Page 66 of Monster's Mystery

I glanced down the other hall to where Aiden’s room was, but shook my head decisively. “I’ll see him soon enough. I should eat.”

Bruce was already sitting at our usual table, a bowl of oatmeal and an open book in front of him. By the time I joined him, he had closed the book. “Morning. Where’s Aiden?”

I blinked at him. “I assumed he was with you.”

“No.” Bruce frowned. “We hung out last night, but he was gone before I woke up. I assumed he’d given in and gone to your room in the middle of the night.”

I shook my head. “We were up until an embarrassingly early time, and nobody knocked on our door.”

“What time?” Bruce grinned. “One? Two?”

“Four,” I whispered.

“Wow. Lots to catch up on, I guess,” Bruce teased. “I woke up not much later than that.”

I stuck my tongue out at him. “Maybe Aiden went to his workout room. I’ll go check.”

“Great idea. I’ll check the library. We’ll meet in class.”

He got to his feet and I hurried to finish my cereal before running out the door.

Aiden’s workout room was in the basement, hidden down a corridor behind a tapestry near the regular gym. He’d brought me there the first time we’d had sex, and I understood why; it was the best place to test out how his fire affected me. He’d since realized that he didn’t actually burn anyone or anything unless he wanted to, which was a weight off his mind. Personally, I had never been concerned. I was his soulmate.

What kind of soulmate couldn’t be touched by their partner’s fire?

The corridor behind the tapestry was dark, but I didn’t need light to know where I was going. I could, and had, navigated the narrow hall with my eyes closed. Fortunately, Aiden had added me to his unlocking mechanism, and I was able to access his room.

Invisible lighting flared to life around the room. Everything was neat and tidy, and I could tell at a quick glance that the room was empty.

“Fuck,” I muttered, anxiety building inside me.

There was still a chance that Bruce had found him in the library, so I closed the door and hurried back down the corridor to the main hall.

I didn’t bother wasting time seeing if Bruce was still in the library; class was about to start.

I entered Professor Akhtar’s class with a few minutes to spare, scanning the faces of the students that were already present.

No Bruce.

He slipped in just as the professor was closing the door, his face grim.

My heart sank to my toes. Aiden was gone. I knew it.

The only hope I could hold onto was that he might be one of the students who returned near the end of the day.

Bruce sat beside me and leaned close to whisper, “No sign of him. Maybe he’s in your study room?”

It was possible. I’d keyed him into my room last year. “I’ll check after class,” I whispered back.

“Your star charts from the field trip to Easter Island are due tomorrow, so if you have any questions, there will be time at the end of class for you to compare your findings with your classmates and ask me any questions you might have,” the professor said, his hands moving sinuously at the same time as his speech. “The rest of the class will be dedicated to practicing Aquan sign language.”

I realized that he had been signing every word to us. Well, noteveryword, as Aquan didn’t have signs for the little words like prepositions and things.

“Get into groups of two or three and talk using only Aquan,” the professor said.

Bruce nodded at me and we put our heads together, hoping that nobody else would want to join us.

“After class, I’ll go check my study room,” I signed. “Where can you look?”

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