Page 77 of Heart of Thieves

“No.” I shake my head. “We need as many of us in the game as possible. We’re going to the library.”

Soren frowns. “I still think it’s the Star Society.”

“The library fits everything in the clue,” Lola says. “The Star Society has no connection with the two hundred laps thing.”

Soren shoves away from the group and stalks toward the wall, cursing. “Fine, but if you’re wrong, don’t look my way.”

“I swear to you, I’m not wrong,” Lola mutters as she, Jade, Arden, Isla, and I follow him.

“We’ll have to catch a cab. The university is across town,” I point out, grabbing two more pastries and wrapping them in parchment paper before stuffing them in my pocket.

“How are you not sick?” Lola asks. “You’ve eaten at least thirty of those.”

“I am a man of many talents,” I say as we pass through the wall.

Reclaiming corporeality in the shadows, we jog to the end of the alleyway and cross out to the nearest street.

“Do you see a taxi?” I ask, looking up and down the street for any sign of the sleek black cabs that clog this block during the day.

Arden frowns. “They’re probably already carting other players to wherever they think the enclosure is.”

I sigh. “Right. So we run?”

“We run,” Lola agrees.

“I hate running,” Jade mumbles.

I pull off three rings and hand one to each of them. “Those are full of strength. Fresh. We’ll run a lot faster that way.”

They slip them on, and we take off down the street, angling toward northeast downtown, where the University of Aethera’s sprawling campus awaits.

It takes far longer than I’d like for us to reach the university’s campus, even with my rings. The clock tower juts out above the school’s bell tower, its long hand only minutes away from the twelve as we leap over stone benches and duck under the leaning branches of the campus’s old oak trees.

The University of Aethera is one of my favorite locations. While the rest of the city is bustling—its buildings growing ever taller with each passing year, its streets clogged with motorcars and people, its air thick with exhaust billowing in from the factory sector—this campus is a place trapped in time. A world of old stone buildings, ancient zenithic cathedrals turned into study halls, and trees whose branches embrace like lovers.

My father and mother met here long ago when they were both studying theology. As I dart through the shadows cast by the old abbey turned liberal arts building, I imagine my mother perched on one of these benches with an Odelion open on her lap.

The clock begins to toll as we dash up the library steps. With a shout, I launch myself at my Tentacles, thrusting Lola and Jade through the front doors. We topple onto the old marble tile before the bells finish chiming.

As the final one rings, a wall of impermeable shadow rises outside the library, and I gasp, watching it through the still-open door.

“I told you,” Lola heaves, leaning against the wall, panting.

“Yeah, well, good thing Enzo doesn’t give a shit what anyone besides you thinks, or we’d be in trouble,” Soren mutters.

I whip around. “Want to repeat that, Soren?”

He grinds his teeth, then shakes his head. “Sorry. I’m just tired.”

“We don’t speak like that to one another.” I jab a finger in his face. “Ever.”

He fumes, eyes boring into mine just like they did yesterday morning when he discovered Lola had been sneaking out alone. “Won’t happen again.”

“It had better not.”

“What do we do next?” Isla asks, gathering her false blond tresses off her neck and fanning at the sweat glistening there. “We’ve got eight hours to find our way out.”

“We could split up. Look for clues,” Lola suggests quietly, avoiding Soren’s eye.