The Children of Hypnos

Chapter 20: Order

By the time Emery got to Kirkland, the sky was brightening with the threat of sunrise. Emery had a rough idea of where they would have taken Klaus for holding, but her plan was still only half-formed. She needed to speak to him without anyone overhearing. She'd considered asking Grandpa Al to let her see Klaus alone, to try to get information out of him, but she didn't know exactly what kind of information Grandpa Al would want, and there was always the chance he'd want to put a microphone on her. But if Klaus really was where she thought he might be, she'd need keys for the elevator in the administration building, and she only knew of a handful of people on campus who'd have a set.

The Kirkland lobby was mostly empty. Day division students weren't yet up. Night division students had retired to their rooms until breakfast. Emery took the stairs to the third floor and had marched all the way down the hall and stopped in front of room 324, fist raised to knock, before she stopped to consider what she was doing.

The nameplate tacked on the door said Wesley Jager.

Wes didn't really have a stake in this. Klaus had been following her, and it had been a picture of her doppelgänger. She was planning on breaking into the Fenhallow Underground, with almost a certain chance of getting caught either before or after—there was no point in getting Wes in trouble, too. Their mission was over; she couldn't rope him into her schemes anymore. She dropped her fist, letting the sleeves of her sweater fall over her hands, and turned away from the door.

Wes stood at the other end of the hallway, covered in sweat and holding a milk jug full of water, scowling.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Did you already go on a run this morning?" Emery shot back, too loud, as she tried to walk past him. "And I thought I was an overachiever. Take a shower, you're gross."

He grabbed her arm. "Emery. Why are you standing in front of my door at the crack of dawn?"

"I wasn't standing in front of your door, I was passing through."

"Are you a compulsive liar now, too? There's no other reason for you to be on the third floor." He paused. "And why do you smell like Old Spice?"

"Old Spice smells good, shut up."

"I didn't say it didn't smell good, I said—" Wes's nostrils flared with his temper. "Answer my first question!"

"Fine! If you let me go."

He did. Emery rubbed her arm through her sleeve, checking up and down the hall to make sure they hadn't pulled anyone out of their rooms.

"I think I know where they're holding Klaus. I need to talk to him so I can figure out what's going on with that drawing, but I haven't quite figured out how yet. I know I need keys for the admin building elevator, but I'm not sure who would have them besides my grandpa."

"Okay. Why didn't you want to tell me that?"

"Because...you didn't need to know? It's not your problem. We got out of the Dream, you can go back to whatever you do with your free time until we have another mission."

The line between Wes's eyebrows deepened until it looked like it'd been carved there by a chisel.

"Are you serious?" he said.

"I mean, yeah."

"Not to sound obtuse, but do you know the meaning of the word 'partners'?"

Emery rolled her eyes. "What, so we spent some time in the Dream and now we're supposed to be inseparable? You don't need to get in trouble for this."