Touch of Fear ▸ House of Anubis [2]

chapter forty-five. house of slander

☾ ☽

After leaving Mara and Eddie in the computer lab, I sit beside Alfie on the couch in the lounge, inquiring as I gesture to the whistle in his hands, "Why have you got a whistle?"

"I'm the coach," Alfie answers proudly before bringing the whistle to his mouth and blowing into it, causing it to emit a loud, high-pitched sound that has me flinching.

When it stops, I ask, "Coach for what? The ping-pong thing?" Alfie nods and is about to blow into the whistle again, but I push his hand down. "Let's not ruin anyone's hearing before the tournament, shall we?"

Amber walks in, taking the chair across from us, and greets as she sits down, "Hey, Alfie, Ashley."

"Hey, Amber," Alfie says, showing off his whistle like a proud father, while I just wave at her.

Fabian and Nina walk in a few seconds later, both looking concerned about something. "Alfie, Amber, Ashley," the latter says, and now it occurs to me that our names all start with the letter A and also saying them all together sounds like a bit of a mouthful, "we saw Victor in the cellar mixing chemicals. He's brewing elixir again."

Great, Victor's making elixir again. Now we've got something else to worry about besides the chemistry task in the tunnels, Senkhara the Unfriendly Ghost cursing us and targeting Nina, and whatever happens when everyone realizes Mara's article about Vera Devenish the Liar has gone live.

"Oh, that could be bad," Amber remarks.

"How are the chemical riddles going?" Alfie questions.

"I'm still stuck on 'sweet scent of mourning,'" Fabian answers.

"Hmm...well, good luck with that," he says before standing up. He blows the whistle again, this time even louder than before, right in our ears, well, Amber's ears specifically. And there goes my hearing.

"Alfie, I'm right here," Amber says.

"Jerome made me coach, and you've got training. So three laps around the school and squats and lunges. Times twenty," Alfie states. Amber's in a state of disbelief and confusion. I just roll my eyes. I think he's upset Jerome replaced him. "Go."

Alfie blows the whistle multiple times before Amber finally stands up, heading out of the room. He doesn't even waste a second before following her out, still blowing the whistle.

I look back to Nina and Fabian. "Well, now that Captain von Trapp is gone, back to 'sweet scent of mourning.' What about funeral flowers? Roses and lilies are the most popular. Maybe there's essence of one of those in one of the bottles down in the tunnels?"

Fabian blinks at me. "Yeah, that's—that's possible. That's actually really smart, Ashley."

Glancing to Nina, I ask, "Did he just say 'actually really smart' like he expected it to be dumb or something? I should be offended, right? 'Cause I'm a little offended." (I'm really not, I just think this could be a really fun way to get back at Fabian for going to the movies with Joy.)