Page 20 of Monster's Mystery

I didn’t mind. Next class was my favorite.

Professor Akhtar welcomed me with what almost passed as a smile, for him. “We need to meet today, to go over your duties as a TA. Please come to my office after classes this afternoon.”

I nodded and made a mental note. “I will see you then.”

Aiden and I found our seats in the front of the room this time. Not many people liked to sit near the front, as Akhtar had the habit of calling on the first row when nobody raised their hands. That wouldn’t be a problem for me. I loved participating.

“I hope everyone’s looking forward to taking things up a notch this year,” Professor Akhtar said, rubbing his hands together. “We’re going to be taking some field trips to particularly potent nexus points. Anyone have any guesses about where we might be going?”

My hand shot into the air. When he nodded at me, I said, “Cairo. It’s the closest.”

“True that it’s the closest. However, it’s also the most powerful. We’ll go there later in the semester. Anyone else?”

A few other students called out names of the biggest nexus points. We’d be visiting them all, according to the professor.

“Any others?” he asked, grinning.

It was strange to see.

“We will be visiting one of the smaller nexus points tomorrow. Be prepared for rain and mild weather. Any guesses?”

I searched my brain for a nexus point that fit that description. “Easter Island?” I guessed tentatively.

“Are you asking, or telling?”

I thought for a moment. “Well, there are several other nexus points in the southern hemisphere that could potentially fit, but this is the most prominent one. I’m asking, because there are other minor points that fit the description, but I’m hopeful because I’ve always wanted to go there.”

“Good answer,” he replied, nodding approval. “You are correct. We will be visiting some of the other less obvious nexus points and comparing them, but they will be more difficult to access. You will all have to pass the underwater testing by the end of September before we can use the underwater portals to those points. You will also need to brush up on your Aquan sign language so that we don’t cause an international incident. There will be a test in mid-September.” He glared around at the quiet room. “Well? Why aren’t you writing that down?”

There was a flurry of books as everyone rushed to open their planners and mark down the testing information.

“Good. Let’s review, starting with the standard greeting.”

CHAPTER6

My mind was buzzingwith excitement by lunchtime. My morning classes had so much new content to learn and I couldn’t wait to put it into practice.

“Do you know what spell you want to try to build?” Aiden asked me while we waited in line to get our food.

“I was thinking maybe a time spell to see where Hazel went,” I said. “You remember how we looked in Apollo’s mirror last year?”

Aiden’s jaw clenched. Of course he remembered. We’d seen his grandmother murdered in it.

I nodded. “But we had to knowwhereto look for that spell. I want to build one that will follow a person. Or maybe see where a person is now.”

“That’s a great idea, like a magical GPS,” he said in approval. “That could be very useful in missing-persons cases.”

“I thought so, too. I think I’ll stick with trying to find where a person is now. I think that could be more useful.” I chose pasta and a salad and put them on my tray.

“They’re both useful in different ways,” Aiden said. “Maybe work up both of them. They could tell you different information.”

I could see his point. “Yeah, all right.”

We found the table that the others had claimed for us and slid into seats between Lilia and Bruce.

“Any news?” I asked everyone.

They all shook their heads.

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