Page 37 of Akarnae

“Wait! Jordan!” she cried. “How can you see where you’re going?”

“I can’t,” he said, still moving her through the inky blackness. “But I don’t need to. The stairs are over here.”

Sure enough, a few steps more and Alex heard athunkwhen his foot collided with the staircase. He cursed quietly from the pain, before muttering out a grumbled, “Watch your step.”

With only those words for warning, Jordan continued to pull Alex forward, and she concentrated on stepping up the stairs without falling on her face.

They continued upwards for so long that Alex wondered if they were climbing to the moon. The darkness was so disillusioning that she felt as if they’d ascended much higher than the Tower stood.

“We’re almost there,” Jordan whispered as he finally led them onto a flat surface. “Just like our dorm rooms, Marselle’s office is warded against unidentified entry, so I won’t be able to use my gift to get us inside. But I should be able to get us into his antechamber. We might hear something from there.”

“Why do we want to get into the headmaster’s office?” Alex asked. “I thought we wanted to find Jarvis?”

“Jarvis will be in Marselle’s office,” Bear explained. “It’s the only way he could have communicated with the other teachers, since only the headmaster has primary access to all their Globes.”

“I’ll try and get us into the antechamber but, whatever you do, don’t let go of me,” Jordan said. “And don’t make any noise.”

Alex gripped his hand tighter when he started forward again. She felt the sucking sensation as they walked through a wall, and once more she found herself blinking stars from her shower-screened eyes as she adjusted to the light of the new room, one that must have also been separated from the Lockdown’s darkness.

“What’s taking so long?”

Alex nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of Karter’s voice, and Jordan squeezed her fingers in warning, reminding her to stay silent.

“When the Lockdown was activated, it shut down the Tower’s identification protocol. I have to reset the system before we can enter the room,” Doc said. He was standing beside a panel in the wall, fiddling with some wires. “I’m working as fast as I can, but please remember that I’m a historian. Technology doesn’t always agree with me.”

He seemed frazzled as he worked methodically at separating the wires and pressing buttons on the touch-screen panel.

“Take all the time you need, Doc,” Finn said in a tight voice, pacing near the doorway. “We’ll just wait here whilehewalks around the campus like he owns the place.”

“We don’t even know he’s behind this,” Doc murmured into the panel, casting a quick, anxious glance towards the door of the antechamber. “And besides, it’s not like he could get very far out there, anyway,” he added, tilting his head towards the inky blackness shown through yet another transparent door.

“Bah!” Finn grunted, aiming a kick at the wall. “That’s just what he’d want us to think! Not that it even matters—we all know what he’s here for. I don’t see why Jarvis called us up here when we should be out there stopping him, especially since this Lockdown is just making his job easier! I say we should just go and get the—”

“Might I recommend we continue this conversation when we’re certain no one else is listening?”

Alex hadn’t realised anyone else was in the room and she turned so fast that her neck cricked. Leaning against the wall on the other side of the chamber was a man she’d never seen before. He was very handsome, in a rugged kind of way, with dark hair and a strong jawline showing a hint of stubble. He was dressed all in black, with a cape similar to the shimmering one that Caspar Lennox always wore. A dagger was belted to his waist, but Alex doubted it was the only weapon he carried. Despite his relaxed position, he looked…dangerous.

And he was staring straight at her.

“You can never be too careful,” the man added, his dark eyes locked onto hers.

She shivered and gripped Jordan’s hand hard enough to cause bruising.

“Calm down, Ghost.” Finn waved his hand at the other man dismissively. “There’s no one here but us.”

“Hunter’s right, Finn,” Karter said, his eyes darting around the room. “We should watch what we say until we know what’s going on.”

Finn mumbled to himself but it was clear he was outvoted so he slumped against the wall to wait.

The silence was unbearable. The dangerous man—Hunter? Ghost?—still hadn’t taken his eyes off Alex. She could feel sweat beading on her forehead and she was sure everyone could hear her frantic heartbeat. She squeezed hard on Jordan’s hand again, hoping he would get the message that they needed to get out of there.

Before he could respond, Alex was pushed back as the room began filling with people who literally appeared out of thin air. All of her teachers arrived within seconds, along with some other people Alex had seen around the campus but didn’t know.

She pressed herself closer to the wall when everyone in the cramped room began speaking at once.

“What’s happening—”

“Is it—”

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