Akarnae (20 page)

That seemed to spring them into action, and without another word they quickly—but carefully—made their way over to her, looking up every so often as if to make sure that their eyes weren’t playing tricks on them.

They reached her in record time and she felt the breath leave her as first Jordan and then Bear enveloped her in a crushing hug.

“H-how—?” Bear stammered.

“It’s a long story,” she said. It was true, for while only seconds had passed for her friends, much more time had passed for her.

“But, you were over there,” Jordan said, pointing to the centre of the room where the ominous black square had yet to change colour. “And you fell.”

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, “But
only
if 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 just
knew
she 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. “Where
is
the 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 she
could
, she placed her hand on the wall beside the torch and
willed
an 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?”

Both boys nodded and Bear pointed out, “It wouldn’t matter anyway since you could just make another door appear.”

“I have no idea how I did that, so let’s not count on it happening again.”

“The look on the librarian’s face…” Jordan snorted, before mimicking the little man, “
Very well.
”

They burst out laughing at his impersonation and when they were calm again Bear asked, “So, when do we get to have our first Library adventure?”

Alex thought for a moment before saying, “I want to solve this Aven mystery first. Can you guys wait until the weekend? That gives me four more days. I’m sure I’ll find something by then.”

They hid their disappointment well—if Jordan’s pout and Bear’s sigh could be considered hidden expressions.

“The patience will be good for you,” Alex said, yawning. “All that chocolate has made me sleepy. Or maybe it was everything else that happened. Either way, I need to crash.”

She stood up and headed to the door, only turning around to say, “Don’t forget, you can’t tell anyone about the Library.”

“You can count on us,” Jordan promised, waving her out of their room.

Eighteen

It took all week, but
by Saturday morning Alex had finished searching through all of the yearbooks from the previous fifteen years. She was sure Aven couldn’t have been older than that, but still she’d found no trace of him anywhere.

The more she thought about it, the more Alex was convinced to just leave it alone. She might not ever see him again anyway, and for some strange reason, that made her feel oddly disappointed. There had just been
something
about him; something so… appealing. Half of her had been enamoured, and the other half… repulsed.

There was something else about him, too. Something not quite right. Alex remembered feeling the need to please him, to do whatever he asked of her. She’d never felt so compelled, so
tempted
, before in her life. Even just thinking about it made her skin crawl, so she resolutely decided to let go of the entire Aven issue. It was time to move on.

“Hey, Alex!” Jordan called out as he jogged over to her.

She was sitting underneath her favourite tree by the lake, enjoying the beautiful day and attempting to clear her head. So far, no such luck, so she was glad for the distraction. “What’s up, Jordan?”

He took a seat beside her. “What are you doing for Kaldoras?”

“Kaldoras?” The foreign word triggered a memory of Darrius telling her about the Library and the upcoming annual
holiday. “It’s sort of like Christmas, right?” At Jordan’s blank look, she mumbled, “Never mind.”

Sometimes Alex found it easy to forget she was in a whole new world. And with everything else going on, she had failed to remember that there was only a week left until classes were suspended for the break. She definitely wasn’t looking forward to what was sure to be a lonely holiday, since most of the other students were leaving to visit their families. Added to that, it was also the first time ever that Alex wouldn’t be with her parents for Christmas, and she felt sad just thinking about that.

“I’ll be staying here,” she said, trying not to sound too miserable about it. “It’ll be a good chance to catch up on homework.” Eugh. What an awful prospect.

“How ’bout an alternative?” Bear said, appearing from behind them and sprawling onto the ground. “I was just talking to Mum and she told me to bring you home with us for the holidays. Ordered, more like. Once Mum starts insisting, you really don’t get much of a say in the matter.”

“I couldn’t possibly,” Alex said, though she was touched by Bear’s offer. “Kaldoras is for family time, or so I presume.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Bear said. “We always have heaps of people over to celebrate. It’s not so much family time as it is a global event—especially with Gammy’s cooking.”

Alex still wasn’t sure until Bear added, “And besides, Jordan’s coming too, so it’s not just my family.”

“You’re going?” Alex asked Jordan.

“Sure am,” he answered, as if it was a silly question. “Ever since I met Bear, I’ve spent Kaldoras with his family.”

“How come?”

“My folks are always busy around the holidays,” he said, sounding slightly bitter. “Fundraisers, royal galas, charity balls… the whole socialite shebang.”

Her eyes widened. “Your parents are socialites?”

“For lack of a better word,” he mumbled, not meeting her eyes.

Alex was curious and she found it difficult not to ask more questions. But she could tell that it was a sore subject, so she didn’t press him.

“In any case, I always meet up with them at the New Year’s Eve Gala,” Jordan said, as if there had been no interruption. “My parents like to parade me around like a peacock, gushing over how
talented
I am and how
proud
they are.”

He paused before continuing in a quiet voice, “Three hundred and sixty-four days of the year they hardly know I exist. And then, for just one day, they act like I’m the centre of their universe.”

“Jordan…” Alex didn’t know what to say, so she just placed her hand on his arm.

He smiled, but it was half-hearted at best. “Don’t worry, Alex. I’m used to it.”

“And there are benefits,” Bear said, plucking a blade of grass and shredding it between his fingers. “The Gala is the biggest New Year’s event amongst the upper classes. Blackmail certainly has its perks.”

Jordan saw Alex’s confusion and he smiled again—a proper smile this time. “A few years ago I told my folks that if they wanted to drag me along to play the ‘happy family’ charade, then they had to let me bring whoever I wanted with me. Bear has come with me every year since and, unless you have any objections, I’ll be dragging you along this year as well.”

Kaldoras at Bear’s house with her two best friends, and a New Year’s Eve party. Alex’s holiday was certainly looking up.

“Now,” Jordan said, his eyes sparkling with anticipation, “I could be wrong, but I think someone promised us we’d check out the Library this weekend?”

“You know, where I come from, most teenage guys avoid libraries,” Alex said. “If you’re not careful, people might start to think you’ve become nerds.”

“Hey, now,” Bear said, feigning hurt. “We prefer the term ‘library folk’. It’s much less derogatory.”

Alex and Jordan stared at him, before all three of them cracked up laughing.

“
Library folk?
” Jordan gasped out. “Where did you pull that one from?”

“I don’t know,” Bear said. “Must just be my superior wit.”

Alex sent him a sidelong glance. “That’s it exactly.”

“Well,” Jordan said, composing himself. “Let’s go and be
library folk
, shall we?”

It was only when they entered the foyer that they realised they had no idea where to start.

“Can’t you make another door appear or something?” Jordan asked.

“I told you,” Alex said, “I have no idea how I did that the first time. It was probably just a fluke.”

“You said that you just
knew
you could do it, right?” Bear asked. “Why don’t we wander around and see if you feel something similar again?”

It was a logical suggestion, but Alex felt uncomfortable walking around and staring at the portraits and tapestries while waiting for something—anything—to happen.