Page 85 of Monster's Mystery

“Oh. Well, I don’t expect to find anything else quite this outlandish!” Hazel shook her head. “But then, what do I know? I’m hoping Professor Calderwood will have some thoughts.” She bit her lip. “If he’s still willing to have me after I missed a full week of school.”

“If he doesn’t, he will be missing out,” I said, trying to reassure her. “He hasn’t picked a replacement, as far as I know.”

“That’s comforting,” she replied. “Come on, I’ll introduce you to the siblings.”

“They’re all related?” I asked, eyebrows rising in surprise. “I thought I had explored that angle when I was searching for them!”

“Oh, no. It’s just what I’ve been calling them. Since they’re all of beast blood, you know.”

“Oh, right, the spell.”

We ventured back into the main common room, and Hazel introduced me to everyone.

“Geoffrey!” I greeted him cheerfully. “I’m so relieved to see you. I was worried about you, after Paige’s insinuations and then your disappearance.”

“Hello, Siobhan,” he replied quietly. “I know it wasn’t the best timing, but Bruce needed my help. I’m glad I was able to be of service in waking his wife from her death-like slumber.”

“He had quite a task, finding enough people willing to help him,” I said. I shivered. I couldn’t imagine going through all of this alone. Aiden caught my eye from across the room and I felt resolve trickle down my spine.

But I would do it for him.

A thousand times over.

“What are you all doing up there?” Bruce called up from the lab. “Don’t you want to get back to school?”

“No!” shouted some of the siblings, prompting the others to laugh.

“Coming!” I shouted down.

Eagerly, I took Aiden’s hand and we rejoined the happy couple.

“How are you feeling?” I asked Clarissa, who was standing encircled in Bruce’s arms.

“Like I just woke up from a long nap,” she replied with a rueful smile. “Bruce wants me checked over by the school’s healer, and I agree with him, but I couldn’t feel any better.”

“Are you ready to be hit by time shock?” Lincoln asked.

Clarissa wrinkled her nose. “Is anyone ever ready for that?”

“I wasn’t,” Bruce admitted. He opened the door. “Follow me, single file, please.”

“Can I grab my notes?” Hazel asked.

“We’ll come back,” Bruce promised. “I believe Siobhan has a meeting with Professor Dunlop at seven. It’s five minutes past, and he doesn’t like being kept waiting.”

“Oh!” I exclaimed, eyes wide. “I completely forgot about that! It feels like forever ago that I met with him.”

“Time passes differently in the tree,” Bruce said.

“Seriously?” I asked.

“Only a tiny time dilation effect. Every minute that passes in the real world is about a second.”

“Whoa. Something to do with shrinking?” I asked. “I didn’t notice it at Jim and Everly’s place.”

“Actually, it has more to do with the distance from the spell on their door,” Bruce explained. “The closer to the initial spell, the less dilation there is. But we’re quite far from it, so we felt it more.”

“How did that affect the growth of the golden spirit tree?” I asked, concerned. “The timeline seemed to match with the spell you told us.”

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