we believe you?”
    â€œI know because he told me. And you should trust me because I hate him just as much as you do. We’re bound by our loathing of the same person. And besides, the same thing that will cure you? It will kill him. That’s my take in the bargain. You get cured, I get a way to put an end to this madness, an end to Rainsford, once and for all.”
    â€œA poison for the one guy who can’t be killed,” Alex commented. “Interesting.”
    â€œBut he’s gone,” I said, feeling inside that I’d love to be the one to stick the needle into his arm. “You don’t even know where he is.”
    â€œI’m banking on his return at some point in the not-too-distant future. He’s careful about cleaning up his messes, and you, Will Besting, are a mess.”
    I pondered what that meant as Mrs. Goring stood stone cold, with her arms folded over her chest. She’d said her piece, but there was one thing she hadn’t told us. I was thinking about the one thing, but it was Marisa with her haunted, weary voice who asked.
    â€œWhat was your fear?”
    Mrs. Goring put the vial back in her pocket.
    â€œI am the anti-Will Besting. Or I was.”
    â€œYou were afraid of being alone?” I asked, surprised by the revelation.
    â€œNot anymore, as you can plainly see by my circumstances. I’ve come to understand that people are nothing but trouble and silence is golden.”
    â€œIf you’re lying to us,” said Kate, standing in unison with the rest of us as Mrs. Goring started for the door, “I’ll kill you.”
    Mrs. Goring didn’t bother to respond as she walked the length of Fort Eden and put her hand on the handle of the door.
    â€œIt’s time to take back what’s yours,” she said without turning back.
    And then she was out the door and we were all following her.
    On the way to the pond, there was a flurry of questions about where we were going and what we would be required to do, accompanied by a grand total of zero answers from the woman in charge. Mrs. Goring had fallen into an impenetrable silence. It was a lonely walk, because no one would look at me. I’d betrayed them, Marisa most of all, and they weren’t going to let me forget it.
    Keith, little bro, I wish you were here.
    Don’t sweat it. They’re just a bunch of losers. You don’t need them.
    What about Marisa?
    It’s not like you were gonna marry her. Grow up.
    Sometimes the conversations I have with my dead brother are not as useful as I hope they will be. As I was lost in my pretend Keith world, I looked back toward Fort Eden. The wind was still moving