Eddie

∞"Face it. It's impossible."

"It is not." Nina snapped. "There's a clue, or a hint, or some kind of sign that's supposed to show us which key is the right one, we just have to find it."

I rubbed my fingers into my eyes, trying to ignore the headache that was building up behind my temples. "Yeah, but we've been looking for three nights and nothing. An extra ten eyes can't hurt."

Nina folded her arms. "No. But it could hurt the owners of the eyes. They could get their heads chopped off or fall into a bottomless chasm or touch the wrong key and be turned to stone – "

"Turned to stone?" I didn't even try to hide my disbelief. "I thought this was Ancient Egypt, not Ancient Greece. Chill out Medusa."

"Well we don't know what'll happen if we choose the wrong key!"

"Still. Out of all the things that could happen, turning to stone doesn't rank anywhere near the top ten." Nina ignored me and continued studying the keys, getting as close as possible without actually touching them. "Nina." Nothing. "Nina we need help. We don't even know where to start and assuming there's more tests after this, they're only going to get harder."

She finally turned to look at me and folded her arms, eyes flashing with steely determination. "Eddie do you know how many times we almost died last year? I'd say give or take about a dozen. You were only there for the end of it you don't know what it's like to watch Patricia have pendulums of doom an inch away from chopping her in half, you don't know what it's like to watch Amber go blind for 24 hours, you don't know what it's like to see Alfie hallucinate from spider venom and nearly knock into a wire that could kill him." Nina paused for a breath, looking stubborn as ever.

"You're right Nina. I don't know what that's like." I folded my arms and stared right back at her. "But I do know what it's like to learn your so-called friends have been keeping a secret from you for the better part of a year and then learn that you can help them. That you could've been helping the entire time. I would've helped sooner if you let me and I liked actually having the choice. They should have the choice."

"Really?" Nina arched an eyebrow and walked across the room. "Because you know that if Patricia has the choice, she will say yes. And what happens if these tests are just as dangerous as last year's?" It was the same way she'd won this argument every single time we'd had it the past few days. She knew how much I didn't want Patricia to be involved. But this time I wasn't backing down.

"I think they should at least have the choice to say no. They've done this before, they know the risks. We'll tell them what we've learned so far and they'll know the rules and be able to decide for themselves whether or not they want in. Fabian and Amber have already figured out something's going on, how much do you want to bet Patricia's not far behind them? And when they do find out – and they will – I don't want to have to explain why we kept it from them."

Nina sighed and pushed her hair out of her face. "I don't want anything to happen to them," she admitted.

I nodded. "I know. Me neither."

She frowned in concentration, scanning my face for sincerity. "OK."

"OK?" I checked, needing to know I'd heard her right.

"OK. We'll tell them what's happening. We make it explicitly clear they can walk away with no questions asked. And if they want to help… they're in."∞

"Eddie how could you not tell me about this?"

I looked up in surprise to see a very angry blonde glaring at me. "Nice to see you too Amber," I smiled. "What am I supposed to have done this time?"

She huffed and dropped herself down on the couch in between me and Patricia. "The aptitude tests? You're the headmaster's son, you're supposed to tell me when we're going to be getting things like this so I can study!"

"Amber, you do know that you can't study for aptitude tests, right?" Fabian cut in, looking confused.

Amber fixed a glare on him fierce enough that he quickly turned back to his conversation with Nina. "Amber, they're practice tests," I explained. "They're to give us an idea of the actual aptitude tests we'll be taking later this year to see if we qualify for the A levels or not. Those are the ones we'll need to study for. Besides, he didn't tell me. I couldn't have told you if I wanted to."

Amber heaved a sigh, looking frustrated. "Honestly Eddie, how are you supposed to be of any use to me?"

"He's not." Patricia assured her. "He's supposed to be of use to me."

Amber's expression instantly transformed from irritation to adoration. "Aww! Just look at you two acting all couple-y!"

My girlfriend scowled and rolled her eyes. "Ugh. Don't remind me, I almost don't recognize myself."

"So might we say I've, changed you for the better?" I swung an arm behind her and raised an eyebrow.

She scowled but leaned back so my arm was around her shoulders. "Changed me, yes. Whether or not it's for the better is still open to debate."

