Touch of Fear ▸ House of Anubis [2]

chapter thirty-eight. house of stings

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            "Where are Nina and Ashley?"

            "Here," Nina and I say simultaneously in response to Patricia's question, coming from different directions, both of us apparently late to the meeting to get down to the tunnels.

            "Sorry, I couldn't get Gran off the phone," Nina apologizes. "She's on the ghost-walk tonight."

            Whatever that means. "I don't have an excuse," I add with a shrug. Can't exactly tell them I've just spent the better part of an hour with Jerome trying to get the gem out of the drain. "So has Victor left for the meeting yet?"

            Fabian nods and confirms, "Yeah, I saw him leave about half an hour ago."

            "Okay," Nina says. "Let's do this, then. Sibuna."

            "Sibuna," we chorus, hand over eye.

            We use the charm and the locket to open up the oven passageway and crawl down there, putting in the code for the antechamber. All six of us aren't able to go through the bookcase passageway and get past the light beam at the same time, so we split into groups of three. I'm with Amber and Alfie and we make it past the beacon of light without any problems.

            It's when Patricia, Nina, and Fabian come through that things go wrong. The beam scans them and Nina and Fabian make it through just fine, but then it starts scanning Patricia again. "Hang on, guys!" Patricia shouts. Then it emits a bright light and Patricia screams.

            "What happened?!" I ask as we run back to her. She must have been blinded! But she's wearing her amulet!

            "Why didn't the amulet protect her?" Nina questions.

            "I can't see, guys!" Patricia exclaims frantically. "I can't see!"

            Fabian pulls on the book with Thoth on the side and the passageway turns back around with all of us, getting us into the antechamber again. He and Nina help the blinded Patricia sit down as Anubis, apparently back from his hour-long coma, inquires casually, So what did I miss? Goose give a gem back? Oh, I see—Patricia can't.

            "It's horrible, isn't it?" Amber remarks as the first person of now three that we know of who was blinded by the beacon of light. "Totally blind. Bat blind. Three blind mice blind."

            "The amulet should have stopped it," I say, waving my hand in front of Patricia's face.

            "Well, do you think there's a time limit on them?" Fabian asks. "Maybe that's why the spirit keeps saying 'watch the timepiece.'"

            "But ours worked fine," Alfie reminds him. "They're all the same, aren't they?"

            I start to nod, but Patricia confesses, "No. Mine's...mine's the spare."