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"Dang it," Tick said

"What?"

"I was hoping he’d give us another hint on how to coic words This isn’t a clue" Tick waved the paper in the air, then dropped it on the desk next to his journal "It’s just a warning No different from the stuff he said in the very first letter"

"But re you receive is a clue"

"Yeah, well right now I’m kind of sick of it" Tick flopped onto his bed and rolled over toward the wall

After a long pause, his dad spoke quietly "Sleep on it, Professor You’ll feel better in the , I promise"

The floor creaked as his dad walked toward the hallway; then the light went off and he heard the soft thu the door

Despite the tornado of thoughts churning inside his , but it’s still creepy

He’s in the forest, h to make the trees look like twisted old trolls, their lirab him, choke him

Leaves and snoirl around his body like fairies on too e tree loo in the air, mesmerized

He jumps to catch one, and some unseen force holds him in the air

And then the leaves turn into letters

One by one the letters pass in front of Tick, glowing briefly, teasing hi hiest one of all The first letter

The first letter

The first letter

Chapter

33

The Final Clue

The last yellow envelope froe ca Day Tick came home from school on a warm and rainy afternoon to find it on his pillow, addressed to him and postmarked from Brisbane, Spain

Until then, he’d been in a foul ood reason

Two days earlier, Sofia had announced she was pretty sure she’d solved the riddle of the ic words Positive, in fact Tick knew he should be happy for her, but instead felt jealous and angry Especially since he knew she couldn’t tell him; in his mind it was like Paul and Sofia had this secret about Tick and kept giggling about it behind his back