I strain to hear the scrape of claws, or even the rush of footsteps, butthere’s nothing. Just the unnatural, creepy silence of the empty school. Seems like the berserkr disappeared as soon asAmundshowed up.
I pull my arm free of his grip. Before Amund can grab me again, I push past him and break out into a run. I don’t care what he says. I have to get out of here. I sprint down the hall, shoving through the double doors—
Only to end up right back where I started.
Amund stands there, arms folded across his chest. “Apparently, you’re not going anywhere. Neither of us is.”
CHAPTER TWENTYAMUND
Edith runs away, her white hair bouncing as she sprints down the hall toward the double doors. She bursts through them—and is standing at the start of the hallway again.
“How is this even possible?” she cries, throwing up her hands.
“We walked right into a trap,” I tell her. “This hallway must be cursed, turning it into an endless loop.”
Our voices shatter the silence. I can’t shake the feeling that we’ve intruded in a place we do not belong. Where perhapsno onebelongs.
Edith pouts. “Why?”
I try not to stare at her lips. “If I had to guess… to torture us. The spirits must want to trap others like they’re trapped in this school.”
“Great.”
“We have to figure out a way to break the loop,” I tell her, scanning the hall for anything that might be a clue. This place once belonged to the seers, so there might be magic here I don’t understand. Maybe they didn’t either. After all, they caused the Tragedy thirty years ago. Even the air here is thicker, heavier, weighing down on my shoulders. It feelswrong.
Edith takes off again.
She disappears down the hall, only to reappear where she started, but this time she doesn’t stop. She keeps running, breezing past me. Once. Twice. A muscle in my jaw ticks. How can I figure anything out like this?
“What are you doing?” I ask her.
“Maybe if I go fast enough,” Edith says, running past me, “I can get out.”
“I said we need to break the loop.”
“Well, running is how I gotintothis loop. Maybe it’s how I can escape, too.” She continues down the hall.
“Stop,” I say. “It clearly isn’t working.”
But Edith won’t listen.
As she runs by this time, I grab her arm. “Enough. You’re just going to tire yourself out.”
“I can keep going,” Edith says, a sheen of sweat covering her skin. “I did track in my old school.”
I clear my throat. I already know that from her file. “That isn’t how we’re going to get out.”
“How then?” Edith looks around us. “I can’t just stand still and do nothing.”
“I don’t know.” I fold my arms across my chest. “But if we want to make it out of here, we’re going to have to cooperate.”
“For all I know,you’rethe reason this happened,” Edith practically snarls. “If you weren’t following me, then maybe—”
“Iwouldn’t have been trapped here,” I finish for her. “But you still would be. And the fact of the matter is, we’re both trapped here now whether we like it or not. So if we want to get out, we need to work together.”
Edith gives a frustrated huff.
“Okay, what do you have in mind, then?”
