As they wait for my decision, I ask, “Was this whole performance just for me? Should I be flattered?”
At least Zach and Trevor have the decency to drop their gazes to the table, but Tiffany meets my stare with her own. “You’rethe one who gave us an ultimatum.”
But I’m uninterested in her excuses, so I shift my gaze to Salma, whose brown eyes are soft with regret. “I’m sorry, Lore—”
“How could you ditch me like that?”My voice comes out louder than I expected.
She flinches like my words physically hurt. “We all discovered that place,” she says, her low voice contrasting with mine. “You can’t just decide that none of us gets to go.”
“So you lied to me?” Yet even as I say it, I feel my jaw tightening at my own hypocrisy.
“You were just so worked up about it—”
“We’ve known each other our whole lives, and you couldn’t trust that I had my reasons?”
“Which arewhat,exactly?” Tiffany butts in. “Why are you so dead set against us going back there?” When I don’t answer, she says, “I think you’re the one who’s not being honest.”
“About what?” I ask, my heart pounding harder.
“Whatever happened down there the other night.”
Salma, Zach, and Trevor watch me expectantly, like even they have their doubts. And more than anything, I want to warn them.
The wordvampireis on the tip of my tongue—
Buthecould be listening. Then not only will I be proving he can’t trust me, but I’ll be putting my friends in danger.
“Never mind,” I say, swallowing hard, and again I scan the hall in search of the vampire.
“Who are you looking for?” asks Tiffany. She’s like a reporter who’s just caught a whiff of a story.
“No one,” I say with a sharp shrug. “Are any of you going to tell me what was in the coffin?”
“Nothing,” says Salma with a long sigh, relief blowing out of her like a deflating balloon. “There wasn’t any trace of a corpse ever being inside.”
“Whatever the gimmick was, we couldn’t figure it out,” says Zach. “I went to the library and used one of the computers to search that encyclopedia database Minaro mentioned, but I couldn’t find anything about a tech powerful enough to stop digital cameras from recording images.”
“Is the plan to go back tonight?” I ask.
“Of course,” answers Trevor. “We even settled on a name for it: The Library of Unwritten Books—”
“LUB for short,” interjects Salma.
“—and we decided we’re not going to tell anyone about it.” Trevor looks at me like I’m supposed to say something.
“Zach and I are going to be the ones who break the story,” says Tiffany in a warning tone. As if I might scoop her.
“Whenever we figure out what the story is,” adds Zach.
“So are you in?” Trevor asks me.
The intensity of his gaze makes me think of the green book in his bag. He seems to be taking this library more seriously than the rest of us. Is it because of something he came across in that text?
“I’m in,” I say when I realize they’re all waiting on me. A smile splits Salma’s face that reminds me of the old Sal, pre-mourning. She brings a spoonful of granola to her mouth, and it looks like her appetite’s back.
“Attention, students.”
The director rises to her feet, and the hall quiets down.
