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Iwalked out to find Genie waiting, midway through a tense conversation with Nathan. He shot up like I’d caught him doing something wrong. Genie jumped up with him and threw her arms around me.

“Persie! Thank Chaos, are you okay?” She clung to me and I held her back.

Meanwhile, Nathan scrambled to get a pile of books together. He made an awkward bow in our direction before disappearing into Victoria’s office. The door closed behind him with an ominous thud. I wanted to warn him that I’d unintentionally thrown him to the lions, but Victoria hadn’t seemed remotely surprised by Nathan’s involvement. I hoped she’d go easy on him. She’d said he was a nice “lad,” after all.

“Well, I’m not expelled.” I mustered a stilted laugh. “But we’ve got work to do.”

She pulled away. “We do?”

“Oh, yes, and we’re starting with the engineering lab.” I led her away by the arm, filling her in on the way. “So, you see the predicament here. We’ve got to beat the hunters, and that calls for puzzle boxes.”

“If you downplayed it to Victoria, how many pixies are we actually talking about?” She eyed me with a glimmer of approval, and a hint of “I’m not going to like this, am I?”

I pretended to count on my fingers. “Maybe thirty to forty.”

“Holy crap, Persie!” She clamped her hand over her mouth, eyes bugging. “That means… we need to catch, like, three dozen?!”

“Something like that.” I dragged her faster through the halls. By now, everyone would have dispersed from engineering. They were probably in the common areas or their bedrooms, having a long old gossip about how unsuitable I was to be a student here. They’d have to vent their energy somewhere now that Victoria had put the Institute into a loose version of lockdown, with no classes for the foreseeable future. At least it would make my classmates easier to avoid. I just hoped Naomi had hung around so we could ask her for some puzzle boxes. After dodging an expulsion, I didn’t feel like sliding back into the firing line for stealing.

“Let me get this straight.” Genie strode along beside me, our arms still linked. “While the Institute is investigating Xanthippe’s disappearance and the potential connection to your ankle-biters, we’re going on a mission of our own to try and catch as many pixies as possible? Aren’t we just doing the same thing as the hunters?”

I shook my head. “Nope. We’re going to get the pixies to help us.”

She spun me around and put her palm to my forehead. “Are you feeling okay? Do you need to sit down and take a few minutes? I think you’ve lost the plot.”

“This is the only way,” I insisted, removing her hand and continuing down the corridor. “They can sneak into places that we can’t. They might’ve seen something nobody else did. And, on the off chance that they did this, I can hopefully persuade them to come clean and show us where Xanthippe is.”

“Is this about the dream? Don’t get me wrong, I see why it’d frighten the crap out of you. But if Victoria didn’t expel you or anything, then maybe everything’s peachy. She’ll just give her hunters a piece of her mind for not watching you when they were supposed to, and that’ll be that.”

It’s not enough. I pressed on, as determined in my stride as I was in my mind. Clearing the pixies of Xanthippe’s disappearance might have been the one thing that could stop the whole Institute from looking at me like a ticking timebomb. Victoria had not been unsympathetic, but if enough people pressured her to get rid of me, maybe there would come a time when she had to buckle to keep the peace. If I could nip that in the bud, then I could get on with the training I came here for.

I glanced at my friend. “I just want the blame to fall on the right culprit, that’s all. And I want to try and get Xanthippe back with the pixies’ help, to show that they’re not a threat… and neither am I.”

“Aye, aye, captain.” She pretended to salute, seemingly satisfied. Weirdly, it used to be me who went along with her madcap schemes. Now the tables had turned, and she was once again demonstrating why she was my best friend.

Ringleader or accomplice, here she stood, at my side, ready for anything.

The halls lay eerily empty on our speed-walk to the engineering lab, our footsteps echoing loudly, as if a gang of people were following us. I had to look back a few times, just to make sure we were alone. I listened to the percussion of our footsteps until we reached Naomi’s gadget sanctuary.

