“I believe so. It’s here. Amalie brought it to the island, before she was captured and sent back to Malovia to be executed.”
Kallie’s face brightened up. “Still, I did find a clue… something Amalie left behind for her own reference before she was beheaded by King Minos. She burned it, but I can copy it. I need some paper, something to write with.”
Oberi hastily moved to give her the items she requested. Marcus and I clustered around the table as we watched Kallie draw, growing curious. She designed a set of lines, some strange depictions of monuments, and a curving path.
“What is it?” I asked, completely lost as she finished the work.
“It’s a treasure map,” Kallie said eagerly. “And it’s going to lead us right to the merfolk key.”
CHAPTERNINE
CHARLIE
Icouldn’t believe this. This was the biggest clue we’d received in weeks! This map could actually bring us straight to what we were looking for.
“What’s on it?” I asked curiously.
“It’s a map of the entire island,” Kallie described. “There are three clues to the merfolk key, and all of them are located on campus. The first spot on the map points to the siren lake.”
“Which the Warden is already searching,” Ava said glumly. She’d mentioned the guards were scanning the lake earlier this week. I couldn’t believe we were this far behind the Warden. “He has to know about that clue, at least.”
“What about the others?” I asked.
“The second location is somewhere in the middle of the school, but it’s hard to tell which hall. It could be one of the abandoned cell blocks,” Kallie stated. “The third is somewhere in the forest, on campus grounds. A line connects each dot, starting at the siren lake.”
“That probably means we have to go in chronological order,” Marcus noted. “Otherwise, the clues won’t make sense, and we’ll get confused on what they mean.”
“Which will slow us up,” Ava confirmed. “One piece leads to the next, and you can’t put together the mystery without receiving the whole picture.”
Marcus fidgeted beside me. “We’ve been gone awhile. We should go somewhere people can see us, so the Warden doesn’t send guards to search for us.”
“If he hasn’t already,” Kallie grumbled.
“Let’s check the lake,” Ava suggested. “We need to dive down there as quickly as we can.”
We hurried outside and to the campus grounds, but stopped dead in our tracks when we heard the sound of guards near the lake.
“The guards are still here,” Ava sneered.
“Fuck,” I growled, before I realized something. “Although, if he’s still looking, that means he hasn’t found whatever’s down there.”
“We better pray he doesn’t,” Marcus added. “Because until he gives up, we can’t go into the lake. We’ll be caught, and the Warden will take whatever we find.”
“Our only choice is to wait until the guards abandon the search,” Kallie said. “The last thing we want is to lead the Warden to the merfolk key. Sooner or later, he’s bound to give up.”
My guts twisted. “That’s if he doesn’t find it first.”
We had no choice. The Warden had already laid claim to siren lake, and there were too many guards to get past to investigate on our own. Without the clue to whatever was in the lake, we couldn’t be sure what we were looking for at the next two locations.
I was a bundle of nerves the rest of the day. I really wanted to pursue these clues and get the fuck out of here. I bet the asshole didn’t even know what he was searching for. He heardmerfolkand went to investigate the closest body of water he could find.
During our lunch break, I decided to head to Commissary for a drink to help calm my nerves. A group of inmates were discussing the war at a nearby table when I walked in.
“My parents said Midnighters swarmed a building in Chicago and were arrested by Union officials on-site,” a girl said. “They called themselves anti-war protestors.”
A guy scoffed. “Anti-war, my shiny dragon ass. They’re going to expose us all, which will lead to war with the humans. We all know how disastrous that can be. How is our magic going to withstand nukes?”
“We could take on the nukes,” another guy added. “The Union just wants us to be afraid so we don’t protest. I saw the news clip. The way they shoved these vampires into those vans, we’ll never hear from them again.”
