Page 97 of Haunting the Deep

The last thing I want to write is a paper on theTitanic,but I know him well enough to not even attempt to ask for a different subject.

“For fun I will give you an object that is similar to objects recovered in the wreckage. You will examine it, determining what kind of a passenger might have carried it and what their story was from the moment they boarded until the moment they arrived home—or didn’t arrive home, as the case may be.”

Object.I glance at the door and catch a glimpse of Alice’s face in the small window.

Wardwell opens his desk drawer. “Be careful with it and do not lose it.” He places a silver book the size of a playing card on the desk in front of me. It twinkles in the bright classroom lighting.

I stand up so fast that my chair almost topples over.The silver book from my dream.

“Is there a problem?” he asks me, examining my face like he’s looking for something specific.

“What? No. Charley horse,” I say, and rub the back of my calf. Damn it. I can’t believe I reacted like that. This lack of sleep has me all jumpy.

Alice comes through the door, with Mary and Susannah behind her. “Want a ride home, Sam?” She feigns surprise. “Oh, sorry, Mr. Wardwell. I didn’t realize you guys were having a meeting.”

“I’d ask you ladies to wait outside, but we are technically finished here.” Mr. Wardwell points at the silver book. “Make sure you take that with you, Sam.”

I don’t move. There is no way I’m touching that thing.

Think.I scan his desk. “Is it old?”

“Fairly.”

“Oh, well, I don’t want to just shove it in my bag, then,” I say. I grab two tissues from his tissue box.

“It’s not that delicate,” he says, but I’ve already got it wrapped up.

I make my way out of the classroom with the girls. We put a good hundred feet between us and his door before we start talking.

“You know this is the silver book from my dream, right?” I say, pointing at my shoulder bag.

“Why do you think we came in, Sherlock?” says Alice, and pushes open the door leading to the back field. “You seriously need to work on hiding your emotions. You looked ten kinds of flustered in there. If Wardwell is in on thisTitanicspell, you just set off warning bells.”

“Did he say anything we should know about?” Susannah asks.

“Possibly. He did use the word ‘object’ to describe it,” I say. “If he knew anything about our conversations, he could have chosen that word to mess with me.”

“He also looked really adamant about you taking it,” Mary says as we walk across the grass. “He didn’t take his eyes off you.”

The guys’ lacrosse team jogs past us.

“Sam,” Dillon says, and stops. His usual happy tone is missing. “Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?” He glances at the girls. “Alone, if that’s cool?”

“Uh, sure. What’s up?” I say.Did something happen with Jaxon?

He leads me away from the girls. “You’re not getting in a car with them, are you?”

“Huh?”

His breathing is slightly labored from his run. “The Descendants. Don’t you think you should steer clear of them, at least until you know if it’s true?”

“Hold on, what are you talking about?”

He looks at me like I’m the one saying shocking things. “Everyone is saying that it was your stepmother who tried to hang you in the woods. And the reason the Descendants haven’t told anyone is because they’re planning their revenge or something. Everyone’s saying they’ve bewitched you. I mean, itissuper weird that you guys haven’t hung out for six months and now all of a sudden you’re inseparable.”

My stepmother.My stomach clenches so hard I grab it. “What?” I walk two feet away from him and then back. What is he saying? People know it was Vivian? But how would they even…Jaxon. The conversation we had in his truck. Holy shit. I press the heel of my hand into my forehead. Jaxon must have told Niki. It’s as if someone sucker-punched me. I know Jaxon’s under a spell and that it’s not his fault, but the betrayal is so big that I can’t swallow my upset. Tears prick my eyes.

I jog back to the girls.