Touch of Fear ▸ House of Anubis [2]

chapter eighty-eight. house of captives

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            I check my phone for the third time since we got to the library. Still nothing from Alfie, Fabian, or Patricia. I hope they're all okay. I sigh, pushing my phone back in my pocket before searching the crate I just opened. Senkhara's crown is in here, as well as the cowbell, but no key. This feels hopeless.

            "This would be so much easier," Amber remarks, "without all these crates lying around."

            "Well, it's all getting shipped out tomorrow," Joy says. "Might be best to try then."

            I turn around, giving up on this crate, and tell her, "We've only got until sundown."

            "There's no time," Nina adds. "Come on, let's look upstairs." I put the top back on the crate and start to walk to the stairs, but she's stopped suddenly right by it. "Wait...of course. Lift the wings to find the book. The doll riddle!"

            As she bends down at the base of the stairs, Joy questions, "Doll riddle?"

            "Joy, we don't have time for a rookie recap," Amber replies.

            "The doll led Victor to the library," Nina explains. "He was looking over here." This must have been before she and Fabian clued us in on everything. She stands from where she was looking, holding onto the railing. "And Trudy, when she was trapped with the dollhouse, she saw a picture of a key, and she said something about wings and the seat of learning." She turns one of the bars, and where she was just in front of, a hidden compartment opens up. "Yes."

            "Go Nina," I compliment.

            Nina grins, bending back by the compartment and looking inside of it. I don't see anything in it. "This was meant to hold the Book of Isis but didn't. Let's see if it holds something else now."

            "Sure there isn't an excuses book in there, too?" Joy says. "Because if Jasper comes back, we're gonna need them."

            "Joy, breathe," Amber replies as she sits by Nina on the ground. "This is how we roll."

            I turn to Joy. "Worst case scenario, we don't get our story straight and end up saying, like, we're here to paint our nails or learn how to tap dance. That's how excuses in Sibuna usually go. We are so bad at getting our stories straight."

            Amber gives Nina a nail file. Joy raises an eyebrow at me and says, "Tap dance?"

            Nina's used the nail file to rip the fabric in the compartment. She laughs as she pulls out a golden key, exactly like the one on the podium, which Frobisher-Smythe must have hidden behind the fabric. Of course. "Yes! Let's go!"

            With the key to the Mask in our hand, we start to head toward the secret passageway, but we're stopped by Sweetie's voice sounding behind us, "Aha, so this is where you've all been hiding."