The activation of the loudspeaker stopped me from continuing our banter. "All seniors please report to their designated classroom for the practice exam. If you are not a senior and therefore not taking an exam, please return to your house. Thank you, and good luck."

Everyone gathered their things and left the student lounge, Anubis boarders heading to the French classroom. When we arrived we saw Alfie and Jerome suspiciously lurking near Mr. Duval's desk as Mara hid behind a book. "Good read Mara?" I called, grinning.

"If I don't see anyone doing anything, I can't be held accountable for failing to stop whatever it is someone may or may not be doing," she replied without coming out from behind her history textbook.

Jerome nodded sagely as he and Alfie finished up whatever it was they were doing. "Plausible deniability. Always an admirable trait in a girlfriend."

Joy walked in a few steps before Mr. Duval and sat next to me and Patricia. "I seriously do not understand the point to these. We have to take practice tests that won't be graded and that we won't get back to prepare for entrance tests that we won't even take for another seven months? It's stupid," she complained.

"Doesn't matter how stupid the system is. The teachers made it so we have to live with it," Patricia rolled her eyes and I couldn't help but smirk.

"You know, if you roll your eyes any harder they're going to fall out of your head," I pointed out helpfully.

She turned her head to scowl at me. "Must you always comment on everything I do?"

"Why yes I think I must," I grinned. "It's one of the perks of dating you. I get to throw my two cents in, on every thing you do."

"Even when it's irritating and makes me want to smack you with my textbook?" she pressed.

I nodded. "Especially when it's irritating and makes you want to smack me with your textbook," I assured her. "And then the best part is instead of smacking me we go and make out for a while. Come on Yacker. This is basic boyfriend-girlfriend-ology I expect you to know this."

I grinned when Patricia stopped midway through an eye roll. "Stop smirking," she ordered, which of course only made me smirk harder.

I'm about ninety-six percent sure Patricia was this close to strangling me with my tie so it's probably a good thing Mr. Duval called for our attention when he did.

Truthfully speaking, tests have never been that stressful for me so since I didn't see the need to practice I mostly just focused on filling in the answer bubbles in different patterns. A, B, A, B, D, C, D, C… A, B, C, D, D, C, B, A… B, A, D, C… A, A, B, B, C, C, D, D. That and making sure to kick Patricia's chair every so often. There were probably only a handful of things that got her more riled up than my shoe going ta-tink! against her chair's leg, and, well, I've always liked pushing her buttons.

The test was mostly a boring blur of rules and procedures and Mr. Duval snapping at Alfie and Jerome to keep their eyes on their own papers. By far the most interesting part was where he opened his desk and a live frog leaped out of it. He shrieked in fright/shock and literally jumped backwards while the rest of us erupted into laughter. Predictable as always, he demanded to know who it was before coming just shy of accusing Nina, and then Jerome suggested it was probably a younger student. With no one admitting guilt and the test still going, Mr. Duval had no choice but to instruct us to keep writing as he carried the frog outside as carefully as one might carry a bomb, or dirty diaper, or some other UFO – uncared for object.

I had just finished filling in the bubbles to spell out 'NO!' if you read the test sideways when the door swung open. "Sorry to interrupt, Francis." My head jerked up in surprise. "Nina I need to see you in my office for a moment." I focused on breathing, trying to fight the familiar choking feeling that always rose up in my throat whenever I saw my… saw Eric.

Nina stood up, looking confused, and made to come over but he raised a hand. "You should bring your school things with you Nina, this may take awhile."

"You sure you don't want to take Joy as well while you're at it?" Patricia asked suspiciously. "Disappear 'em both at once?" I glanced over to see her glaring at… the headmaster.

He sighed in impatience as Nina walked past him. "Patricia, I need a word with Nina about her enrollment, and afterwards I am sending her back to Anubis House to think some things over. That is all."

Only looking slightly mollified, Patricia raised an eyebrow and turned back to her test, scowling. It made me frown. I didn't like seeing her this type of irritated. I slowly allowed a smirk to crawl over my face as I got an idea, before I swung my foot against her chair. Ta-tink! Her expression shifted from annoyance to disbelieving exasperation and I grinned. Mission accomplished.

