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Alex shook her head in amazement, and she couldn’t help chuckling. Her chuckle turned into a laugh, and all the while Kaiden watched her with curious amusement.

“What’s so funny?”

“I can’t believe you shot him,” she said, still grinning. “I wish I’d seen that.”

“Maybe one day I’ll offer a repeat performance,” he said, winking.

Alex sobered at the thought of seeing Aven again in the future. For a moment she regretted her promise to ask for Kaiden’s help if needed, but at the same time she couldn’t denythe relief she felt at someone else knowing about the threat tainting her life. At least part of it, anyway.

“I can see them! Over there!”

Alex looked further up the hill and saw her classmates running in their direction. The sight of them safe and well almost brought her to tears after everything they’d all been through. When they were within arm’s reach, she and Kaiden were drawn into a group hug.

“Are you guys okay?” Pipsqueak asked when they broke apart. “We were so worried when we realised you weren’t with us! What happened?”

“Just a minor setback,” Kaiden assured them. “We’re both fine.”

“We’ll be even better when we get back to the academy,” Alex said in a pointed tone.

Everyone nodded in agreement and looked towards Samson, who rummaged through his bag and pulled out a handful of Bubbler vials.

“We’ll have to go through in two groups,” he said, “because my Bubblers are cheap knock-offs and they only have enough juice for five people at a time. No one else knows where we’re going, so I’ll have to come back and bring the second lot of you through as well. Good thing I’ve got a few of these vials handy.”

Good thing indeed, Alex thought suspiciously, beginning to question just how much of Samson’s imprisonment and subsequent rescue had been staged by Hunter. In hindsight, parts of it seemed a little too convenient to Alex’s mind, like the fact that she had unwittingly crossed paths with Aven yet again—an event that she was certain hadn’t occurred by accident, not on Hunter’s watch. What, exactly, had her SAS teacher been thinking?

Putting aside her questions for now, she watched Samson activate the first Bubbledoor and step through, followed by Blink, Pipsqueak, Skyla and Tom.

While the rest of them waited for him to return, Kaiden guided Declan a short distance away for a whispered conversation, hopefully asking him not to press Alex for details about Aven or Meya. Giving them some privacy, she turned back to Jordan and quickly found herself wrapped in his arms. He hugged her so tightly that she was in danger of suffocating for the second time that night.

“Alex, I was so scared,” he whispered in her ear.

She returned his fierce hug, having had first-hand experience—a few times over—of just how terrifying Aven could be.

“I really thought I’d lost you tonight,” Jordan continued. “And not just when you weren’t behind us coming out of the mansion, although that’s definitely something I never want to experience again. But when you fought Aven… I thought he was going to kill you. His eyes… I’ve never seen so much hatred.”

Alex frowned in confusion and pulled back to look at Jordan’s serious face, trying to read his features in the moonlight. “Wait a minute. Are you saying you were freaked out aboutme, not about Aven?”

At his nod, she gaped at him.

“Are you mad?” she asked. “What aboutyou? You were stuck in the same room the whole time! If anything, you were in way more danger. Aven needs me alive—at least for the moment— but he was more than willing to killyou. Especially after Signa read your thoughts about Meya.”

Jordan winced. “Sorry about that. I tried not to think about it, but the more I tried not to think about it, the more I thought about it.”

“Like the pink hippo,” Alex said, understanding.

Jordan looked bemused. “Huh?”

“You know, the pink hippo,” she repeated. Seeing his expression, she added, “When someone says, ‘Don’t think abouta pink hippopotamus’, what’s the first thing you think of? A pink hippopotamus.”

“Riiiight,” Jordan said. “I think it’s time we got you home.”

Alex definitely agreed with him, and Samson chose that moment to Bubble back to them. Without preamble, he smashed another vial and walked through it with Alex, Jordan, Kaiden and Declan following.

They landed in a dimly lit street and the moment they were all steady, Samson started leading them swiftly along the cobblestone pavement.

“Where are the others?” she asked, looking around. “And where are we?”

“Your friends are already waiting at my house,” he answered. “And we’re on the outskirts of a small town called Dupressa.”