The Eternity Key (19 page)

“Definitely,” I say.

Daphne stops and looks up at me. For a moment there, I had forgotten that she was reading and that Abbie wasn’t speaking to me from the past.

“Look at the date of this passage,” I say, tapping the page. “She wrote this shortly after we moved to Olympus. This would have been before she knew anything about Skylords and the Underrealm and all that.”

“Have you seen this scroll she’s talking about?” Daphne asks. “The fact that it has the same symbols as the Compass can’t be a coincidence. Maybe it holds a clue as to how we’re supposed to use it.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” I say. “And, yeah, I’ve seen it. My mom keeps her more precious artifacts locked in her wall safe, rather than on display. I’ve seen a scroll in there once or twice.”

“What, like you’ve broken into your mother’s safe as well as her files?” Daphne punches me in the arm. “Hacking computers, cracking safes, why didn’t you tell me that you’re a regular James Bond?”

“Q,” I say. “Q does the cool tech stuff; Bond just runs around looking good in a tux and drinking martinis. And I’m not really the Q in my family. I told you my brother is a mechanical genius. He made a combination cracker when he was fifteen.”

“Wow, no wonder your mom treats you like you’re the dumb one,” she says, with a playful smile.

“Tell me about it.” I roll my eyes. “But the point is, my mom has a scroll that might tell us something about the Compass. Maybe even how to use it.”

“But
why
would she have it?” she asks.

“If I know my mother, she was probably looking for collateral.
She’s been collecting artifacts for the last few years. I’m guessing she’s been looking for something she might be able to use for more bargaining power if the Underrealm ever decides she outlived her usefulness. I wonder if she even
knows
what the scroll is for.”

“You still remember the combination to the safe?” Daphne says, starting to stand. “Let’s go get this scroll.”

“I didn’t think you were too keen on breaking and entering,” I say teasingly. She’d scolded me big-time the last time we snooped around my mom’s office.

“I’m not, but I’m hoping this scroll will tell us how to use the Compass without me having to cut out my heart or something not so pleasant like that.” She’s making a joke, but I sense the emotion she’s trying to hide with it. The closer we get, this Compass, Key, and Cypher stuff is starting to freak her out.

“Unfortunately, it’s going to be more complicated than that.” I close the diary. “After I stole that file of maps from my mom’s office back in January, my mom thought we’d had a break-in, and she moved her entire collection to her office in town hall. The security there isn’t exactly as easy to bypass as stealing my mom’s office key out of a hollow book and punching Sage’s PSAT scores into her safe. Just getting into the building after hours would be impossible.”

Daphne sinks back down to the floor next me. “Too bad you really aren’t Bond,” she says, and falls silent, as if lost in thought.

“What’s with all the despair, you two? Did somebody die?” Lexie asks sarcastically as she comes backstage, carrying a box that seems to be loaded with poster paint and … glitter.

I look up at her.

She lowers the box. “Oh no, did somebody really die? I heard
they were going to try to take Pear off her respirator today. Did you hear something—”

“Nothing like that,” I say, because I see the terror in her eyes. She and Pear might have been rivals, but they had still been best friends since freshman year. Lexie was kind of complicated like that. “Just a problematic lead.”

“No luck with cracking the password, then?” Dax asks as he and Haden enter the room after Lexie.

“Quite the contrary,” I say, picking up the laptop. I’m glad to focus on something that doesn’t seem so difficult for a moment. I pull up Simon’s information and turn the computer around so they can see my handiwork.

“Impressive,” Haden says.

“Only problem is, I don’t see a Rowan Lord on this list of account holders,” I say. “There is an R. King, though.”

“That sounds about right,” Haden says. “Rowan would choose King over Lord.”

I click on the statements for that card. “The timing seems right. There are only statements dating back to September for this account. But, ugh …” I shake my head in frustration.

“What is it?” Haden asks.

“If this is your brother, he’s a smart SOB. Look at this—he’s been taking out large cash advances every few weeks and that’s it. We can’t track him by his spending because he’s doing it all in cash—and every time he takes out an advance, he does it at a different location. His latest withdrawal was yesterday at a bank in Riverside. He’s too damn smart.”

“Sounds like Rowan,” Haden says, not quite under his breath.

“But we can still use this to smoke him out,” Daphne says, pointing to a link that says,
Report this card lost or stolen
. “How
about we cut off his cash flow? See how long he stays in the woodwork when he finds out his card has been cancelled.”

“You’re brilliant,” I say, clicking the link to go through the process to cancel the card. “Now, if only you could figure out how to get us into town hall on a Saturday night, I might propose to you.”

“I got nothing on that one.” She shrugs.

“If you want to get into town hall on a Saturday night,” Lexie says, “then just buy a ticket to Cupid’s Ball.”

“Cupid’s what?” Daphne asks.

“It’s the school Valentine’s dance,” Lexie says. “Don’t you guys pay attention to the posters around school? Me and the Sopranos have been working on them all week,” she says, pointing at the box of paint and glitter. “Normally, I have one of the printers on my dad’s payroll make up professional signs, but stupid Mr. Bowman volunteered to be our faculty advisor for the dance, and he’s insisting we go all old-school, handmade posters and decor because it’ll be more ‘romantic,’ but seriously, if you guys aren’t even noticing the signs, this is a waste of time.”

“I think we’ve all just had a lot on our minds …,” Daphne says. “But what does the dance have to do with town hall?”