We were almost finished with the math section when it happened. There was a tugging at the back of my head, and then in my mind's eye I saw the classroom door opening, hallways flew past me until I reached Eric's office and a mixture of shock, fear and indignation was swirling up in my chest, exploding out of my mouth in the form of "WHAT?"

I didn't even realize I'd shouted until the word reached my ears. I blinked a few times and tried to cover, looking up at Mr. Duval in pretend outrage. "WHAT, is up with this question?" I demanded, jabbing at a random one on the page. I glanced down to see which one I'd picked and nearly kicked myself. "Thirty-five divided by seven? This is insulting!"

Alfie cackled and Jerome whistled, calling, "You tell him Edison!" The rest of the house waited with bated breath to see how Mr. Duval would respond.

"Do try and keep the talking to a minimum won't you Mr. Miller?" Mr. Duval folded his arms, not looking amused in the slightest.

I nodded, more than a little relieved he seemed more frustrated than downright angry, and tried to turn back to the practice test but a pressure on my toes distracted me. I glanced down to see Patricia stepping on my foot and looked at her in confusion. 'What?' I mimed, raising my eyebrows.

'You OK?' she mouthed back, looking concerned.

I nodded, and Mr. Duval snapped at everyone to keep their eyes on their own tests so I turned my attention back to filling in the answer bubbles in the shape of a Christmas tree, trying to will the clock to spin faster as I wondered what my dad was talking about with Nina that could've got such a volatile reaction from her.

After finishing the most useless test we'll ever take and going back to the house a couple at a time, my girlfriend and I learned via Trudy that Nina had apparently returned half an hour before and had locked herself in her room.

"Should we be worried?" Patricia wondered aloud, carelessly letting her bag hit the ground in front of the couch as she walked over to the kitchen.

I shrugged, trying to play it off. "You worry. I'll be… tentatively troubled. Fleetingly flustered. Privately perturbed."

She rolled her eyes while filling up a cup with water. "Don't be a dork. Maybe we should check on her."

"Now Yacker I would have to be, deeply discombobulated to even think, of checking on her." I both could've and probably would've come up with more alluring alliterations but Patricia lightly slapped me on the arm and said to knock it off. "No Patricia, I do not think we need to check on Nina," I deadpanned, keeping my face perfectly straight and letting my voice take on a slightly robotic tone. "She must come down eventually, otherwise studies show she will run the risk of death due to starvation."

"Why am I dating you?" Patricia threw up her hands in exasperation.

"You know you love it," I teased, before I snatched the glass of water she'd set down.

She tried to take it back but I kept myself turned so my back was to her and she couldn't reach it. "Eddie, give!" she demanded, sounding both frustrated and amused.

"Give what? You Brits need to work on your specificity," I retorted, continuing to hold it out of reach.

"You know what. Give it back!"

Keeping the glass at arm's length I turned to face her grabbing fingers. "What will you give me for it?" I pretended to consider.

She scowled. "An ice pack for your black eye."

"I don't have a black eye," I pointed out before realizing where she was going.

"Oh don't worry I can fix that real quick," she assured me, still trying to snatch the water back.

I allowed myself to smirk at how cute Patricia got when she was irritated. "You could. But you won't."

"Don't be so sure," she threatened, folding her arms in annoyance as she stopped trying to reach it.

I grinned and took a step away, swallowing the water and setting the glass down. "There now was that so difficult?"

"You're an idiot," she scowled as I walked back over so I was in front of her.

"True," I acknowledged, stuffing my hands in my pockets.

"And annoying," she added.

"True."

"And I hate you."

"False," I grinned. "520%-could-not-be-more-wrong false."

Her eyebrows drew together in a glare. "Oh please what do you know?"

"I know that if you did hate me you wouldn't let me do this." Her expression started to get a bit confused but before she could get a word in I put my hands on both sides of her neck, threaded my fingers through her hair, pulled her into me and kissed her.

I had decided back when she first surprised me in her dorm room that I really liked kissing Patricia. Her lips were soft and always tasted like whatever chap-stick she was wearing, and for someone who claimed not to have any prior kissing experience she was pretty damn good at it.

