Free Unforgiven by Lauren Kate Page B

Let’s go.” She snapped her fingers and started down the hallway, her friends nipping at her heels.
    “She’s not going to win,” Luc whispered in Lilith’s ear as Chloe walked away.
    “She wins everything,” Lilith murmured as she slung her backpack over her shoulder.
    “Not this.” Something in Luc’s tone made Lilith stop and turn around. “You have a real shot at winning, Lilith, only…Never mind.”
    “What?”
    Luc frowned. “Cam.” He glanced at the other students flowing past them toward their classes. “I know he pressured you to start a band with him yesterday. Don’t do it.”
    “I wasn’t planning to,” Lilith said. “But why do you care?”
    “You don’t know Cam like I do.”
    “No,” Lilith agreed. “But I don’t need to know him to know I hate him.” Saying it out loud made her realize how strange it sounded. She
did
hate Cam, and she didn’t even know why. He hadn’t done anything to her, and yet the thought of him made her tense up and want to break something.
    “Don’t tell anyone I told you this”—Luc leaned in—“but a while back, Cam was in a band with this chick singer—”
    “Chick singer?”
Lilith narrowed her eyes. Guys sucked.
    “Female vocalist, I mean,” Luc said with a slight eye roll. “She wrote all the songs. And she was totally in love with him.”
    Lilith wasn’t interested in Cam, but it wasn’t a huge surprise that other girls were. She got it: Cam was sexy and magnetic, but he wasn’t her type. When he turned his charm on her, it only made Lilith despise him more.
    “Who cares?” she asked.
    “You should,” Luc replied. “Especially if you’re going to get into bed with him—musically speaking.”
    “I’m not getting into bed with Cam in any sense,” Lilith said. “I just want to be left alone.”
    “Good,” Luc said with a cryptic smile. “Because Cam is…how should I put this? He’s more the love-’em-and-leave-’em type.”
    Lilith thought she might throw up. “So what?”
    “So one day, after things had been going so well—or at least so this young girl thought,” Luc said, “Cam just disappeared. No one heard from him for months. Though we did hear
of
him, eventually. You remember that song ‘Death of Stars’?”
    “By Dysmorphia?” Lilith nodded. She’d only ever heard that one single, but she’d loved it. “It was never not on the radio last summer.”
    “That’s because of Cam.” Luc frowned. “He stole the girl’s lyrics, claimed them as his own, and sold the song to Lowercase Records.”
    “Why would he do that?” Lilith said. She thought back to that moment the day before when he’d gently coaxed her from paralyzing stage fright into song. She loathed him, and yet…that had been one of the nicest things anyone had ever done for her.
    The bell rang, and the crowd in the hall thinned as students filtered into classrooms. Over Luc’s shoulder, Lilith saw Tarkenton sweeping the halls for tardy students. “I have to go,” she said.
    “I’m just saying,” Luc said, beginning to walk away, “your songs are good. Too good to let Cam strike again.”

    Lilith walked toward her homeroom, her mind spinning. How could she waste her time in class when there was a songwriting competition judged by Ike Ligon coming up? She didn’t even care that it was happening at prom. She could show up just for the Battle of the Bands. She didn’t need a date or a dress. She only needed to be in the same room as Ike Ligon.
    She should be practicing right now. She should be writing more songs.
    Before she knew it, her feet had led her to the band room.
    Cam sat on the floor, tuning the slim green electric guitar she’d seen him play the other day. Jean Rah was tapping out a rhythm on his jeans with his drumsticks. What were they doing in here?
    “We were just talking about you,” Jean Rah said.
    “You guys aren’t supposed to be here,” Lilith said.
    “Neither are you,” Cam said, and gave her another