Page 45 of Akarnae

“Bear’s right,” Jordan agreed. “He’d have to be blind not to be interested.”

Alex felt strangely uncomfortable at the turn in the conversation and had trouble making eye contact with either of her friends. Did they think about her like that? That would be so awkward.

“Chill out, Alex,” Jordan said, nudging her with his elbow. His amusement showed all over his face when he said, “I never took you for someone who would get embarrassed so easily.”

“You know we think of you like a sister, Alex,” Bear said, also clearly amused. “You better not get all weird around us just because we can agree that you’re—”

“Okay, this conversation issomoving along now,” Alex interrupted, feeling heat blossom across her cheeks. “We were talking about Aven, remember?”

Jordan nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. And there’s something you need to know about his ‘disappearing act’.”

“What’s that?”

“You can’t just use any old Bubbledoor to enter or leave the academy grounds,” Jordan said. “It has to have been authorised by a senior faculty member in order to get through the wards. This Aven guy couldn’t have Bubbled away without a regulated, legitimate Bubbledoor.”

“Plus, Jarvis told us that until they know what caused the Lockdown, academy security has been increased and the wards won’t allowanyoneto enter or leave the grounds without a faculty member,” Bear added. “Not until our holiday break in two weeks.”

“Just a precaution,” Jordan said, mimicking Jarvis. His tone emphasised just how unnecessary he thought the idea was.

Alex, however, was unsure. The more she thought about Aven, the more apprehensive she became. Uneasiness churned in her stomach and she wondered if she should let Jarvis or one of the other teachers know about his visit. But if he really was who he said he was, then there was nothing to report. So, she had to figure out if he was telling the truth first.

“Okay. Let’s work on what we can verify before we try to figure out the rest,” she said, redirecting the conversation. “We need to confirm his identity.”

“Did D.C. recognise him?” Bear asked.

Alex hesitated, wishing he’d asked a different question. After Aven had disappeared, Alex had asked D.C. if she’d seen him vanish, but the other girl had looked at her as if she was insane and claimed that there hadn’t been anyone else with Alex. Then, in true D.C. fashion, she’d stormed away while mumbling about Alex being a complete wacko.

“Uh… no,” Alex said, choosing not to share D.C.’s opinion. “She didn’t recognise him.”

“But he claimed to be alumni, right?” Jordan said. “So we can just look him up in the Archives. Every student who ever attended Akarnae is listed.”

Alex jumped to her feet. “Great! Let’s go!”

“Not so fast,” Jordan said, pulling Alex back onto the bed. “It’s already past curfew. We won’t be going anywhere tonight.”

Alex looked out the window into the dark and realised it was later than she’d thought.

Jordan must have noticed the disappointed look on her face, because he threw an arm over her shoulders and said, “First chance tomorrow we’ll go and have a look at the Archives. Promise.”

Stifling an unexpected yawn, Alex nodded. “It’s been a long day. I should get to bed.”

After saying goodnight to her friends, Alex headed up to her room, thankful that D.C. was nowhere to be seen. The last thing she wanted after the day she’d had was to deal with her hostile roommate.

She changed into her pyjamas and swallowed the medicine in the vials as per Fletcher’s instructions, before pulling back her blankets and sliding into bed.

Despite her exhaustion, she was excited about visiting the mysterious Archives. What little she’d heard about the place intrigued her, especially since she knew they could only be reached through the library—which was another place that had fascinated Alex ever since her first visit with Jordan during her second week at the academy.

Like everything else in Medora, the library was far from what she’d call ‘normal’. For one thing, it was located underground. Beneath the Tower, to be precise, which at least offered an explanation for the descending staircase in the medieval building.

The stairs led down to a foyer of sorts; a vast room that spread much further than should have been possible, lit with flaming torches and a huge chandelier which hung from the centre of the space. Paintings and tapestries decorated the walls, showing notable events, people and places from the course of Medoran history. The strange thing was, those paintings and tapestrieschangedat randomly timed intervals, which Jordan had claimed was because there was too much history to show for the artwork to remain stationary.

To Alex, it had been one of the weirdest things she’d ever seen. She’d been transfixed until Jordan had pulled her into the centre of the room to meet the librarian, a strange little man with mousey hair like a ball of fuzz on the top of his head and spectacles so thick with glass that his eyes goggled owlishly from behind them.

“I’m surprised to see you here, Miss Jennings,” the man had said to her. “I expected you much sooner than this, thinking you would be teeming with questions about your world and ours.”

Alex had gaped at him. “How do you know who I am?” she’d asked. “And where I’m from?”

He’d blinked at her with his enormous eyes. “I’m the librarian. It’s my job to know.”

---