Chapter 61

JUNE.

I stare at the file in my hand and continue to type, my eyes barely reading Miss Hera’s penmanship.

I didn’t sleep well the night before. My eyes are tired, and my brain is still processing what happened for the past week. From the arrest to the aftermath… it’s all just too much to process in a day. A lot of things have helped, of course. But sometimes I can’t help but zone out and think if it’s all real. If it’s really the end of the disappearances.

If the doctor really is the only one who does it, or if there are more of them lurking around....

The door suddenly opens and I flinch. I look around and see Tiffany and Nancy walking inside. It's such a weird combo that I can't help but hold down what feels like a hysterical laugh.

Tiffany looks like she wants to disappear into thin air, but Nancy is just looking all floaty and out of it, which is pretty much the standard for her.

But they seem to have a common goal when they walk in. Tiffany basically pushes Nancy out of the way and heads to me, looking around to check if Miss Hera is out of the picture.

"She's not here," I tell her. "She's up there at the school, so you can come in. Just try to leave before she gets back."

"Good, because I don't have plans to stay," Tiffany mutters, shooting a pitying glance at Nancy who just plops on the nearest chair. "Well, they distributed arrangement plans for the school trip. We will all be staying in a cabin near the beach, and the girls have to share rooms. There should be four of us in a room. I listed you and me... and Nancy wants to join."

"Well, that's good!" I say, smiling at Nancy who smiles back. "It would be really nice to share a room with you. We're missing one person, though. And Tiff, won't you be staying with your other friends?"

She sighs. "No. I don't want to share a room with them. Last time we did it, we got busted because Mallory brought in a boy... but that doesn't matter. Who's the fourth one we're going to add?"

"I told you, Amelie would be really happy to be included," Nancy says in a timid voice. "Put her name on there and I will submit the papers soon."

Tiffany looks at me like she's asking for help. I don't know if I've ever seen her and Amelie interact, but I guess it would still be so weird seeing them in a room together. I can tell Tiffany is not comfortable with this, but she seems determined to share a room with me.

I can't help but feel touched. I don't want to keep making her uncomfortable, especially on the school trip, but I have no other friends. Besides, she and Amelie might just get along.

"Amelie is a good person," I tell Tiffany. "We can put her there. And if you can't get along with her, I'm sure she would be happy to leave you alone. So no loss there."

"Ugh, fine," she mutters, taking out the sheet of paper and listing Amelie's name on there. "This is one week from now, so I guess we don't have a choice. All done. You can go submit it now, Nancy."

"Actually, I need to talk to June for a moment," she says. "Can you do it for us?"

Tiffany looks like she will explode. She probably can't believe that Nancy has the audacity to ask her to do something. I want to laugh at her expression, but she just obediently leaves.

Once alone, Nancy leans close to me and says, "The first trial would be this weekend, for the doctor man."

"How did you know?" I ask. But I'm getting fed up with asking her this same thing over and over. First with the morgue and now with this. However, what's more tiring is her aversion every single time. "Nancy, please. Just tell me: how do you know all these things?"

But it's as if she didn't hear anything. "If you want to come, tell me. I will send you the meeting place. Seven can come this time too. He's one of the good ones."

"What do you mean by that?" I ask, but she's already getting up. "Nancy!"

But Nancy doesn't answer. She just gets up and goes, leaving me wondering if I can trust her.

* * *

SEVEN.

The darkness is unbelievably thick, and even though I've been here for fifteen minutes now, my eyes don't seem to be adjusting. It's almost artificial, the darkness.

The maze is massive. The walls are tall. I can tell because I tried to reach up and find the end of it but I couldn't. It's sprawling underground like a network of tunnels that ants call their home, spanning miles beyond me.

I don't even know where the others are. We seem to just find our own way the moment we get in and I find that strange. But I know that it's way too late to back out now, and all I can do is try to find my way out of here, even though I can't be the first.

This is way harder than I thought.

I take a couple more steps forward, and I almost stagger forward when I find that the ground in front of me is open. I look down, feeling the path with my hands, and I find that I nearly walked into a pit full of snakes.

"Is the Headmaster planning to kill his students?" I ask Astro in exasperation. "Who puts snakes in a pit for a challenge?"

"Apparently, he does," Astro just says. "The darkness is a spell. It can only be broken with fire."

I don't know if he's implying something with that, but I just move on, turning a corner and going down the left path when I encounter a fork. I don't know where this is all leading. Perhaps to another trap. But at this point it doesn't really matter.

I swerve into another corner, and this time something gets triggered by the little string under my feet and a couple of spiders drop onto my head. I brush them off, looking around and feeling little legs on my shoes. I figure someone has already been here and set the trap first.

I just pick off the spiders and move on.

It's getting darker and darker now, and I'm getting more frustrated by the second. I don't know how much time has passed but I do feel that I'm close to the exit. I'm just following the breeze, the soft calling of the wind that tells me the end is near.

I can tell it's approaching. I can feel it. But for some reason, the darkness is just getting thicker and thicker. At this point, it already feels like fog. The things that Astro said are making a comeback in my head, and I'm tempted, but I don’t know how.

I take a deep breath, holding out my hand and imagining how it looked with the fire dancing in my fingertips. I imagine the heat and the smoke and the power of it all, all coming from me. All not affecting me. All of it reserved just for me, undoable for everyone else.....

That's when it happens. Something ignites. Power and energy swirl from my chest and travel all the way down to my arm, to the very tips of my fingers. Heat and sparks flutter on my palm until in one go, something appears.

A white-hot flame that incinerated the fog of darkness around me and gave me a perfect view of the path in front of me.

I can see the exit now. It's only a few paces away.

But just as I'm about to walk, an apparition solidifies in front of me. The woman in that silk dress again. The one who takes on the form of June but never quite gets it right.

She smiles at me, blocking my way. She's exuding darkness, as fast as my flame burns them away. She touches my hand, the one that holds the flame, and she extinguishes it in one go before coming close to my face.

"The Crown is beneath your feet," she whispers, her voice way too loud in the cavern, echoing in my ears and bouncing in my head like a rogue ball. "Listen to the earth and it will tell you. You came so close once, and you will come close again. You shall be there when it finally hatches, and the Crown shall make you King."

Nothing about that makes sense, and the panic in my chest is too much for me to act calm now. The darkness continues to wrap around me as the woman disappears, and I ignite the fire once again.

Only to find myself miraculously on the exit.

Professor Venetia is already there, as well as Amelie and Vlad. I don't know which one of them finished the challenge first but it doesn't matter. They're all staring at the flame in my hand with an expression of fear.

"A fire wielder," Amelie manages to say at last. "You... you're a fire wielder, Seven."

I extinguish the flame like they would forget what they have seen once it's gone. But as expected, none of their expressions are changing.

Professor Venetia clears his throat. "It must be an omen. A sign from the gods."

"Or a warning," Vlad whispers, his expression twisting into an unknown expression. "Maybe it would make you King, or the force behind the disaster that would burn the world."