“Ms. Hiraku, are you in here?” The lab appeared to be as unoccupied as the rest of the Institute, the room miraculously cleared of any evidence that there had ever been a class.

Without the clutter, I saw more of the lab as a whole. Shelves filled with gleaming metal devices, and jars with vividly colored powders and liquids inside. At the back of the room was a diorama of sorts, showing the evolution of the Repository orbs. I imagined, since they used a lot of Atlantean technology, that the Institute’s engineers had melded the old glass-box tech with new knowledge to make the orbs they had today. Away to one side, I spotted one of Naomi’s Omnispheres in a state of mechanical undress, connected to a beeping machine with red and green wires.

An abrupt bump, followed by a sharp “ow,” cut through the silence. Naomi popped up from beneath her workbench like a cartoon gopher, rubbing her head. “Girls. Didn’t you hear Ms. Jules? Classes are canceled until further notice.” She winced, trying to squint up at her head injury. “Honestly, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with myself. I know, I know, teachers are meant to daydream about snow days and vacation days, but I like to be busy! I don’t like things quiet.”

I leaned against one of the workbenches. “We know, we just came by to talk about something.”

“You did?!” She looked incredibly relieved.

Genie chuckled as she came to stand beside me. “What were you doing down there?”

“Cleaning. I thought I’d make a start. It’s spring, after all.” She scurried off to an old tin kettle, which she, rather alarmingly, put on top of a tripod and lit a Bunsen burner underneath. Even in tea-making, she was a scientist to the core. Then she set about preparing three mugs and three elegant, painted ceramic strainers for the tea leaves. I wasn’t much of a tea drinker myself, but I wasn’t about to turn it down, under the circumstances. “Now, what can I do for you lovely ladies?”

Genie and I exchanged a conspiratorial glance before I answered. “Could you show us how the puzzle boxes work, again?”

“Absolutely!” She checked her vintage wristwatch—a rose gold face with a blush leather strap. “In exactly… thirty-eight seconds. Oh, and make sure you let the leaves steep, or it’ll taste like trash.” She stood, timing it to the last moment.

What I guessed to be thirty-eight seconds later, the kettle started squealing. Watching Naomi had the same effect as watching an elaborate ballet. In one fluid motion, she plucked up the kettle, poured the water into each teacup, set the kettle down, and lifted the cups on a tray. Balancing them perfectly on one hand, she scooped up a puzzle box with the other and made her way to our workbench.

“I don’t suppose this technically counts as a class, with just the two of you.” Naomi spread the cups equidistant from each other. She was probably one of those gifted people who could draw a perfect circle freehand. “It’s more like a tutorial, in a way. Ah… I remember those from my days at Cambridge. Best years of my life.” She stared wistfully into the distance.

Genie propped her chin on her hands, gazing at Naomi with newfound admiration. “You went to Cambridge?”

“Both of them, yes.” Naomi scooted around to the other side of the workbench while Genie and I sat down.

I tilted my head. “Huh?”

“The magical one and the non-magical one, but I loved them equally. Punting down the River Cam, cycling through the town on a summer’s day. Wonderful times.” Naomi shook her head like a wet dog. “But you haven’t come here to hear me reminisce. Though you can, if you like? I’ll have a lot of time on my hands—too much time, until Victoria asks me to join the search. Where was I? I guess you could say my train of thought left the station.”

“Puzzle boxes,” I prompted.

“Yes, these magnificent beauties!” Naomi picked up a sea-green box, with the silvered patterns. “Simple enough once you know how, as with most things. First, make sure all the designs are aligned. Then, when you’ve managed to immobilize a monster, you press the harp button and throw this luscious bit of ingenuity at it. It’ll get sucked right in, and the lid snaps shut. After that, it’s a case of twisting the box so the designs get all muddled, and you have it locked in and ready for transport.”

Genie nodded along. “And how do you get the creature into a Bestiary box or a Repository bubble?”

