Calore Dance Academy// Red Queen AU

Chapter 31

On the opposite side of the station, a subway that isn't ours comes screaming along the tracks.

A dozen or so board it. Less than a minute later, it's screaming again and echoing down the darkness of the tunnel.

The subway's lights fade away soon after.

Leaning against one of the platform's painted blue pillars, I watch the subway tunnel until I can't hear a whisper of the train anymore. I only glance to Maven, who stares onward across the tracks, before returning my eyes to the tunnel.

It's past eleven now, after the half-mile walk from Shade's apartment that got us here. To a subway station beneath Little Italy, same as all of the others in the city with its dirty tiles and fluorescent lights.

Same as the one I came from on my way here, same as the one Maven followed me from. Regardless of what Shade says, my body finds the air cold, the air of this underground subway station colder.

When I returned to the foyer and told Maven we had to go, he seemed almost reluctant, caught up in some sort of logistical conversation—security codes and key card access, I heard—with Farley and Ada. He was right between the two of them at the kitchen island, drawing homemade blueprints of his father's office in the Calore's downtown building, spouting out passwords and numbers that he knew off the top of his head. Though I still saw that quiet numbness in his eyes as I bid the Street Fighters goodbye, gave my brother a hug, and pulled him out of the apartment building.

We walked fast, and I explained Evangeline's situation on the way over. She and some other girl were in a car accident right off the highway at the edge of the Upper East Side, though Cal didn't tell me any more about what caused the crash. The girl managed to get off with a few cuts and mild whiplash, though Evangeline tore a knee ligament and gave herself a concussion on the steering wheel. It was enough of a conversation to keep me and Maven busy talking on the way here, but now that we have nothing to do but wait, both of us have gone silent.

I want to say I'm sorry, even when a part of me at large doesn't regret what I did today. I want to hold his hand, ask him if he's okay after everything he learned tonight. But the silence, the cold . . . they freeze me in place.

My betrayal was vindicated by Farley's mother and sister, but that doesn't change the fact that I went behind Maven's back. And I'll never forget that.

I can't decide if I'm happy that we're nearly alone in the station. A couple of women wait down the way, and a boy and girl, no older than me and Maven, hold hands near the end of the platform. A man by himself watches something on his phone not far from us, and a woman descends the steps on the station's other side. But none of them speak. None of us speak. The subway's strange in that way, how one hour it can be the loudest place you've ever seen and the somberest, most noiseless the next.

But I'm still staring at the tunnel when Maven comes around the pillar, leaning his back against it next to me. His hand brushes mine as he bows his head to my ear.

"I didn't know you had a MetroCard." Humor laces his whisper.

At least he's talking. Squeezing the card in between my fingers, I turn to him so that my shoulder's against the pillar. "I bought it this weekend." Stupidly, I might add, after having this idea that taking the subway to see my family would become a regular thing. "I didn't know you rode the subway."

"Only on special occasions."

I laugh, but just for something to do. Maven's eyes implore mine, begging me not to look away and back towards the tracks. There's a desperation in them that I haven't seen before, along with too many other emotions. His hand brushes mine again, but this time it stays when his fingers interlace with mine. They're cold, far colder than this subway station.