I let the rest of my thoughts dissipate as my one of my hands transitioned down from her neck to rub gentle circles over her shoulder, while the other hand twirled its fingers into her hair. Patricia seemed to be of a similar mindset because she fisted her right hand in the front of my shirt, tugging me closer and ran the fingers of her other hand across the back of my neck as she leaned into me and arched backwards at the same time as she pulled me in closer, making heat race through my body and sending chills down my spine.

My mouth slanted against hers, nudging and urging her to do the same before moving from her mouth to trace a line of kisses along her jaw. She made a noise of pleasure that I was sure would be the death of me before I moved back to her lips as my hands stroked her cheek, her neck, her back, loving the feel of her. Her hands moved to wrap themselves tightly against my neck as I opened my mouth, sliding my tongue along her bottom lip and she jerked back.

Patricia snatched her hands away as though I'd suddenly burned her, shoved my hands off of her, spun around and started back towards the living room in the span of a few seconds. She had left me in a bit of a kissed drunk haze and I didn't even realize what was happening before she was grabbing her bag. I felt myself frown and jogged over, trying to stop her. "Hey, Yacker, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," she snapped, swinging her bag over her shoulder.

"Then what's with the whole suddenly stopping and getting away from me thing?" I pointed out. Patricia refused to answer and I grabbed her wrist. "Patricia. Talk to me. What happened?"

"Why did something have to happen?" she glared at me, but it was more defensive than angry. "Why do you assume it's some personal issue? Maybe I just realized you forgot to brush your teeth this morning." She jerked her wrist out of my grasp and stormed upstairs, disappearing into the girl's hallway as Joy, Mara and Jerome got back.

I didn't hear much of what they said as I turned and slowly walked back in to the living room. I was used to Patricia going from zero to a hundred and back again in a few seconds, but this time it had nearly given me whiplash. I really couldn't say I was surprised though. My girlfriend had a habit of pushing me away.

"Eddie did you hear me?"

I looked up to see Mara staring at me expectantly. "Sorry, what?"

"I asked if you know if Nina's OK," she repeated.

I blinked slowly, still mostly with my thoughts. "Uh, no. She's been in her room since I got back."

Mara nodded and she may have asked another question but I wasn't listening, already swirled back up in my head. I'd had more than a few girlfriends before, and gone further with some than I cared to admit. With Patricia though, it was, different. Back then what I had done had been mostly messy kisses and fumbling fingers, planned with hushed whispers and made possible by open windows in the middle of the night, a sort of 'screw you' to the world that I'd been so angry with. The next day I'd barely even acknowledged the girls, leading to more than a few public confrontations. I didn't want anything like that with Patricia. If she would let me talk to her about it I could probably learn what she wanted, but any time I tried to have a conversation about where we were heading she immediately shut me down. Any other girl and I would've had a better chance at figuring it out, but Patricia had always seemed to delight in tormenting me by being half transparent as glass and the other half as indecipherable as a Rubik's cube. The dangerously frustrating combination just made me want to figure her out even more, but the harder I tried the harder she resisted.

Nina didn't come down until after dinner, and she probably would've stayed in her room longer but I heard from Mara who heard it from Jerome who heard it from Alfie who heard it from the blonde herself that apparently Amber had threatened to kick the door in and drag her down if she didn't tell us what the problem was.

"I am dealing with it," Nina snapped, folding her arms, and I could tell she was frustrated by her lack of contractions.

"Yes. But you're upset and I don't like it and if I have to see my best friend sulking I'm going to be miserable and if I'm miserable Alfie's upset and if Alfie's upset Jerome's upset and if Jerome's upset Mara's upset and… I'm actually not sure who gets upset if Mara's upset." Amber paused in her rant and tilted her head, trying to see if she'd left someone out. I took advantage of the momentary silence to snatch a glance at Patricia who was sitting with Joy, but she had been refusing to so much as look at me ever since she'd stormed out earlier.

"What Amber's trying to say," Fabian spoke up, "Is that we just want to help."

Nina pressed her hands into her eyes and dropped down onto the couch before muttering something unintelligible. "What was that?" Alfie asked.

She raised her head to glare at him. "I said I am getting kicked out of school Alfie. Happy?"

