Touch of Fear ▸ House of Anubis [2]

chapter twenty-six. house of payback

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            After the near-miss with Fabian, we return to the study to get upstairs before Victor realizes six of us are missing. I think it's near curfew now. As we take off our amulets and set them back onto the desk for next time, Nina gestures for us to be quiet. There's a familiar clicking sound coming from the door.

            Alfie obviously doesn't get the memo, because he goes, "What's that?"

            "Shh," Nina urges quietly. She walks toward the exit and glances through the peephole as the clicking sound continues. Someone's trying to get into the antechamber! Her mouth drops at the sight of whoever is on the other side—and then I hear someone familiar exclaiming frustratedly on the other side. The clicking stop. "Coast is clear."

            "Victor knows," I say, still speaking quietly, "something's here."

            "He doesn't know the code. It's safe, for now."

—

            Fabian caught up to me the next morning and—and this was shocking to me as well—asked for my advice on how to make things up to Nina for what happened at the masked ball, since I had once been on the receiving end of something similar. Similar being that I saw my boyfriend kissing another girl and he actually knew he was kissing another girl, whereas Nina saw Fabian being kissed by Joy and Fabian kissing her back because he saw the mask and the dress and thought it was Nina. I mean, I get why he would ask for my advice, but...seriously?

            I must agree. You don't really seem like an advising sort of person, says Anubis while I think of what kind of advice to give Rutter.

            I pull my bag further on my shoulder as we walk together, remarking, "Okay, have you maybe considered not using the sentence 'it was an accident' when trying to explain what happened? You're not getting anywhere with that one."

            Fabian sighs loudly and shakes his head. "I thought you might be able to give me some actual advice, Ashley."

            "Come on, that and 'I thought she was you' have to be among the worst defenses in history," I continue with a light laugh. "Speaking as the girl who got cheated on, if Evan had tried to say he thought that girl was me, I probably would've smacked him with a book. Oh, reminds me—" I reach into my bag and take out my French book, using it to smack him on the arm. He cries out and withdraws his hand, staring at me with wide eyes. "That was for kissing Joy."

            "I thought she was Nina!"

            "And that is exactly why Nina is so mad at you," I tell him. "Because she and Joy look nothing alike. Yes, they had on the same dress and Joy had Nina's mask but Fabian...do you see now why she's upset?"