“Sure.”

I tried not to grin. It occurred to me that I must suffer from some form of schizophrenia, given how quickly my mood had gone from utterly depressed to happy. “Hey, I almost forgot. Were you able to hack into that website?”

He grimaced. “Not yet, but I’m still trying. It’s got a lot of security on it. I’ve got a sniffer in place though, so it’s just a matter of time. I’ll let you know as soon as I do.”

“Oh,” I said, wondering what the heck a sniffer was. “Sounds like a lot of work.”

He beamed at me. “Yeah, but I like it.”

We stayed down there for another half hour. We talked a little about the tomb in Eli’s dream, speculating whose it might be. For all her insistence that she was so much better than my mother at everything, I hadn’t learned any new tricks from Bethany. All we’d done was explore the tunnels surrounding the main chamber. Most of them only led to more tunnels. Except for one, which rose steadily upward for a long time, only to dead-end in front of a locked door so small it must’ve been designed for midgets or maybe overly large trash trolls.

After a while the discussion gave way to kissing then touching. His fingers left trails of tingly heat behind as he touched my arms, face, the sides of my breasts. My fingers did their own dance over his skin, enjoying the hardness of a body so different from my own. I was as eager to touch him as to be touched.

He moved closer to me, leaning me backward as he deepened the kiss until my head rested on the hard floor of the tunnel. It was uncomfortable, but I didn’t mind. I was too consumed with wanting to be close to him. And I knew he felt the same. Our interaction came naturally, without thought or awkwardness.

But as he moved on top of me, his weight pressing my backbone into the harsh ground, I came back to my senses and realized what I was doing. I pulled back from the kiss and gently pushed him away. I liked him a lot, but I wasn’t sure I was ready to go further. He resisted for a long, tense moment then moved off me. We sat up, both panting.

“Sorry,” I said, glancing at my watch. “But if I don’t get some sleep, I’ll never make it through my detention tonight.”

“’S okay,” he said. His lips were red from kissing and his cheeks flushed. I’d never been more attracted to him. If we’d been making out like that somewhere else, someplace with a comfortable surface, I wasn’t so sure I would’ve stopped him.

He stood and offered me his hand. “You want to be careful of Ms. Hardwick. Hags can be deceptively nasty.”

“So I’ve heard,” I said. And just like that, gloom drove all my happy thoughts away.

* * *

Trying to fall asleep at five o’clock on a Saturday was almost impossible. The girls in the dorm room next door liked to play their music full blast. Rather than lull me to sleep, the steady thump of the bass only made my head ache. By the time I did fall asleep, it seemed my alarm sounded a moment later. I slapped it off, feeling groggy and wishing I had some way out of this.

Dr. Hendershaw had sent me instructions to meet Ms. Hardwick in the foyer of Riker Hall. I dressed quickly and got down there with five minutes to spare. I waved at Frank and Igor when they turned their eyeless stares at me.

“Detention, boys,” I said. This seemed to satisfy them, and they turned their gazes back toward the front door.

Ms. Hardwick showed up ten minutes after midnight, appearing from the entrance to the tunnels. She ignored the knights completely and shouted in a sickly sweet voice, “Come on, girl. The night’s half gone already.”

I hurried toward her, relieved to see she wasn’t the horrible, misshapen old woman I’d expected. Instead she looked like someone’s little old grandmother in her pea green housedress and gray hair in an untidy bun. She was short and plump with chubby cheeks and small dark eyes that would’ve looked at home on a ferret.

Then she smiled and shattered the illusion completely. Her mouth contained far too many teeth. They were tiny and looked sharp enough to cut through raw meat in a single bite. I realized with a sickening feeling that this was probably exactly what they were designed to do.

“Um, are you Ms. Hardwick?” I asked.

“Yes, dear. Hurry. Right this way.”

Hardwick headed down the sloping path into the tunnels. It took every ounce of bravery I possessed to follow behind her. She scurried along down the corridor far too fast for someone who appeared so old. Definitely creepy, like how eerily fast spiders move. I kept glancing over at her as we walked, taking note of all the other things wrong with her appearance, like the greenish tinge to her skin.

“So, they tell me you are the one who put Fritz in the hospital,” Ms. Hardwick said.

“Um, yes, I did—but I didn’t do it on purpose or anything.”

“That’s all right, my dear. You can be honest with me. I daresay Fritz deserved it, the horrible little fairy.”

“Mmmm,” I said, unsure of what to make of this. She was acting like we were kindred spirits or something. I knew that Nightmares were often mistaken for hags in folklore, but we were very, very different creatures. A hag, free of The Will’s control, would make human flesh a regular meal, the younger the better. Nightmares only fed on dreams.

And souls, sometimes.

“So how is your mother?” said Hardwick, surprising me yet again. “I understand she’s teaching here now. Shame I haven’t bumped into her yet.”

“Uh-huh.” We were walking so fast, I was finding it hard to speak without panting. It would’ve been easier to jog, but I didn’t want to get outpaced by an old hag.