“I’m glad you’re alldoingsomething,” Ava added. “This hospital room is getting really boring.”
“Maybe there’s something you can help us with,” Kallie suggested. “We’ve been researching as much as we can about the assassin story that Takahashi gave us, but I haven’t been able to draw any connections. Our library resources are limited, and we have to be really careful on the phone lines, so I haven’t contacted my parents yet. Do you have any other ideas on where to start?”
“I’ve obviously had a lot of time on my hands, so I’ve been doing my own research.” Ava sounded excited— like she was glad to have something to focus on other than her recovery. “I’ve read over the story dozens of times, but it’s written like a riddle. It’s hard to understand without context, but I’m thinking if we can just uncover one clue, we can unravel the story and make sense of it.”
Something rattled, and Ava continued. “My mother’s compass is supposed to help, so I was thinking you guys could take it and…”
She trailed off, sounding confused.
“What is it?” I asked.
“The compass…” Ava whispered. “It always spins around in a circle, like it can’t figure out which way to point, but it actually stopped this time. On Kallie.”
“Me?” Kallie took a few steps back.
“It’s still on you. Go over there,” Ava instructed.
Kallie walked to the other side of the room, and Ava hitched a breath. “It’s following you.”
“We already know that the story’s connected to Kallie in some way,” Marcus mused. “But the compass has never pointed to her before.”
“Maybe the compass isn’t pointing at me.” Kallie’s coat rustled. “It could be pointing tothis. It’s a family grimoire my mom gave me when she and my dad visited a few months ago, written by my grandfather. It was lost during the Malovian Revolution, but when the royal palace was rebuilt after the fae war was over, it was found in the rubble. I’m the third generation to own it. I guess the grimoire helped my mother establish her place on the throne. It’s very powerful.”
“Can I see?” Marcus asked. His footsteps sounded as he walked around the room.
“The needle’s following the book,” Ava said.
“That must mean our first clue is in my grimoire!” Kallie exclaimed.
Kallie and Marcus gathered closely around the bed. Pages rustled as they flipped through the book.
“There must be a spell in here that can help us…” Kallie theorized. “Wait, go back!”
Kallie must’ve taken the book from Marcus, because I heard the sound of pages flipping in her hands. “It’s got to be one of these,” she stated confidently. “The compass is pointing to this section of locator spells.”
“Marcus and I tried a locator spell,” I reminded her. “We only got vague visions. Even Ava’s compass can’t point to the keys.”
“We haven’t tried a fae spell yet,” Kallie said. “A strong spell might be able to lead us directly to the merfolk key.”
“Then why hasn’t the Warden used a fae spell?” I wondered.
“For one, he doesn’t have access to the right ones,” Kallie said. “The spells in this book belong to my family. My grandfather invented most of them. Two, the Warden’s not a demigod. That’s the only reason Marcus’ locator spell worked in the first place.”
“Your demigod powers are blocked by inferichite, though,” I pointed out.
“But the compass wants us to try it, so I say we forge onward,” Kallie suggested. “But… not here. We can’t get caught, and wedefinitelycan’t let the Warden find out I have this grimoire. If we can locate a key with this spell, so can he.”
“You guys should go to one of the abandoned cell blocks,” Ava said. “No one ever goes down there.”
“We’re not just going to pursue this without you,” I stated.
Ava sighed. “You’re going to have to. I’m not getting out of here for a few more days, and we’re not waiting that long. A nurse could come in at any moment. You have to go somewhere private to perform the spell. Kallie shouldn’t even have that grimoire out right now.”
Kallie quickly shoved it back into her coat. “We’ll let you know what we find.”
I reluctantly left Ava’s side. Part of me didn’t want to pursue any of this without her. Another part of me wanted to leave her out of this as much as possible, for her own safety.
We left the hospital and snuck toward the abandoned Cellblock 7. The hall was supposed to be locked down so students couldn’t get in here, but the locks had been broken a long time ago. We found an empty dorm room and ducked inside. Oberi kept close to my side as we gathered around Kallie’s grimoire.