“Well, if you’d read any of my posters or flyers”—she pulls a flyer out of her box and thrusts it at Daphne—“you would know that the dance is being held in the rotunda of the town hall building.”

“When?” I grab the flyer from Daphne.

“In two weeks. You know, on Valentine’s Day?” Lexie says with a “duh” sound to her voice, like we’re all a bunch of idiots.

I exchange a look with Daphne. She smiles at me mischievously.

“Do you have a tux, Mr. Bond?” she asks me.

“Yeah …”

“You still have access to Sage’s safe cracker?”

“He probably left one of his prototypes in his closet.…”

“Do you have a date to the ball yet?”

I smile.

“What are you two going on about?” Haden asks, clearly more confused than usual. “Why is this dance so important?”

“Because,” Daphne says, her smile going from mischievous to downright devious, “we’re going to pull a heist.”

chapter twenty-eight

“Everyone needs to be there by seven thirty,” Daphne says as she pores over a crudely drawn map of town hall that Tobin provided from memory. Our lunch break during this Saturday rehearsal is almost over, and the dance is tonight. We’ve spent the last two weeks coming up with a strategy to get in and out of the mayor’s office during this so-called Cupid’s Ball, but I still have misgivings about the plan.

“I still think I should be the one who goes for the scroll,” I say.

“Doesn’t work,” Tobin says. “Ethan is the faculty advisor for the dance, which means it’s inevitable that the Skylords will be there. They’ll be watching you for sure, and the last thing we want to do is lead them right to the scroll.”

I know he’s right, but I don’t like the idea of giving up so much control over the situation.

“Besides, if I get caught,” Tobin says, “I’ll be able to come up with a more plausible explanation for why I’m hanging out in my mother’s office.”

“Our diversion is planned for 8:07,” Daphne goes on, reviewing our plan. “Do the Sopranos know what they’re supposed to do?”

Lexie nods. “They’ll rush the stage as soon as Joe and his band start their first song.”

The diversion part of this plan is the one that has me the most dubious. We’d gone through several options for what would make the best distraction so Tobin and Lexie can sneak past security in order to get to the mayor’s office. Garrick had gone as far to suggest an explosion in the town hall kitchen, but Lexie had wholeheartedly protested anything that might actually ruin the dance she’d spent the last month planning. “There will be no explosions at
my
dance! Besides, it’ll make it even harder to get to her office if they have to evacuate the building because they think there’s a bomb threat.”

It was Joe who had finally come up with the idea that the others liked best. “What if Joe Vince and the Stargazers were to make a surprise guest appearance to the dance to perform a brand-new single from their yet-to-be-released album? Do you think that would create a bit of a ruckus? Especially if some overzealous fans were to rush the stage—that might keep security occupied for a few minutes.”

Lexie didn’t protest this idea at all. “Ooh, the surprise could be, like, my gift to the school or something!”

“Is anyone really going to buy it when a bunch of girls rush the stage?” I had asked. “Do people do such things over rock stars?”

“Uh, yes,” Daphne had said. “Joe and I can barely make it in and out of restaurants outside of Olympus Hills without him being accosted.”

“A lot of the students are getting used to seeing me around the school, but if the band is performing, I think that would cause a stir—especially if Lexie’s Sopranos were tipped off to what we want them to do.”

“I think we need a secondary option,” I had suggested. “Something to split the security guards’ attention in two directions.”

Which is how Garrick had been reluctantly looped in on the plan.

“Garrick, your part needs to go off at 8:09,” Daphne says as we look over the schedule now. “Garrick! Are you listening?”

He looks up from playing a game on his phone. “8:09, boys’ bathroom, north hall.”

“South hall,” Daphne corrects.

“That’s what I said,” Garrick says, fervently tapping the screen of his phone.

A few students start returning from lunch break, so we huddle closer to review the rest of the plan before Mr. Morgan arrives.

“Everyone got it?” Daphne asks as we break apart.

“Got it,” those of us who are paying attention respond.

“And make sure you look sharp, Tobin,” Lexie says, wagging a finger at him. “I don’t normally date short guys, so you’d better look pretty damn good if people are going to believe that we’re there together. None of this basketball shoes paired with khakis that some guys try to pull off at dances.”

“Um, I have a fedora to coordinate with every outfit that I own. You think I’d wear sneakers with a suit? Please. I own my own tux. And, by the way, you’re, like, barely five feet tall. Compared to you, I’m practically in the NBA.”

“NBA? Yeah, like you could score with me any day,” Lexie says.

Daphne bursts into laughter. I blink at all three of them.

“I meant to say score
over
me,” Lexie says, her face growing pink. “It was supposed to be a basketball reference.”

“Freudian slip?” Tobin says, in a voice that I can’t tell if it’s mocking or teasing.

“You wish.”

Lexie and Tobin glare at each other, and I start to wonder if pairing them up for a pretend date is a good idea. But I’m not about to suggest that he take Daphne instead. I wouldn’t like the idea of her sneaking off with him to unknown parts of town hall without my protection.

“Whatever,” Tobin says. “I’m going to look so fine in my tux, you girls will have a hard time remembering why we’re even at the dance in the first place.”

I hope that isn’t the case. With Skylords possibly watching and Mayor Winters’s security on the prowl, we can’t afford any complications in our plan.

chapter twenty-nine