CLASS ENDED, AND JIA WAS the first one out. Fort moved much more slowly but was stopped by Dr. Ambrose as he reached the door.
“One moment, Forsythe,” the doctor said, holding Fort’s shoulder as the other kids pushed past. When the classroom had emptied, the doctor sat down on one of the tables and began cleaning her glasses. “How exactly did you do that?” she said, not looking at him.
“I cast the spells just like you told me to,” Fort said, starting to get nervous. “I followed your instructions—”
“No. I mean, how did you master three spells that fast? Even if you spent all last night studying . . .” She paused, giving Fort a suspicious look. “You still shouldn’t have been able to learn them so quickly. In my experience, it takes even the more gifted students at least three days per spell.”
“I guess I’m just a quick learner,” Fort said.
“Mhm,” Dr. Ambrose said. “Or you’ve got a weird connection with a telepathic girl. I noticed that Mason couldn’t cast Heal Minor Wounds today. I wonder if there are any other students missing their spells?”
Fort fought to keep his face calm. Had Sierra really given him the first spell as well? He hadn’t even mastered one? “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said finally.
“I’m sure you don’t,” she said. “Everything I said last night still stands. Whatever’s happening to you and her, it’s just going to get worse the longer you’re here. And soon, Dr. Oppenheimer’s stopgap safety measures won’t be able to prevent that thing from finding us again. Is that what you want?”
“Of course not!” Fort said, louder than he intended to. “Why don’t you take me to Sierra right now, so I can talk to her and get rid of whatever this connection is? Wouldn’t that make everyone safe too?”
“Kid, believe me, you and her in the same room is on my list of worst-case scenarios,” Dr. Ambrose said. “Trust me. Colonel Charles might think you’re doing good here, but I don’t see it. Right now, all you’re doing is picking at some stitches, and they’re all that’s keeping you from bleeding out.”
That was a graphic metaphor. Fort nodded. “I should get to lunch,” he said, hoping she’d let him go.
Dr. Ambrose stared at him for a moment, then nodded. “Just, please, be careful?” she said as he exited. As soon as he was out and inside the elevator with the door closed behind him, he let out a huge sigh of relief.
He wasn’t going to get kicked out of the Oppenheimer School. And that meant he could finally get some real answers.
The girls’ dormitory was opposite the boys’ dorm on the base, so it wasn’t too hard to find. From the outside, the buildings looked exactly the same, and Fort figured the insides probably matched as well. Nothing about this army base seemed to suggest that uniqueness was a positive trait.
Jia was waiting next to the door to the dormitory, casually reading a book. She didn’t look up as he approached, but instead just nodded her head to the corner of the building. He walked past her and around the corner, then waited in the shadows created by the small alley between the girls’ dorm and the soldiers’ barracks.
He didn’t have to wait long.
“What were you thinking?” Jia hissed, her voice low but threatening as she rounded the corner. She shoved him hard, knocking him back several feet. “I was helping you! And this is how you repay me, by stealing my spells? Do you know how long it took me to master those?”
“You know I didn’t do it,” Fort told her. “I’m not the one with psychic powers. That’d be your friend Sierra, who you knew all along but lied and told me she was just some student who got sent home.”
“I couldn’t tell you the truth, you jerk!” she hissed at him. “Dr. Opps said I’d get expelled if I told anyone about what happened with her and the others.”
“So what did happen?”
“What did I just say?” Jia growled in frustration. “Look. This doesn’t feel like something that the Sierra I know would be doing. She wouldn’t be messing with you like this just for fun. There has to be some reason.”
“So take me to her, and we’ll ask,” Fort said, crossing his arms.
“I don’t know if she’s here or not,” Jia said, glaring at him. “Dr. Opps told me she was sent home the day after the attack in D.C. So if she is here, he’s hiding her, and probably for a good reason.”
“She has to be here. Colonel Charles wanted me to come just to see what would happen. I never had her memories appearing out of nowhere before I came to the school. And I certainly never heard anyone else’s thoughts.”
“Fine,” Jia said, throwing up her hands in surrender. “If he’s keeping her somewhere, there’s only so many places it could be. I think I might have an idea where to look.”
“Where?” Fort asked, leaning forward.
She shook her head. “We’re all going to get kicked out. The amount of security alone will make this impossible.”
“Not if we don’t get caught,” Fort said. “What if we use the magic I got from you, that Ethereal Spirit spell? From what Dr. Ambrose said, that’d turn us into ghosts. We’d be able to go anywhere in the base, right?”
Her anger reignited at the mention of her lost spells, and she looked like she had to hold herself back from punching him. “I can’t believe you brought that up. I wasn’t even supposed to learn it! It’s completely forbidden for that exact reason. What if Dr. Ambrose finds out I know it?”
“You’ll get it back if we find Sierra,” he said. “I’m sorry, I really am. But if that’s a way in, then we should use it.”
“Fine. Meet me back here tonight after lights-out. You’ll cast my Ethereal Spirit spell, and then we’ll go see if Sierra actually is here, so she can give me back my magic.” She stabbed his chest with a finger. “I shouldn’t be doing this. There are so many ways it could go wrong! At least it’ll just be the two of us. If anyone else found out, this whole thing would blow up in our faces.”
“Yup, just the two of us,” Fort said slowly, trying to figure out a way to bring up Rachel. “About that . . .”
“You guys should really learn to keep your voices down if you don’t want people listening,” said a voice above him.
Fort whirled around in surprise to find Rachel leaning out one of the girls’ dormitory windows, grinning at him.
“How much did you hear?” Jia asked her, completely freezing in panic.
“Oh, everything,” Rachel said with a grin. “Don’t worry, Jia. Fort and I already had a plan to do this, so we’ll just add you in. See you here at lights-out!”