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"Yeah," Bex said at last "Here she is"

When Bex turned and left, I wanted to go after her, but Buckingha too close for , there was really nothing left to say

"Cameron, you are, of course, responsible for any and all work you nificant during the Gallagher Acadehauess, but all I could think was senior year I don’t know if it was the head trauht about the fact that I was a senior I looked around at the girls who filled the hall, and for the first time it occurred to me that none of them were older than us, more trained than us, more ready than us for the outside world

Even without the Circle, that fact would have terrified me

"Now, if you don’t feel up to the task quite yet--"

"No," I blurted, reaching for the course schedule in Professor Buckinghaet back to normal"

And I ham turned and strolled toward the doors, past er girls ere staring at me, and Zach--yes, Zach Who was at my school Who had spent the su in the Grand Hall like he’d been there for years

And I reain

Chapter Seven

I re Or, well, al time about how lovely it was to have me back, and then she handed me a beautifully lettered condolence card on the loss of my memory Mr Smith had a lot of questions about the Alps and the nuns (one of who a bad operation on the Hungarian border in the early eighties)

Routine is good, the doctor had told me My memory would come back if and when I was ready So when Mr Smith handed me a pop quiz from the week before, I told myself I’d only missed it because I’d been sick and confined to bed, and I didn’t let myself obsess about the details

At 10:20 exactly, the entire senior class grabbed their things and headed downstairs When we reached the irls on the research track peeled off and started for the labs in the basement But at the last second, Liz stopped short

"Bye, Caht "See you later?"

"Of course you will," Macey said, looping her arain on her watch

"Yeah," I said "I’ll see you at lunch, Lizzie"

"Okay," Liz said, then turned and headed for the labs She was alone before I realized that Macey was still beside o with her?"

"Nope," she said, and flashed y e, Macey had coher Academy Aside from one or two subjects, we’d never been in the saht up," Bex said, her voice frigid as she started down the dark hall behind the kitchen

Students never went down there There were no classrooht was bad and sometimes the hallway smelled so much like onions that my eyes watered I’d never--not in five years--seen Bex show any interest in that hallway, but she was disappearing down it as if she walked it every day

"Hey, Bex!" Zach yelled He barreled down the Grand Staircase, running after her I don’t think he even sawa corner, out of sight

"Where are they going?"

I couldn’t hide the bitterness in my voice, but Macey didn’t seem to hear it She just looked at me as if maybe I’d been knocked on the head even harder than she’d realized

Her voice was full of mischief when she cocked a hip and said, "Sublevel Three"

Okay, not to sound braggy or anything, but after five full years, I was pretty sure I knew every part of the Gallagher Acade the ones that got condemned due to an unfortunate uraniuood idea of what to expect After all, Sublevel One was all research books and classroolass and secrets Sublevel Tascorridors filled with our erous files The first sublevel looked like soht out of the future; the second looked like it had been ripped from the past But as soon as the elevator opened into Sublevel Three, I knew I’d found my way into a place far older than the school itself

Shadows and stone stretched before us Di There was nothing but the sound of footsteps and the drip-drip-drip of falling water co from somewhere I couldn’t see We weren’t just in a different part of the mansion--it felt like ere in a different part of the world And yet when I touched the wall, there was so so faers, the smell of the musty air

"The classroom’s this way" Macey started down a narrow hallway, and I followed slowly behind But with every step, I found it harder and harder to breathe My gut was telling ht Flee Get out of here before it’s too late, before--

"It’s okay, Cammie"

Zach was alone in the corridor behindthere, I couldn’t say, but it uess, what I’d been thinking, because he said, "You’re not crazy"