Call Spirits in Your Past **Book Two**

Chapter 26 (Friday)

Seven. Dryda only had to count to seven. That's all she had to focus on. Not on how she was cowering in the basement of some building. Or that she really had to use the bathroom. Or that Kwayo and Bella had been gone for what felt like an hour.

She gulped. Count to seven. One, she was here. She was alive. Two, Kwayo; three Bella; four, Zillie; and Tago; and Manuel; and Rielle. Seven. They were all safe.

Zillie pressed up on her backside, and Rielle was sitting on the front of her shirt, making it nearly impossible to breathe deeply. But she didn't complain. She could move her legs, at least, unlike Zillie.

She counted to seven again, this time waiting for the class above them to leave. She counted to seven again, because the bell hadn't rung yet.

Who knew she would end up at both schools? Granted, hiding in the basement behind some filing cabinets, beneath a classroom filled with sparring people didn't exactly count as going to school. Plus, she didn't want to go to this school. Just, the fear of getting caught somewhere she wasn't supposed to be tantalized her. Like raiding the pantry. Except, of course, she'd never done that.

"So...quick question," Rielle whispered. "Why didn't we bring Anuela? I feel like invisibility would've been super useful in this specific situation."

Zillie whispered back, "Because, we thought we were just coming here to find out if there was an easy way to sneak back in."

"Surprise! There isn't," Rielle whispered back. "Except the teleporter--"

"Which already set off the alarms once," Zille muttered.

Rielle snorted. "Yeah, and now we're stuck here, because there isn't an easy way in. There's a magical wall. And I, for one, do not want to end up trapped in a killer jungle," she paused. "Again."

"It was a desert last time."

"You know what I mean!" she hissed.

"Could you two please be quiet?" Tago asked. "Or do I have to remind you that we're hiding?"

They fell silent. Until Rielle added, "yeah, because someone broke the teleporter's return button."

Tago muttered something.

"What?" Zillie asked.

"I said, sorry my blast hit it. It doesn't even look damaged," to prove it, he held up a small black object. Dryda couldn't tell if it was laser-charred or not, since it had always been black.

Rielle gave a quiet harumph, and the room did go quiet.

Dryda bit her lip. She'd come through the teleporter last, stepping to an empty lawn with alarms already blaring from the nearest building. No one had informed her if the teleporter had set off the alarms--what about a teleporter could even set off alarms?--or if Zillie having touched the shimmering wall where the grass ended had set them off instead.

At least the alarms were already screaming when Tago shot a laser blast at the magic barrier. Except the wall had deflected it, apparently ruining the teleporter's return button.

"Is your hand okay?" Dryda asked Zillie.

"Of course it is!" Tago said. "I'm immune to my own lasers."

"I..." Dryda hesitated. "What about you, Zillie?"

"I'm fine," Zillie said. "It's weird, I didn't expect the wall to be chilly."

"Zillie," Rielle whispered. "What do you mean, chilly?"

"Like, as chilly as ice," Zillie whispered.