FYI there is a poll on my profile you all should vote on because it affects your majorly.


Chapter 9

House of Journeys

"So, how do we get to this library because I was just always there but have no idea how to get in…" I asked Colton who met me outside Nellie and my room.

"There is probably an entrance from above ground," he told me with a shrug, "But I have no idea where it is."

"I could help you with that," spinning I found myself faced with a sister who looked both excited and annoyed. "Puhleese you didn't really think you could fool me, right? Mom and dad sure they'll believe anything you tell them they're just so happy you're alive. Me on the other hand… well I'm no fool."

"What on earth do you mean, Claudia?" I asked with a patronizing smile and batting eyelashes included.

Thank gods she had yet to figure out the looks-can-kill glasses or Colton and I would have been six feet under in seconds. "You've had some weird call to action by some Egyptian figure and now you're trying to get into the Frobisher library to investigate it."

"We don't even know what the Frobisher library is," Colton told her honestly. (Well we could easily have figured it out but we hadn't known the name. So maybe honest isn't the word, but it was not a lie. Not technically.)

"Fine," Claudia told us with a sigh. "I guess you don't need the only key that will allow you access to the library without our parents finding out…"

The little…. "Fine, what do you want in return."

"Simple," the girl told me with a content smile. "I want to come with you. Sibuna reborn."

Colton didn't seem happy that the girl was tagging along, but I could only shrug. To be honest she probably knew a whole lot more about this whole Egyptian thing than either of us because she'd been raised on it. Even before she knew it was true, the story of the Osirian and Chosen One was her Cinderella. She'd be a big help and she knew we knew it.

"Here," the girl told me holding out a simple locket shaped like an eye. "There are a million passages around this place, and that locket can get you through all of them."

"Maybe you should give it to me then," Colton teased. "I'm much less likely to lose it."

What he didn't know, however, was that I had the ability to lose my head with it still attached, "Go ahead. We both know jewelry is more your style anyway."

Claudia laughed, but my joke caused us to sneak into the kitchen behind my sister in an amused silence. "Press the necklace in the hole," she directed of Colton who, following her lead, placed the metal against stone and quickly opened up a passage. "See. Cool. I wouldn't miss this for the world."

"You've never been down here before, have you?" I realized looking at how young she looked in the shadows.

"The key only works for the current Chosen One and Osirian," she admitted with a shrug. "So I've been down to the basement, but never through here, and mom wouldn't tell me the pass code to get into the Frobisher study because she was afraid I'd get myself killed…" the words were left unsaid, but we all knew Nina feared Claudia would die as she thought we had.

"1890," Colton and I chimed in unison though neither of us knew where the words came from. "That's the pass code," he finished leading the way through the tight tunnel.

"So you just turn these little things…" Claudia told us twisting what looked like solid stone into the 1890. "And if you're right… walla!"

The wall had given away to a study covered in dust. If one cared to look they could notice easily that people had been down here in stages, but we were in a rush to carry on. Remembering the dream, Colton went to move a book and open the next door, but I called for him to stop first, "Wait! Don't open that door!"

"What, why not?" he replied flustered.

Claudia looked at me in awe, "How on earth did you know?"

"I don't even know what I know," I told her with a laugh. "It just felt wrong, dangerous."

"Dangerous is right. I heard my parents talking a few years ago about how they fixed the old security measure that made you blind if you weren't wearing one of these." Three dusty amulets swung on black ropes in Claudia's hands. Grabbing one each, we opened the door into the first chamber of the tunnels. While walking, Claudia explained the history behind the tunnels.

"Well thank gods we're dealing with a goddess and not a ghost then," Colton joked and I flashed him a dirty look. Sure we were letting Claudia tag along, but I hadn't planned on telling her the complete truth. Now we had no choice (or so the look on her face would suggest.)

"You've been in the library before, right?" If Claudia wanted info, we were getting some in exchange too.

The girls nods were long and slow when she replied, "I practically grew up in there. Mom wanted to put in a permanent exhibit when we took over the school. I think she thought maybe more Egypt stuff would draw you here quicker to be honest." And it seemed to me my mom spent the past 16 years of her life trying to find a girl her brain said had died. It was sweet, but also sad. Most likely I was a disappointment because with Claudia and Mollie to compare me with I wasn't what she expected. Claudia is the smart one and Mollie the personable one. I'm the magic one, and from what I hear that's the one child Nina never wanted.

"Colton asked if I knew of the mosaic by the way," Claudia told me with a poke. "And I told him yes, if he means the one of Osiris I have seen it."

"Osiris?" I repeated tilting my head in bafflement. "That doesn't make sense. Luce said it was her lover trapped in there."

"Maybe Osiris is her lover," Colton suggested obviously forgetting that I'd talked to the god only last night.

Claudia, however, did not forget. (Though how she even knew was a mystery to me. Add omniscient to her list of talents please, scribe.) "Maybe it isn't Osiris then because you're right. That makes no sense. I mean I've never met him and all the gods are related so it's probably someone else. If Luce says it's someone else and Colton believes her then it has to be. Her lies would hurt you, Eve, and Colton is literally incapable of that. Actually it's kind of funny. Like he couldn't step on your foot if he tried to…"

Colton did try, and my pounding foot proved Claudia wrong. Blushing, she corrected herself, "Well then he couldn't drop a boulder on you with magic then. I don't know it's your superpower."

"Are we superheroes?" Colton asked just as we reached a long chasm. "Because we're going to need to be able to fly if we want to get over that."