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Caspar Lennox looked at her steadily and continued, more quietly than before, “Sometimes the Shadow can overwhelm us. The power it offers… The temptation can be too strong to resist. If we yield to it, it’s almost impossible to return to the Light. Unless there’s someone willing to help us find our way back.”

Alex was well and truly confused, finding herself with more questions than answers. But before she could figure out what to ask the professor, he snapped his head to the side as if he’d heard an unexpected noise in the room.

“Remember my words, Alexandra,” he said, rising from his seat with the ever-present cloud of shadows swirling around his feet. “Remember my warning.”

When she continued to look at him in bewilderment, he added a firm, “You’re dismissed.”

She had little choice but to leave, despite the fact that she didn’t know why he’d asked her to remain behind in the first place.

“What was that about?” Jordan asked when she met her friends in the food court for dinner a few minutes later.

“I have no idea,” Alex said, shaking her head in bemusement.

“Huh,” Jordan hummed, but he let the subject drop, probably sensing her confusion.

“Any chance you can help me with my Chem assignment, Bear?” D.C. asked their friend, pulling some broccoli from her stir-fry and wrinkling her nose at the vegetable. “I don’t get what Fitzy wants me to do with the Gorgonite. Is it supposed to react in water or in the air? Or just when it’s heated up?”

“I finished that assignment a few days ago,” Jordan jumped in before Bear could answer. “I can help if you want?”

Alex looked at Bear to find him glancing back at her with an equally knowing—and amused—look on his face. In their eyes, Jordan wassoobvious. But, amazingly, D.C. seemed oblivious to his increasing attention of late.

At first, Jordan had kept his intentions subtle. He’d walked D.C. to class, asked her to hang out with him in the Rec Room, and offered to study with her in the Library—as un-Jordan-like as that was. But lately he’d stepped up his game, much to Alex and Bear’s entertainment.

“You don’t mind?” D.C. asked, looking at him from under her eyelashes.

Alex hid a smile and wondered if perhaps her roommate knew exactly what Jordan was doing. What a conniving little…princess. Alex almost laughed out loud at the idea of D.C. knowing all about Jordan’s infatuation. Because that meant she wasn’t discouraging him—which in turn meant she, just possibly, reciprocated his feelings.

Alex could already imagine their cute little strawberry-blond children frolicking around the palace years into the future.

“What are you thinking about, Alex? You have a weird look on your face.”

She coughed awkwardly and said, “Uh, I was just thinking about… cheese.”

Cheese? Really?

“You know, mozzarella,” she added, seeing their disbelieving expressions. “It tastes so great. All stretchy and… uh… flavoursome. Like rubber.”

To add emphasis to her nonsensical words, she picked up the slice of pizza in front of her and bit into it, “mmmm-ing” as she chewed.

“Right,” D.C. said, looking at her strangely. “Anyway…”

Alex was relieved when they returned to their conversation and the attention left her again. She swallowed her mouthful and glanced up to catch Bear’s twinkling eyes. He probably knew exactly what she’d been thinking—most likely because he’d been thinking the same thing. She mock-glared at him, and his grin widened.

“All right, enough Chemistry,” Bear said a few minutes later, and Alex nearly choked on her food at his double meaning. “Let’s talk about Kaldoras.”

“What’s to say?” Jordan asked. “I can’t wait for Gammy’s apple pie.”

Alex felt her mouth watering in anticipation. Bear’s grandmother made the best food Alex had ever tasted. When she’d stayed with the Ronnigans last Kaldoras, she’d been introduced to Gammy’s famous apple pie—and she could honestly say it was too incredible for words.

“I spoke with Mum yesterday and she asked me to confirm you’re all coming back to Woodhaven with me,” Bear said.

“You know I’m in, mate,” Jordan said, shoving a meatball into his mouth and swallowing quickly. “There’s no place I’d rather be.”

“Me too,” Alex agreed, mentally replaying a recent discussion she’d had with her parents about the upcoming holiday.

Alex had been visiting her mother and father at least once a month to check in on them, and thankfully they rarely asked any in-depth questions about what they referred to as her ‘elf problem’. It seemed they were content to accept that Akarnae was the best place she could be. Alex, for her part, had decided she was better off not updating them on her latest encounters with Aven, instead opting for the ‘what they don’t know, won’t hurt them’ mentality.

During their most recent visit she had asked if they were okay with her spending the holidays with Bear’s familyagain. It turned out that her parents were anticipating being up to their elbows in what they’d discovered to be fossilised bat guano—the Library was scarily well detailed with its depiction of the ancient Freyan ecosystem—so Alex’s mother and father had accepted her request to stay with her friends for Kaldoras. She was beyond relieved, given that the alternative was for her to spend the Christmas-equivalent buried alongside them in long-dead animal droppings.Thanks, but no thanks.