“That’s the easiest part. Twist everything back so the designs align again, press the harp button and, presto, you’ve made a deposit at the Bank of the Bestiary.”

Naomi showed us, turning the narrow slats of the box backward and forward. She pressed the harp button and the lid slid back, revealing a blood-red interior. Fragments of gemstone and glowing hexes shone, neatly arranged on the inner walls like a circuitry board. For such a small box, it was overflowing with magical technology. It certainly put the plain Mason jars to shame, though I liked the familiarity of those.

“Can I try?” Genie asked eagerly.

“Of course you can.” Naomi pushed the box toward her and turned her attention to her cup of tea. I watched her take out the strainer and set it delicately on the workbench. She lifted the cup to her nose ceremoniously and inhaled, her eyes closing contentedly. Only then did she take a sip. I wondered if a whiff of the stuff would relax me for what I had to do next.

Instead, I took a deep breath. “Could we get a crate of those boxes, to help with the pixie hunt?”

Naomi stilled mid-sip. “Has this request been sanctioned by Victoria?”

I stared down into the lurid green liquid of my cup, thinking for a moment. I considered lying, but I didn’t want to get Naomi in trouble.

“No.” I sighed, choosing the righteous path.

“Persie, I’m sorry, but I can’t hand over any puzzle boxes without Victoria’s permission.” Naomi sounded apologetic. I’d already known the answer when the truth had tripped off my tongue. Nobody defied Victoria lightly, if at all.

Genie set down the puzzle box. “Shouldn’t, not can’t. What if we were to tell you that we had a really good reason for wanting them?”

“I would listen, but that doesn’t mean my answer would change.” Naomi smiled, her eyes glittering with curiosity.

“How about this: These are Persie’s creations that are on the loose, and she wants to tidy up the mess she made.” Genie cast me an apologetic glance. “You’re all about showing and not telling at this Institute, so how is Persie supposed to learn if she’s not allowed to fix the situation herself? It’d be like one of your Omnispheres glitching during an experiment, and someone telling you that you can’t make tweaks so it doesn’t glitch next time.”

Naomi swirled her tea. “Interesting.”

“Plus, she knows these creatures better than anyone.” Genie dove back in. “Victoria’s worried about them snatching other students, but that won’t happen to Persie. She made them, so they respect her. If anyone can catch them, it’s her. But she needs puzzle boxes to do it.”

Naomi looked back at her private project, the exposed inner workings of her Omnisphere on display. I saw the cogs whirring behind her eyes, as intricate and sensitive as her self-made device.

“I created them, Ms. Hiraku,” I said softly. “All I’m asking for is an opportunity. They’re my Omnispheres, and I want to make sure they don’t hurt anyone. Please think about it before you decide. Who are they more likely to listen to—hunters they’re afraid of, or the woman who brought them back from extinction?”

Naomi took a lengthy sip of her tea, leaving Genie and me on tenterhooks. “You make an excellent argument, but…”

My heart sank. It was going to be another no, and I really didn’t want to have to steal the boxes. Nor did I want to rely on the handful of Mason jars I had in my backpack. They wouldn’t be close to enough, but with a decent number of puzzle boxes and the jars—then we’d be in business.

“But?” Genie urged.

Naomi sighed. “I can offer you five boxes. That’s all I can spare.”

“Seriously?!” I yelped with excitement.

“Yes, but I have provisos.” She waggled a stern finger at us. “They are to be brought back as soon as you’re done with them, and all captured pixies are to go to the Repository every single time. No keeping them as pet projects, tempting as that might sound. The Institute is already on edge about this fiasco, and they will be until Xanthippe is returned. Don’t make me regret this, do you understand?”

I grinned at Genie. “We won’t let you down, Ms. Hiraku. Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“Why do I already feel like I’m making a huge mistake?” Naomi griped, but she didn’t rescind her offer, and that was all that mattered. After a relentless day and night, things were finally starting to go my way.