I blinked once, hearing the words but not being able to make sense out of them. How was Nina getting kicked out of school? I wanted to ask her how and why, but my tongue seemed to be in shock. The others' complaints were significantly more vocalized. "Wait what?" Fabian asked, looking equal parts confused and upset. A chorus of protests from the rest of our housemates backed him up.

"They can't just kick you out can they?" Patricia looked confused. "I mean, you haven't done anything."

"I am on scholarship, remember?" Nina answered tightly. "And if I violate the scholarship then yeah, they can just kick me out. And apparently I did."

"How?" Fabian frowned.

"My scholarship is foreign language based, and it says I need to take a certain number of credits each year to be renewed. I guess it also says that I need to assist with teaching one of the younger classes by my last year. Problem is, if I drop any of my classes I will not get enough credits and if I do not drop a class I cannot help teach a younger grade. So I am screwed either way." Nina's voice had been rising in pitch as she talked to the point where she sounded slightly hysterical by the time she finished.

"Why didn't you just help with a class before this year?" Joy asked innocently.

I was extremely grateful looks couldn't kill at that point, because if they could then the glare Nina turned on Joy probably would've disintegrated the British girl on the spot. "Oh, gee, why didn't I think of that?" Her voice dripped with sarcasm. "Because it wasn't on my scholarship before this year. But they switched over the summer and since I'm already on it Mr. Sweet expects me to adapt."

"Well how is that fair?" Alfie complained.

"It's not," Nina snapped. "And I don't expect it to be. He let slip that this was Victor's idea."

"What was my idea?" I gave a small jerk as our housemaster materialized in the doorway, his timing impeccable as always.

Nina's eyebrows rose and her mouth slightly opened the way it did when she started to panic and I quickly intervened. "It was your idea to use mandatory biweekly locker searches to make sure students don't have contraband. The other teachers shut you down though." I smiled confidently, even though I had no idea if what I had said was actually true or not.

Victor glared down his hooknose at me, one of his eyebrows raised suspiciously and I was reminded of a Professor Snape but without the noble intentions/tragic backstory. "I smell a rat. What are you miscreants up to?" he demanded.

"Don't know what you're taking about Victor," Alfie grinned cheekily. "Maybe you mean you smell a mouse, but I thought that infestation was all taken care of."

My inner Creep-o-Meter slowly ticked upwards as he scanned our faces, searching for signs of deceit. Ah Victor. Always so suspicious.

Whatever he was looking for, I guess he didn't find it because after a moment, still scowling, he turned and walked out of the room and everyone let out a collective breath.

"Come on Chosen One, what's the worst that can happen?"

It was five minutes to midnight, which was when the rest of Sibuna was supposed to meet us in the attic so we could explain everything, and Nina was freaking out. I was trying to convince her that now that we have the charm, the only nightmare they'll go through will be tonight's if any. She wasn't buying it.

"Maybe we should just call the whole thing off," she suggested, wringing her hands. "We can say it was a joke, or a prank, or we can just run back to our rooms and let them think it was Victor messing with them or something."

"OK, Nina? There is this wonderful little exercise I heard about that's supposed to be really good for calming down. It's called breathing. I want you to try it." She glared at me before sighing in exasperation. "Come on, try. Inhale. And, exhale. And inhale. And, exhale." I exaggerated my breathing, moving my hands back and forth as I did so but Nina didn't seem amused so I resorted to realist tactics. "OK, look. It's too late to call it off anyway. Worst case scenario: Victor finds out and shows up and somehow manages to ruin our school year. Best case scenario: Everyone shows up, Victor stays asleep in his vampire coffin, Sibuna gets back together and the world is saved. Or something."

Nina scoffed. "Or something," she muttered, ringing her hands.

I was about to try and calm her down again when footsteps creaked up the stairs and we both turned towards the door to see Amber, Patricia and Joy coming in. Nina dredged up a sorta-smile and offered a half-hearted wave, and we mostly stayed relatively silent until Alfie and Fabian showed up.

Without meaning to, the seven of us formed a sort of circle. From me and going left it was Nina, Fabian, Alfie, Amber, Joy and Patricia. Given how she'd started acting strange earlier, I was glad she'd chosen to sit next to me. There was a bit of an uncomfortable silence filling the attic, until Amber broke it by giving a delicate little cough. "So I don't know about the rest of you, but I got a Sibuna note in my locker telling me to come to the attic at midnight. Normally this implies someone has something to tell the rest of us, so if someone wants to just spit it out that'd be great."

