I looked around and it was utter chaos. Elliot and Petros weren’t knocking people out of giving them wedgies, but they pantsed at least three people and tripped everyone else they took flags from.
Lucian picked me up and zoomed me behind a tree while Liam screamed about cheating. Once all of us were hiding, Lucian got out his tech and connected it to the phone.
“How long will it take?” I asked.
Because we knew they didn’t stay dead, but we didn’t know how long it took them to come back. We also healed faster than humans, so I didn’t know how long they’d stay unconscious.
“It’s just downloading texts, call logs, and photos since that’s all this phone can do. It depends on how many there are, but it shouldn’t take the whole class. The camera on these phones suck, so I wouldn’t imagine they’d take any with it, so that should cut down on the time.”
It probably didn’t take nearly as long as it felt, but eventually Lucian disconnected the tech and said he had everything. Assoon as we stepped away from the tree, Elliot and Petros were there to take our flags. And somehow, Petros stole the phone back from Lucian.
“I’ll make sure this gets back to her. We won since none of you have a flag. Adriandidn’tdie again, so Ivar can’t get mad at us. Thanks, this was fun. Even if there’s nothing on the phone, I feelloadsbetter,” Petros said.
“We’re going to keep giving Edwin public service wedgies until he gets better taste in friends,” Elliot said.
Well, none of us won the contest with the flags and got any points towards the lottery. My team was ahead by a lot because Lucian had so many points to start and Professor Kane really liked Khalid.
But I wasdyingto know what was on Lola’s burner phone.
Lucian took one look at the texts and flung his phone across the room. The only reason it didn’t break was because he had some kind of military-grade protection case on it that even held up to vampire strength. And if Lucian was visibly upset enough to show it, then something was really wrong.
“What is it?” Khalid asked.
“Her burner phone does emojis. There’s nothing we can read. Everything is in emoji. I’ve got no idea what it says.”
“Mate, the only emoji you shouldn’t know is the squid emoji.”
“What does the squid mean?” Khalid asked.
Liam just smiled mysteriously and mimed zipping his lips. Did we really do all that for nothing? I sighed and plopped on the bed. The phone was supposed to tell us everything.
“It makes sense,” Mazen said. “Apep wrote in hieroglyphs. He would have taught them to Hemlock. Radames and Lola are both awake, so, technically, they should remember them. They are both eighteen or nineteen years old, so emojis are more familiar to them. They just used emojis like hieroglyphs.”
“Does anyone know hieroglyphs?” Ivar asked, glaring at Mazen like he was supposed to know.
Mazen was brilliant, just more in a street-smart way. He told us he knew so much about Egyptian gods because he was trying to get away from gang life and got a job setting up exhibits at one of the museums. He said it was just lifting heavy shit, but he paid attention because he found it interesting. I doubt he knew ancient languages. I wasn’t even all that sure Khalid did, and he seemed to know everything.
“We learn languages in school in Egypt, but not ancient ones. The only people I know that might know Egyptian hieroglyphs are Headmaster Mykene and Professor Kane,” Khalid said.
“Well,Ihappen to be a master of emojis. Haven’t you seen the group texts?” Liam asked.
“I blocked you after you kept adding me back,” Lucian drawled. “You kept sending me eggplants, tacos, and smiley faces with devil horns and I thought you were hangry.”
“I wastryingto get an orgy started, you Muppet.”
“Then you should just say that. I thought you were expecting me to be your servant and steal from the kitchen.”
“Oh, hon,” Liam said.
“Let Liam try,” I said, handing him the device Lucian downloaded everything to.
Liam turned the whole thing upside down and stared at it for a minute. I really hoped he could do something because we had nothing.
“First off, this phone only has messages between two people and they go back two years and mostly stopped after they got here. We know the Egyptian school has everything this one does in terms of pools and has been closed for renovations for a few years,” Liam said.
“I looked around for people like me when I got kidnapped and woke up in a room full of white people,” Mazen said. “It was just Radames and Khalid. Khalid looked just as freaked out as I did, but Radames seemed perfectly calm. After we talked a bit, I thought it was just because his father was strict and he didn’t show emotions, but if he and Lola somehow found the Egyptian school and fully explored it, he probably knew exactly what was happening.”
“If they got there after the school was cleared of students, but before they moved anything out to start, it would have been clear it wasn’t a normal school. Most people want to hop in for a dip when they see a hot spring,” Liam said.
