Page 59 of Akarnae

She laughed again, her good humour returning now that her feet were back on solid ground. “Yes, Captain Obvious, I was, and I did.”

“But—but you’re here now.”

“So it would seem.”

Both of them continued to gape at her so she decided to go easy on them. “Let’s just get out of here and I’ll tell you what happened, okay?”

They nodded and she huffed in frustration before adding, “Butonlyif you start acting normal again. I’m perfectly fine, so stop looking at me like I’m about to disappear or something.”

That was apparently what they needed to hear, since they both relaxed and grinned at her. Jordan even gave her a mocking salute, and if she hadn’t been so relieved by their changed expressions, she might have kicked him. Instead she just said, “Let’s get going.”

“Um, about that…” Bear looked so guilty that Alex justknewshe wasn’t going to like his next words. “We might not have been completely truthful with you before about this being the exit.”

She closed her eyes and counted to ten before she spoke. “Whereisthe exit, then?”

“It’s sort of—uh—” Jordan hesitated, winced, and quickly finished, “—back where we started.”

As one, all three of them turned to look across the room.

No. Way.

“It was supposed to be fun,” Jordan added meekly.

Alex sighed. She couldn’t be angry with them. They’d only wanted to show her a good time. But she really was tired, and she had absolutely no desire to cross the room again. So, without knowing why or how, just simply that shecould, she placed her hand on the wall beside the torch andwilledan exit to appear.

She heard Jordan’s quiet “Wicked!” and Bear’s incredulous whistle when a door appeared out of nowhere, but she’d experienced one too many surprises already that day for her to truly appreciate what she’d just done.

It was almost a relief to find that the door opened into the great foyer of the Library—only almost, because standing in their path was the grizzly librarian.

“So,” he said by way of greeting. “It would appear you have indeed been Chosen.”

Alex nodded cautiously but didn’t say anything.

He pursed his lips and squinted at her through his glasses as if judging her worthiness. Whatever he saw must have been enough since he soon relaxed his posture. “Very well,” he said, and without another word he turned and hobbled back over to his desk.

“Right, then,” Alex said, breaking the strained silence as her friends continued to stare at her. “I need chocolate. Stat.”

After a quick visit to the Rec Room’s dining area, Alex followed the boys to their bedroom, where she ingested copious amounts of chocolate while telling them about everything that had happened to her. When she was done, silence descended.

“Wow. That’s just…wow.”

Alex looked at Jordan. “Crazy, right?”

He snatched up another chocolate bar—his sixth—and peeled back the wrapper before taking a bite. “Definitely. You’re a bit of a freak, you know. Why does all the weird stuff happen to you?”

His affectionate look took the sting out of his words, but still Alex frowned. She’d been wondering the same thing.

“I for one think this is totally awesome,” Bear said, leaning back on his bed. “Just think of all the possibilities!”

“Absolutely!” Jordan agreed, downing the rest of his chocolate and shoving the pile of empty wrappers off his blanket and onto the messy floor. “Imagine all the trouble we can get into!”

Alex suppressed a groan. “Don’t get ahead of yourselves,” she said. “We still don’t have any idea what all this Library stuff means.”

“What’s left to know?” Jordan asked. “The legend is real, the Library likes you, and you’ve been Chosen to share its secrets. Bear and me too, by extension. What do you reckon, mate?”

“That’s the gist I got,” Bear said. “Sounds pretty sweet to me!”

“I suppose…” Alex said, albeit hesitantly. Part of her was still wary, but there was another part of her, like Jordan and Bear, that was excited by the possibilities. “I’m never going into that hopscotch room again though, you hear me?”

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