Nina cleared her throat. "Right. Um, Eddie and I, left the notes for you guys."

Alfie clapped his hands excitedly. "I knew it! Joy you owe me five pounds." He might've said something else but Fabian not-so-subtly stepped on his foot, and I spoke while Alfie was busy glaring at him.

"Before anyone says anything else, there are a few things you guys should know." At this point I'd been standing for the past half an hour and my legs were killing me so I sat down on the floor, and the rest of them followed suit. I was secretly pleased, since it would've been extremely awkward if I were the only one sitting, but I had no intention of continuing to stand.

"This year, it's, it's different, than the last two," Nina fiddled with her locket as she stared at the floor, her voice coming out a bit strained. "Back then it was risky, but this time it's, it's torture, and I mean that literally. This person, if they're even a person, they're using, like, psychological warfare or something. Extremely effective, psychological warfare."

"Start from the beginning," Fabian advised, giving her arm a squeeze.

Nina nodded and took a breath. "The night before Eddie and I came back to England, I had a dream. And, in it, I got a book, and the person who gave it to me told me that, the dream watcher has gone rogue. And then when I woke up the next morning," she turned around and tugged it out of the bag she'd brought up with her. "The book was in my suitcase." She passed it around the circle and continued talking.

"And then first night back, Eddie and I had the same dream. Where this woman, um, kinda tried to kill me, by burying me alive. And then when I woke up, there was mud all over the bottom of my pajamas."

There were a few beats of silence as everyone absorbed this information and then Joy, ever the voice of logic piped up, "Couldn't you have just been sleepwalking?"

"We considered that," I jumped in. "But that's not it. We rigged the windows so we'd know if we climbed out those and took turns watching the front door. We also tried recording ourselves while we were asleep but the videos always just turned to snow."

"We don't know why, and we don't know how, but whatever this person makes happen to us in our dreams, some of it becomes reality by the time we wake up. Like this one night I nearly drowned, and then when I woke up me and my sheets were completely soaked," Nina still hadn't picked her eyes up off the floor, almost like she was afraid to look at the others. "For the first few weeks this is pretty much what happened every night. She'd come up with some new scenario to torture us with, we'd wake up right before we died, and some part of it crossed over with us. Eddie's still got some nasty burns from when she boiled him alive."

"You what?" Patricia's head snapped over to look at me, concern in her eyes. "Are you OK?"

"I'm fine," I assured her, and rolled up the sleeves of my bathrobe to show her the fading red splotches. "See? All better."

"Oh my God," murmured Joy as Patricia gently placed her fingers on the burn, before whipping them back to her side. "So is that it?" she asked.

Nina choked on a laugh. "Not even close." She explained how last week, the lady – who'd told us to call her Nepthys – had showed her how to charm the objects so we could control our dreams so that Lizard Lady couldn't fake kill us anymore, and how whenever we thought of her we were taken to this jail cell, with me jumping in to fill the blanks every so often.

"I didn't want to tell you guys because of how dangerous it got last year. And at least then we knew the rules. Now, we barely even know what's happening. We hardly even understand the basics, we don't even know what it is that we're trying to accomplish." Nina finally raised her eyes and looked around the circle. "But we're stuck. There's literally nothing in the room that points us to how to get out, and if we make the wrong choice then that's it, it's game over."

"We want it clear that if anyone doesn't want in, they don't have to be a part of this," I added. "They can stay out, no questions asked, no judgments made."

"What are you crazy?" demanded Amber. "These past few weeks I actually thought this might be a normal school year. It was terrifying. I'm in!"

"I'm in too," Fabian declared.

"Ditto." I looked over at Patricia as she announced her decision and about half of me was excited, but the other half was terrified. The same person who'd been torturing us could now go after her.

"If Amber's in I'm in," announced Alfie.

Six out of seven. We looked at Joy, waiting for her decision as she frowned, twisting her ponytail around her finger before sighing. "Oh screw it, I'm in."

