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Xero shook his head “No trace of them anywhere I’ve seen Besides, this is swamp land The stones will be found in desert climates”

Everybody wilted slightly I had a feeling we all knehat the options were, and none of us liked any of the on so relatively simple instead

“Hoe explain to Toland where the rocks ca we do get them?”

“Let’s worry about that after we see whether or not we survive this” Kai frowned, his dark eyes glittering

“Survive—what, exactly?” Kingston kept his tone carefully neutral

“We’re going rock collecting,” I said with a hard-edged grin

“Uh, you know Toland won’t let us do that” Jayce grimaced

“Toland won’t get a chance to stop us,” I shot back “We’re sneaking out and getting this done He and the staff have had plenty of tied to do it I’a few stupid rules Besides, you heard how Dru al a contraband phone For all we know, Toland’s under another blood oath to auto We can’t risk telling him So we sneak out and do this ourselves”

My words had their intended effect, and everybody quickly ca Toland, but less enthusiastic about trying to find the stones ourselves Kai wasn’t too happy about it, but hethe rest of us idiots go it alone Jayce quickly slipped into adventure mode, and Xero looked relieved Finally, his previous stint in the underworld was going to be useful

We sketched out a rough plan for how to get out of school grounds undetected, and then we rose from our seats in the cramped little room

“You guys get supplies” I cast e to stare until I’d memorized their features As if so to et back inside once we return”

“You’re doing what?!”

Hannah

’s amber eyes widened in horror

“We’re sneaking out to find the stones that will take us back home,” I repeated patiently “Xero knohere to look It’s our one shot at getting back to earth before the wards fail and Gavriel imprisons us all”