Page 40 of Rivals

“I’ll come with you, then.”

Nina rolled her eyes but didn’t argue as Daphne followed her into the elevator. She leaned over the cart and pressed the lowest button, presumably taking them all the way to the basement.

“We’re going somewhere quiet, right?” Daphne wished they weren’t having this conversation in a public place.

“You don’t want anyone to overhear your dark, twisted plots?” Nina asked sarcastically.

“Not really. I’d prefer the dark and twisted stay between us.”

Nina made ahmphsound, though Daphne detected a note of amusement beneath the annoyance.

When the doors opened onto the C floor, Nina pushed her cart out into the deserted stacks. The lights of each section flickered on at her approach, only to dim again when she’d passed. Daphne trailed along in her wake, footsteps echoing in the stillness.

It should have been creepy down here, but Daphne didn’t really mind. There was something oddly comforting about being surrounded by thousands of books.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about our respective problems,” she began, “and I realized that we can work together.”

Nina removed a cloth-bound volume labeledTheodore: The Boy Kingand knelt down, tracing the spines until she found whatever call number she was looking for. She wedged the book into its spot on the bottom shelf, then stood. “I’m not interested. Find someone else to be the pawn in your scheme.”

“Even if the scheme is to take down Gabriella?” Daphne replied, and Nina fell still.

This was an outrageous, outlandish proposal. A week ago, the thought of asking Nina for help with anything would have made Daphne burst into laughter. Yet she’d been toying with this idea for a few days now, and the more she thought about it, the more appealing it seemed.

“I don’t like this any more than you do, but it makes a weird kind of sense. We both want to get out from under Gabriella’s thumb,” Daphne hurried to explain. “We just need to find something on her—”

“Find something on her? What does that mean?”

“Something incriminating. That way we can hold it over Gabriella’s head: threaten to use it against her unless she gives back your scholarship and lets my family keep our title.”

A flurry of emotions darted over Nina’s face, stunned shock giving way to incredulity. “Is this seriously how your mind works? You went straight toblackmail?”

“You’re right,” Daphne said crisply. “We should just walk up to Gabriella and ask her to pretty-please stop bullying us.”

Nina grabbed the cart with both hands and began pushing it again. “Even if that’s true, there’s no way I could work with you.”

Daphne trotted to keep up. “You don’t have tolikeme, Nina. You just have to team up with me against the person who’s ruining both our lives.”

“Why are you so desperate for my help?”

“This is a two-person job,” Daphne began, but Nina’s eyes narrowed in sudden suspicion.

“You’re setting me up to take the fall, aren’t you? If you get caught, I’m the one who’ll go down for it, not you!” Nina shook her head. “I’m not going to be your scapegoat.”

“See, this is why I need you—because you’re smart!”

“Did you actually just compliment me?”

“I was stating a fact. Youaresmart. Smart enough to second-guess me, and I respect that.” Daphne met Nina’s gaze. “But I swear I’m not going to sell you out.”

“MaybeI’llsellyouout,” Nina warned.

“Maybe,” Daphne agreed, “but I don’t think you will. You’re too honorable to betray someone like that. Even someone you hate,” she added, in a softer tone.

Nina said nothing for a long time, but she didn’t tell Daphne to leave, so Daphne stayed. She trailed alongside the cart as Nina reshelved books throughout the biographies section. The silence between them was heavy, but not uncomfortable, probably because neither of them expected the other to fill it. It was a simple, undemanding silence, the kind of silence that falls between two very good friends—or between two people who don’t care about each other at all.

Daphne watched, a bit curious, as Nina led them to a door along one wall markedoversized. She flicked on the lights, revealing a storage room filled with various items that wouldn’t fit on the shelves: atlases with poster-sized pages, scrolls rolled up in cylindrical tubes. Nina pulled an oversized book of maps from the cart and shelved it. Finally she cleared her throat.

“If we were going to do this—and that’s a very hypotheticalif—what would our plan be?”