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Now those fingers held a black-and-gold fountain pen.

I took a deep breath.

How could I find something so mundane attractive?

I tried to look at the page to see what mysterious word he had come up with.

My goosebumps came back.

Chaos.

I stared at Miles, but he didn't look back at me, as if my gaze made him uncomfortable.

“Well, now that that's settled, what do we do next?” Larissa asked curiously, turning to Bayla, who took the notebook and carefully studied our names.

“How about breaking into the homes of the old members who are still alive? Maybe we should introduce ourselves directly with our new fancy names.” Everyone looked at Miles in confusion. “Or we could start with something small... A lab experiment, like Bayla's mother and Julie's father did.”

Miles didn't look at me this time, but the thought of the lab results messed me up inside, as it always did when I remembered them.

Why did it bother me at all? Why did it hit me so hard that Ruisangors and Senseque could never have families together?

The old Emely would have made fun of me now. But somewhere in the last three months, I had lost that Emely...

“Unfortunately, that's not possible.” Julie sounded frustrated. Her gaze was focused on the bookshelves. “First, we should learn about the town's real history and the roles of its inhabitants. About the knowledge that has been hidden from us all for far too long.”

Ardarroch

Angus MacRae

We had decided to start by studying the books, gathering information, and somehow making progress.

The idea of magic for everyone seemed a little suspicious to me, because supernatural powers were not meant for Senseque and Ruisangors, except that Legacy Ruisangors each had an individual gift.

Whatever Julie meant, my feelings were mixed, and the longer I spent time with the people in that room, the more I felt like a traitor.

Julian had managed to distract me from it. I had convinced myself to join in because of him, to keep him out of trouble. But now that he was gone, I was confronted with the fact that I was still here, making absurd plans with the others, and not because of Julian, but for completely different reasons.

I quickened my pace and chose a less well-lit corridor, even though it made no difference as the main building of the university was almost empty on the weekend. I just didn't want to bump into Harlow. Or my uncle.

Making the same mistake he had made, just to find out answers about his past, felt miserable. On top of that, I was now lying not only to my father, but also to him. For the first time, I was on my own and doing something I would probably regret bitterly.

“Emely.”

I froze.

We had all individually disappeared from the secret room within a three-minute interval. First Bayla, who was probably already waiting at the car, followed by Julie, and finally me...

I should have known he would follow me.

I had stopped, but I was afraid to turn around and actually see him.

“What do you want this time?”

I felt a cool breeze rush past me, and then he was standing in front of me.

Even though we were half a meter apart, he was much too close for comfort.

“That you're careful.”