Chapter 25

That night, I refused to sleep until I’d solved the puzzle. I’d tried reading clockwise and counterclockwise, but this time, even thinking the word clockwise had me looking at the circle differently.

I tried placing numbers above the letters, but the spacing was off. W and H were at twelve o’clock and six o’clock. N and Y were at three and nine, but there were too many letters for the rest to fall directly on the numbers of a clock.

W, I thought, going back to the top of the circle. I traced my finger down to the bottom. H. That particular letter combination—WH—was the start of so many questions.

Who?

What?

When?

Where?

Why?

My gaze darted back to the top of the circle. Next to the W, there was a Y. Grabbing a pen, I drew two lines on the back of my hand—one from the W straight down to the H, and then another from the H up to the Y.

Why. I paused just for an instant. What next? My heart rate started beating a fraction faster, and then I trailed my finger across the circle to the letter opposite the Y.

“Another H,” I noted. Unsure if I was headed down the wrong path or not, I went back up to the next letter in the upper-right quadrant, then back down to the lower left, and then I grabbed the pen, retracing those moves.

H, I, D… Up once more got me an E—and another complete word.

WHY HIDE…

I kept going, letter after letter, until the back of my hand looked like a spiderweb—or a starburst. The pattern was complicated enough that I couldn’t help thinking about how effortlessly Harry had written out the entire sequence. He’d never even paused, like his brain was operating on another plane, like he could see the whole of the puzzle—the trap he’d laid from me, the question I’d just decoded—all at once.

WHY HIDE WHEN YOU CAN RUN