“What are you doing here?” Aaron demanded. Some of the light of battle was still in his eyes and he didn’t sound as kind as he usually did. They must have been really surprised when they saw that Call wasn’t alone — surprised and scared.

“Call was about to ask me out,” Celia said, confused and clearly upset. “Or at least I think he was. What are you all doing here? Why was everyone yelling?”

For a long moment, they were all quiet. Call had no idea how to explain any of this to her. Maybe I should just be honest, he thought. Sort of honest anyway. He didn’t have to tell her about the whole Captain Fishface angle. But, then, he realized, none of it made any sense without mentioning Captain Fishface. Still, he had to say something. She was his friend.

“The thing is that someone is trying —” Call started, his whole body flushing hot with embarrassment. He was sure that he was going to say something stupid and that Tamara was going to see him do it and make fun of him. He was sure Celia wasn’t going to understand.

“I came to ask you out,” Jasper said suddenly, loudly, breaking in on Call’s explanation. “That’s why I said ‘Stop right there.’ Because, uh, I wanted him to stop asking you out before I got a chance. Don’t go out with him! Go out with me.”

Aaron’s eyebrows shot up. Tamara made a choking sound. Call couldn’t believe his ears.

Celia looked at Jasper in surprise. “You like me?”

“Yes!” he said, a little wild-eyed. “I definitely do like you.”

Call remembered that when Jasper had asked Call if he liked Celia, he’d also said that maybe he wanted to ask her out. Did he? Or was he just trying to throw her off figuring out what was going on? Or was he trying to annoy Call? The last one seemed the most likely.

Celia cut her gaze to Call expectantly, as though he was supposed to say something or do something. He gazed back at her in total bafflement.

Finally, she sighed and turned to Jasper. “I’d love to go out with you,” she said.

“Well, I think we can all agree that that was a total bust,” Aaron said as they trudged back toward their rooms.

“Not for Jasper,” said Tamara, who, to Call’s annoyance, seemed to think the whole thing was a little funny. Actually a lot funny. She’d nearly exploded trying to keep herself from laughing after Celia had agreed to go out with Jasper. Call wasn’t sure who’d looked more nonplussed, him or Jasper, but Jasper recovered quickly and began telling Celia what a great time they were going to have at the Gallery.

At that point, Call had given up. He’d left the library. Aaron, Tamara, and Havoc scrambled after him.

Tamara was dancing along beside Havoc now, making him jump up to put his paws on her shoulders. “This is going to be the best date ever,” she said. “Jasper doesn’t know anything about girls. He’ll probably bring her a bouquet of eyeless fish.”

“It’s not going to be the best date ever!” Call snapped. “Jasper’s doing this to annoy me. He’ll probably be really mean to Celia. He’ll hurt her feelings, and it’ll be my fault.”

“Oh, for goodness sake, Call,” Tamara huffed. “He’s not going to be mean to Celia. Not everything is about you.”

“This is about me,” said Call.

“Maybe not.” There was an edge to Tamara’s voice. “Maybe he just likes Celia.”

“I think both of you are losing sight of the big picture here,” said Aaron as they rounded a corner where the corridor narrowed. “What if Celia’s the murderer?”

“What?” said Call.

“Well, she came when she knew you’d be alone in the library,” Aaron pointed out.

“To see if I was going to ask her out,” Call said.

“That’s her cover story. I bet she showed up and sensed something wasn’t right, so she bluffed.”

“Why would Celia want to kill Call?” Tamara demanded. They had reached their rooms, and she used her wristband to pop the door open. They went inside the dim living area. Havoc quickly leaped up on the sofa and stretched out luxuriantly, ready to sleep.

“Yeah,” Call said. “Why would she want to kill me?”

“She could be working for an organization,” Aaron replied stubbornly. “Look, Drew had a totally fictitious background. He wasn’t who he said he was. Master Rufus said there was a spy. She could be the spy.”

Call shook his head, unbuckling Miri from his belt and laying the knife down on the kitchen table. “Celia comes from an old magic family. She is who she says she is.”

“How do you know?” Aaron continued. “Just because she told you about some aunt doesn’t make it true. Or maybe the whole family supports the Enemy. Remember how you thought the note came from her? What if it did come from her? That’s a simpler explanation than anything else. Besides, if you could tell she was a spy, she wouldn’t be a very good spy, would she?”

“You might as well accuse Havoc of being a spy,” said Call. They all looked at Havoc. He was asleep, his tongue hanging down to the floor. As he slept, his feet paddled as if he were going after an imaginary duck.

“I’m not saying we should drag her in front of the Assembly right now,” Aaron said. “Just that we should keep an eye on her. In fact, we should keep an eye on anyone behaving weirdly.”

“Wanting Call to ask her out isn’t weird,” said Tamara, rubbing Havoc’s stomach. “Well, maybe a little weird, but not illegal.”

“Thanks,” said Call. “Thanks for the support.” He picked up Miri and headed toward his bedroom, then turned around in the doorway to look back at Aaron. “I’m going to sleep.”

“So am I.” Aaron crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m sleeping on the floor in front of your room. In case anything tries to attack in the night.”

Call slumped. “Do you have to?”

In answer, Aaron lay down on the floor in front of Call’s bedroom door, recrossed his arms over his chest, and shut his eyes. Havoc flopped down beside him.

Traitor, Call thought. With a sigh, he retreated into his bedroom, shutting his door firmly.

The room was lit with dim phosphorescent light. Call kicked his boots off and went to sit down on the bed. His leg was aching. He felt tired and dispirited and more annoyed about Celia and Jasper than he would have anticipated. He could see his own reflection in the wardrobe mirror. He looked tired. The room was full of shadows behind him.

Call froze.

One of the shadows was moving.

CALL WANTED TO scream. He knew he should scream, but surprise and terror robbed him of breath. The shadow moved again, uncoiling against the uneven rock of the ceiling. As it slithered closer to the phosphorescent moss, Call’s panicked hope that it was just a trick of the light was dashed.

It was a huge air elemental, whip-fast and insubstantial in places. It looked like an enormous eel from the deepest part of the ocean — if eels had huge, tooth-filled mouths on either side of their long bodies. It moved sluggishly, like dank, humid air at the edge of a storm.

“Aaron,” he tried to yell, but his voice came out as a whisper too soft to be heard by anyone but the elemental. One of its heads pulled away from the ceiling with a wet, sucking sound and dangled down toward him. Its mouth opened, and Call could see that despite being formed of ephemeral air, the thing had teeth that seemed very real and very sharp. The skin around its mouth was pulled back so that its maw was in a perpetual rictus grin. It looked like it was going to bite him in half and then laugh about it. It had no eyes, just indentations in its head.