But he kept yanking at the knob, and nothing. He stopped and stood back, staring at it.
“Told you,” I said. “I already tried.”
He got under the desk and began knocking underneath. “It’s hollow,” he said.
“Let me see.” I got under the desk and lay on my back right next to him. Our shoulders touched; my hip rubbed up against him. He pressed a little closer, so I knew it was deliberate, and I felt butterflies in my stomach again.
“Try it now,” he said.
“Right.” I knocked on the desk. It did sound hollow. He smiled. I looked over at his mouth. Realized how close we were to each other. We hadn’t been together like this since the day Ayo walked in on us. I thought he was going to give me a quick kiss, but instead he scooted out from under the desk, leaving me feeling abandoned.
“How do we get into it, though?” He was focused on the drawer.
“Yeah,” I said. I tried to banish any thoughts of romance and get back to the immediate problem. I ran my hand all over, looking for a latch or handle or notch, something. “Wait!” I yelled. I felt a very small dip in the wood near the edge. It was too perfect to be an accidental chip.
“Did you find something?” Lucas knelt down near my feet.
“Feel right here,” I told him. He reached under the desk blindly. I grabbed his hand and directed it to the spot. “Right here,” I said.
His face lit up. “That’s it,” he said. He tried to pull from there, but nothing happened. “It’s like it needs a key or something.” He got up to search around for one.
I had an idea. “Actually, I think I might have it,” I said. I took out the coin I’d just found in the other desk.Found, or that was given to me,I thought. It didn’t seem like a coincidence. It was exactly the right size for the little notch. I lined it up and pushed.
There was a click.
“Ha! You did it!” Lucas yelled.
I crawled out from under the desk. Nix rushed over to join us. Lucas opened the hidden drawer. I was prepared to be disappointed again, as it looked empty at first, but then we saw it: a plain black book.
“Well? Open it,” Lucas said.
It felt sacrilegious, but I told myself this was my father’s. I had every right to open it, and I was just as anxious to see what it was. There was a folded piece of parchment stuck inside the front of the book. I unfolded it. “Just a sketch of some plants,” I said. Ugly ones at that. Ragged and pointy, with spiky thorns jutting out like somekind of nightmare dandelion, only less pretty. “Looks like a weed.” Biringan did a good job of keeping them out of gardens, because I’d never seen one.
Nix took the paper out of my hand and began examining it.
I turned pages. It seemed to be a journal. My father’s journal. I began reading—it wasn’t a personal diary; more like a record of something, sort of like a register. Lists. Sketches. I went back to the beginning.
I knew in my heart that, just like with the coin, finding this book had not been an accident; it was meant for me to have. Right as I was thinking that, Lucas pointed to a symbol drawn at the top of the page, a mermaid holding the sun. “The book is enchanted,” he said.
“By the mambabarang?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Not at all. This is protective magic.”
Meant to be hidden from anyone except the one it’s meant for,I thought, as if somehow I already knew about this enchantment. “Wait, how do you know it’s enchanted?”
“It’s my talent,” he said.
I stared at him. “Your talent is sensing spells?”
“No,” he said, looking me in the eye. “Sensing danger and hidden threats. This book can be used for evil.”
“Useful,” I said, breaking away from his gaze and looking down at the book, “for a knight.” I tried not to feel too jealous of his magic. Then something occurred to me. “Wait. Do you know what my father’s other talents were? I know he could command the seas, but I heard he could do other stuff as well. But no one’s ever mentioned it.”
“He was clairvoyant. He could commune across the veil,” Lucas told me.
“Like, talk to ancestors?”
“As far as I know. I don’t really know the specifics.”
