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Shutting the door, he rubbed his hands together in the cold "Is everything all right?"

I nodded "It’s about the Liberum"

The smile faded fro over us

Down the path, Clementine watched us

"We knohere they are," Noah said "We saw them"

The headmaster looked in either direction and then buttoned his coat "Come with me," he said

Inside his office, he cleared stacks of paper from two chairs and motioned for us to sit Then he settled himself behind his desk and crossed his hands "Now tell me"

"It started with a vision of a farht vent Noah finished the rest of the story while I stared at the plants on the sill, trying to push the ie of the boy in the basement out of my head

"You’re certain the person you saas a Brother of the Liberum?" the headmaster asked ere finished

I hesitated "Not certain, but I heard hi to the children"

"You knew this last night and you didn’t tellat me

"We went to your office, but you weren’t there," Noah said, not knohat the head to

"Did they see you?"

"Yes," I said

"But most of them were blind," Noah interjected

The headmaster’s shoulders slu you?"

"No," Noah said, just as I blurted out, "Maybe"

The headlanced between us, his eyes wide as he waited for a clear answer "Did they follow you here?"

I sed as he turned from Noah to me Someone had broken into my room, and it hadn’t been Clementine Could it have been the Brother of the Liberum? "Maybe"

The headmaster’s face seemed to drain of its color His eyes darted to the , and without warning, he stood up and closed the shades "Then you need to prepare yourselves"

But how?

I skipped the rest of my classes that day and ran to the waterfront, the wind chapping my cheeks as I slowed and stared at the icy waters of the St Lawrence River Across the water on the opposite bank, the rounded peaks of the grain silos stuck out of the snowy gust likefresh footprints in the snow as I approached the railing

The wind swirled through,my eyes water as I leaned over and spoke to Dante "If I don’t see you again," I said, sing, "I wanted to say good-bye"

"Bye, bye, bye, bye…" The sound sent a chill throughe scratched into the raffiti Except this one ritten in Latin I’ll come for you, it said, as if he had heard h," I said to Anya over dinner late that week Four guards wereseemed to carry on as normal No one else knew about the threat of the Liberuo out and find the Liberum before they find you? Because I don’t want to do that" Anya slid down in her chair, sipping a glass of milk Noah was nowhere to be seen He had barely said a word towith the headmaster, and after classes he had just disappeared

I loweredfor the secret of the Nine Sisters The last part of the riddle--that’s what they really want, right? But we can’t let them have it You should have seen what he was like…" I said, reure, his body thin and sohter Probably from some stupid joke

"We need to find the riddle," I said "We need to find it before they do"

Anya glanced over her shoulder "But how?"

I chewed on my straw "I don’t know"

And then from somewhere behind me, I heard one of Clementine’s friends say, "Gottfried should be shut down It’s just breeding the Undead"

"That place is cursed," another girl said

"Gottfried," I repeated "Curse"

The Gottfried Curse I had al my plate aside, I turned to Anya, my face flushed "Did you hear that?"