Page 34 of Akarnae

Alex’s eyes widened in realisation and she looked at Bear. “I can’t believe I forgot! I didn’t even think to ask for your help.”

Bear just grinned and said, “Don’t worry—there’s always next time.”

She nodded in agreement and continued to think about the possibilities as they stood and headed to Medical Science.

Professor Luranda spent the first half of the lesson droning on and on about the properties of Silver Cloverfoot, a beautiful—and deadly—purple and silver flower. Just when Alex thought she might drop off to sleep, an alarm sounded. It wasn’t the usual gong noise that signalled a class change or meal times. Instead it was a wailing, keening, high-pitched siren that caused Alex and her classmates to clutch their ears and cry out in confusion.

“Silence!” Professor Luranda shouted from the front of the room, her rainbow robe contrasting with her rapidly paling face.

Everyone froze at her command and all noise ceased until the only sound left was the screaming of the alarm.

Alex watched, ears ringing, as Luranda picked up her Communications Globe. It was a black, glassy sphere about the size of a tennis ball with swirling white mist inside. When Alex had first seen one in her History class, Bear had explained that the Globe allowed the academy staff to contact one another immediately in the case of emergencies. Sort of like an intercom or a phone, but with both visual and audio output. Plus, they all had built-in Bubbledoors for instant transportation to… somewhere.

Bubbledoors, Alex had learned early on, opened up wormholes that worked like teleportation devices. When she’d first heard about them, she had asked her friends why the headmaster couldn’t just use one to zip back to the academy and send her home. They hadn’t been able to answer her, other than to say that Marselle must have his reasons for staying away. Whatever those reasons were, Alex struggled to believe they were good enough to excuse his negligence, not when he could just come and go in the blink of an eye. Like everything else in Medora, his continued absence didn’t make any sense.

Luranda spoke quietly into the Globe with her back turned to the students. Over her shoulder Alex could see the faint outline of Jarvis’s face inside the swirling mist of the sphere.

Eventually the professor lowered the Globe and turned back to her students. “We are to wait here until further instructed.”

That’s it?Alex wondered. She knew better than to question the strict professor, but she shared a glance with Connor who was seated beside her and she could see he was thinking the same as her. What were they waiting for?

To her surprise, the professor didn’t continue teaching. Instead, Luranda took up a position next to the transparent door at the front of the room.

Alex leaned in to ask Connor about the purpose of the one-way visual doors. “Why are—?”

She stopped because two things happened. First, the siren ended, trailing off into a ringing silence. And second, the room instantly blackened.

Alex heard her classmates scraping their chairs away from their benches and standing. Once again there were exclamations of surprise, and in some cases, fear. While uneasy herself, Alex didn’t think it was wise to get up when she couldn’t see anything. They were in a medical laboratory, after all. The last thing she needed was to stumble in the dark and fall onto a scalpel.

A moment later the lights in the classroom came back on. Alex blinked away the stars in her vision and noticed that the corridor on the other side of the transparent door was still an inky black, thick and gritty.

“Please take your seats, students. There’s nothing to worry about,” Luranda said. “It’s just the Lockdown procedure.”

Her words weren’t convincing. Luranda was clearly anxious about something, and she continued to gaze out into the dark corridor.

Alex turned around to see how Jordan and Bear were faring, and she felt better when she saw them calmly reading their textbooks. She tried to get their attention, but they were too caught up in their work.

She turned back around to the front of the room before her brain registered what she’d seen and she snapped back to look at them again. Jordan and Bearneverdid schoolwork unasked.

Alex narrowed her eyes and peered closer at her friends. She gasped in surprise when, as Bear moved to turn a page of his book, she could seethroughhis arm to the wall behind him. Even the book was partly transparent.

Without thinking, Alex started to rise from her seat, but a hand pressed down on her shoulder and pushed her back onto her chair.

“Don’t move,” Jordan whispered in her ear.

He must have been using his gift, but she had no idea why—nor did she know how there was a semi-opaque copy of him doing homework up the back of the room. And she couldn’t ask, because Luranda chose that moment to take her eyes off the door and glance around her classroom, making sure everything was still in order.

Alex held her breath as the professor’s cool gaze swept over her. She could still feel Jordan’s hand on her shoulder and she prayed that Luranda wouldn’t notice her not-completely-solid friends up the back. She released her breath only when the older woman seemed satisfied enough to return her attention to the door.

Alex didn’t dare speak, but she pulled her paper close and wrote four words:

What are you doing?

It was the weirdest thing ever when her pen vanished and writing appeared on the paper, letter by letter.

INVESTIGATING. YOU COMING?

Alex kept her eyes facing the front of the room but gave a quick nod. There was no way she was going to miss out on whatever he had planned.

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