Amber clapped her hands delightedly and raised her hand to her eye for the familiar Sibuna ritual. "Sibuna," everyone declared in response, copying the gesture.

"OK, hopefully you guys won't have any dreams come true tonight, but the sooner you're protected the better so tomorrow you need to decide on the object you want and bring it to me," Nina instructed, her voice partly ordering but mostly pleading. "Make sure it's something small and unnoticeable, but the most important thing is that it has to be something Victor can't reasonably confiscate."

"Wait is he involved in this?" Fabian asked. "You haven't really mentioned him."

I shrugged. "We don't know yet. It doesn't seem like it, but Nina said you've been wrong before. We figure better safe than sorry if he is."

They muttered in general agreement before Amber declared a need for beauty sleep and tugged Alfie back down with her. "I'll see you soon Nina," she whisper-called, before disappearing down the stairs. Patricia gave me a wave before following and it was all I could do to not chase after her. But whatever logic I had spoke up from the back of my head, and reminded me that whatever conversation we needed to have, midnight on a Wednesday with Victor down the hall and both of us exhausted was not the time to do it.

I saw Joy cast a longing glance at Fabian and Nina who were having an intense-looking conversation in hushed voices before she exited, and pretended to busy myself with flipping through the book while waiting for them to finish. I looked up just in time to see Fabian press a quick kiss to Nina's cheek and take his hands off her shoulders before following the rest, making us the only two left in the attic.

"So? We told them and the world didn't explode. You feeling OK?" Nina didn't move from her spot and for a second I thought she might not have heard the question, but then she shrugged.

"There's no turning back now is there?" she asked, turning around to face me.

I shook my head. "There never was."

Nina didn't respond and I shoved the book in the bag and handed it back to her. "Hey. Look at me." Her eyes gravitated upwards to lock onto mine as she swung the bag over her shoulder and I did my best to look confident. "They'll be fine. You need to relax." I pulled the bottle of sedatives out of my pocket, unscrewed the lid and tilted one into her palm. "Go to bed, Chosen One. You have that scheduling dilemma to figure out tomorrow."

She groaned. "Ugh. Don't remind me."

"Maybe it's a sign," I suggested. "While you try and get the scholarship thing fixed, the rest of us can worry about Nepthys and Lizard Lady." Her answer was a glare. "I'm just trying to look on the bright side," I defended myself.

"Bright side? You mean the bright side where I might get expelled and I just possibly put my friends in mortal danger?" she clapped and scowled, throwing in a sarcastic, "Yay!" for good measure.

I raised an eyebrow and Nina sighed. "I'm scared for them," she admitted. "I'm scared for all of us."

"I am too," I assured her. "But they know the risks. They'll be careful. Now come on, we need to get to bed. I don't know about you, but I'm still making up for more than a few nights of lost sleep."

I was rewarded for my weak attempt at a joke with a tight smile, and she gave me a hug before we headed over to the door. The stairs gave a slight creak as we walked down them but Nina managed to shut the attic door soundlessly. "Good night Eddie," she whispered as we passed her room.

"Good night Chosen One," I whispered back as she slipped inside.

I tiptoed through the hallway and back down the stairs, my shoulders tense until I slipped into my room with a sigh. I turned, expecting to be greeted with the sight of Fabian sleeping and was surprised to see him on his computer. "I'm sure whatever you're looking up will be there in the morning," I assured him, kicking off my socks and pulling back the covers.

He barely glanced at me before returning to his typing. "It's just research," he said a few seconds later, still intently focused on the screen. "You can go to bed, I'll be done soon."

Part of me – the nosy part – was curious to know what he was up to, but it was quickly shouted down by the rest of my brain, the part only capable of two words: Sleep. Now. I fell backwards onto the mattress and folded the covers over me, barely having the energy to pop Trudy's "borrowed" sleeping pill in my mouth. It wasn't like I stole it. I just refilled her prescription without her knowing, totally different. The only crime I committed was forging her signature, and I didn't even forge it I just cut it out of a note I had her sign excusing my tardiness when I stayed home to hide my burns. (She thought I had a fever.)

I closed my eyes, letting the dull tapping of Fabian's keyboard lull me to sleep, making sure to keep my mind completely blank as I wrapped my hand around the shark tooth in my pocket.

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