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Silence descended as her parents and Kaiden all looked at Alex with raised eyebrows.

“Well, whatever the case,” Rachel said brightly, “it’s wonderful to meet another alien like Darrius.”

Alex’s eyes bugged out. “Mum! Don’t call Kaiden an alien! Or Darrius! What’s the matter with you?”

“They’re from another world,” Rachel said, as if explaining something basic to a child. “That means they’re aliens.”

“Technically,we’refrom another world,” Alex corrected, wondering how, after all their worldly—andotherworldly—travels, they could be so culturally insensitive. It was a wonder they’d survived as long as they had and not been stoned to death by the natives at some ancient dig site or another. Then again, most of the people they dealt with were already buried, and the dead weren’t so quick to take offence.

Rachel tapped a finger against her lips. “You know what? You’re absolutely right.”

“I’ve always wanted to be an alien,” Jack said, sounding thrilled. “I can now officially put that on my résumé. I bet it’ll give me a slew of job opportunities. Can you imagine?”

Alex didn’t want to imagine. In fact, she didn’t want to imagine just about as much as she didn’t want to be there right now. And that was a lot.

“Are you going to introduce us properly to this young man you so staunchly defended?” Rachel asked, her eyes shining with parental glee.

Seeing her mother’s expression, Alex began backing away. “On second thought, I think I’ll come back later.Alone.”

She spun on her heel only to run straight into Kaiden.

Shaking with repressed laughter, he wrapped an arm around her waist and pivoted her back to face her parents, his strong grip compelling her to walk forward with him.

“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Jennings,” he said, reaching out to shake their hands. “I’m Kaiden James, a friend of Alex’s.”

Alex could have sworn her mother swooned a little at his polite introduction.

“Kaiden, son, a pleasure,” her father said. “But please, call us Jack and Rachel.”

With a smile that prompted Rachel to give an audible happy sigh—thus causing Alex no small amount of mortification—Kaiden nodded his agreement.

“Are you one of Alex’s classmates?” Rachel asked, looking between him and Alex—specifically where his arm was still wrapped snugly around her.

Alex tried to edge away from him, or at least untangle herself from his grip, but he only curled his arm tighter.

Ignoring the glare she sent him—though, his lips did give a hint of a twitch—he answered, “I’m a year above Alex but we do share a couple of classes.”

“Ah, yes,” Jack said, scratching his bristled chin. “I find it fascinating that half your curriculum is based strictly on your potential for a subject rather than your age or aptitude. It’s quite ingenious, really.”

“That’s how Alex and I met,” Kaiden said, sharing openly. “Her test results came back with a high potential for Combat so she ended up in the same class as me. And just between us”—he leaned in close to them as if divulging a secret—“she’s come a long way since the first day I saw her. For a while there, we thought she’d managed to cheat the potential test. But now she’s left us all in the dust.”

“That’s my little girl,” Jack said. “Beating up kids twice her size.”

“That should be your next Twitter handle,” Rachel said with a chuckle. But then she frowned. “Do they even have social media here?”

Alex pulled out her ComTCD and waved it for her parents. “No Internet, but they more than make up for it with other technology.”

Rachel and Jack both stared at the Device.

“Is that a cell phone?” Jack asked.

“Something like that,” Alex said, returning it to her pocket. “I’ll show you another time. But for now, why don’t you tell me why you asked to see me? It’s getting late and we need to get back to our dorm before curfew.”

What Alex said was true. While time stopped when they were in their Library lessons with Athora, the Ancient Egypt ‘room’ wasn’t one that remained frozen. The underground cavern, too, followed the normal physics of time, which is why they only used it as a come-and-go destination, rather than for the entirety of their lessons. Ever since Athora had left them, the clock had been ticking for Kaiden and Alex—something they both needed to keep an eye on.

“Mostly we just wanted to check in on you, sweetheart,” Rachel said. “Darrius stopped by the other day and filled us in on a few things, so we wanted to see for ourselves that you’re doing okay.”

Alex’s body stilled and Kaiden’s arm tightened further at her reaction.