She hated Night School and all of Cimmeria’s darker side. She’d tried to convince Allie not to join. But the library was her favourite place in the world and, to her, Eloise was the library. Allie knew emphasising the librarian’s plight would help convince her to get involved, but she felt like a traitor for doing it.
This was everything Rachel loathed about the school and Allie was taking her right into the middle of it.
Quickly Allie told her what had happened last night – the knife in the wall. Nathaniel. Gabe. When she explained that somebody at the school was helping them, Rachel made a choking sound and half turned away.
‘I was so afraid of that,’ she said after a second. ‘Something my dad said a while ago clued me in that it could be one of us. Who do they think it is?’
Allie held her gaze. ‘Right now? They think it’s Eloise.’
Curling her hands into fists, Rachel swore quietly. Allie couldn’t remember her ever using a couple of those words before.
‘The thing is, we’re pretty sure it’s not her,’ she continued. ‘But we need your help to prove it. Rach, I know how much you hate this stuff but… will you help me?’
For a long moment, Rachel didn’t speak. When she looked up, her almond-shaped eyes were dark with worry.
‘What do you need me to do?’
The rest was easy.
Allie insisted Zoe be included because even though she was young she was also fast and smart. Best of all, she was innocuous – she could slip in and out of a room without anybody noticing. Nobody paid attention to a kid.
Nicole did her part – bringing Carter and Sylvain into the group.
When Jules’ name came up in her discussion with Nicole, Allie shook her head. She just couldn’t deal with the Carter–Jules love-nest right now.
And Nicole, to her surprise, refused Lucas without explanation.
‘I don’t want him in the team,’ she’d said when pressed.
‘Come on, Nicole,’ Allie had said. ‘He’s Rachel’s boyfriend. He’s safe.’
But Nicole just shook her head and Allie had to drop it. No Lucas.
So that was the group: six people to find the spy Cimmeria’s best instructors had failed to locate.
The first step was simple enough. They were to meet at midnight in the crypt beneath the girls’ dorm.
After that things would get harder.
At three minutes to midnight, Allie tapped sharply on the wall separating her room from Rachel’s. After a pause, one faint tap came back.
Time to go.
Her door swung open without a sound. Slipping out, she closed it with an expert flick of her wrist. The click as the latch caught was almost imperceptible.
The long, narrow corridor was empty and dark. Rachel’s door was shut tight.
Clutching her torch in one hand, Allie bounced on her toes impatiently, careful not to make a sound. ‘Come on, Rach…’ she whispered under her breath.
For a few endless seconds nothing happened. Then Rachel’s door opened with a creak.
She emerged slowly, her reluctance clear in every movement. Her eyes were downcast, her shoulders slumped.
Allie knew how much Rachel didn’t want to do this but she willed her to do it anyway – she needed her.
Tilting her head to indicate Rachel should follow her, Allie headed down the hall without a word. The heating had been turned down and the building groaned and clicked around them as it settled into the cold winter night.
The door near the end of the corridor looked like an ordinary utility closet but swung open to reveal one of the old servants’ staircases hidden within Cimmeria’s walls. In Victorian times, this would have been how housemaids slipped around the building to perform their chores unseen. Now they were largely forgotten.
A cool draught blew through the open door, making the hairs on Allie’s arms stand on end. After a glance over her shoulder to make sure Rachel was with her, she switched on her torch and headed down.
Four storeys lower, the narrow, winding, stone staircase deposited them in a large, low-ceilinged space. The limestone floors and walls acted like a refrigerator – it was freezing. It was also empty. And it shouldn’t be.
Allie’s hackles rose. Something was wrong.
She swung her torch around the room – the beam illuminating ghostly stone columns bearing the marks of ancient chisels, like scratches made by claws.
A shuffling noise arose behind them, as if the light had awakened something.
Allie whirled, pulling Rachel behind her and dropping into a low, defensive crouch, holding her torch like a truncheon.
‘This is so awesome,’ Zoe whispered, turning on her torch. ‘Best idea ever.’
Allie sagged, the adrenaline flooding out of her. ‘Bloody hell, Zoe. Why didn’t you say something earlier? You scared me to death.’
‘Hi, Allie. I’m here. Right where you told me to be.’ Zoe’s cheerful tone segued swiftly into alarm. ‘Blimey, Rachel, you don’t look so good. Maybe you should sit down.’
Looking back, Allie saw that Rachel’s complexion had gone an odd pale green.
‘Rachel!’
‘Totally fine,’ Rachel insisted, wobbling.
Taking her arm, Allie navigated her towards a dusty crate. ‘Let’s sit you down. You look like you’re going to be sick.’
‘Just… startled.’ Rachel’s voice was faint. ‘Thought we were dead. Nothing major.’
‘Put your head between your knees,’ Zoe ordered.
‘What’s wrong with Rachel?’ Sylvain emerged from a corridor as nothing more than a bright torch beam with a French accent.
‘Zoe scared us.’ Allie glared at the younger girl accusingly. ‘Rachel had a heart attack.’
‘Not a heart attack, exactly,’ Rachel murmured, her voice muffled as her face was still pressed against her knees. ‘But my life did flash before my eyes. I’m really sorry about Robert Peterson.’
They all stared at her.
‘Who’s Robert Peterson?’ Allie and Zoe asked at the same time.
‘I know him,’ Nicole said, ducking through the same doorway Allie and Rachel had just used. ‘He was in my physics class last year. A super student with very thick spectacles.’
‘I kissed him once,’ Rachel said. ‘He slobbered.’
‘Gross,’ Zoe said, looking repulsed.
Nicole just shrugged. ‘And yet you are alive.’
‘Somehow,’ Rachel conceded.
‘Where’s Carter?’ Nicole asked looking around the vault-like space.
‘I’m here.’ They all turned as Carter’s torch appeared through the corridor, gradually brightening as he neared them. Allie pointed her torch at him until they could see the shape of his body in the dark.
‘Then we are all present.’ Nicole’s voice was solemn. ‘Let’s begin.’
FIFTEEN
They gathered in a circle on the dusty floor. The only light came from their torches. It occurred to Allie they looked as if they should be playing a party game – ‘I Never’ or ‘Spin the Bottle’.
But this was a very different kind of game.
Looking around the circle of familiar faces watching her expectantly, she knew they wanted the same things she did. Answers. Resolution. Justice.
She couldn’t give them that.
‘You all know why we’re here.’ Her voice echoed off the cold stone walls. ‘After what happened last night, I –’ With a glance at Nicole she corrected herself. ‘Nicole and I – we don’t think Isabelle and the others are on the right track. We want to figure out who the spy really is. So we’ve mapped out where everyone was when all the stuff happened.’ The others looked at her expectantly. ‘We still don’t know who the spy is. But we think we know who it isn’t.’