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the darkness in her eyes.
    I shivered and tried to force my mind toward something else, but there was nothing. I didn’t even have thoughts of Keller to comfort me.
    “I want to wait for her in Airlee,” said Lough.
    We headed in that direction, and I didn’t see another paranormal the whole way there. I wondered if they were all hiding, angry, sleeping, or something else. I knew I’d be getting a call from Professor Dacer at some point, and probably President Oliva as well, but I wanted Sip to come back first. I just wanted to give my friend a long overdue hug. But when we were in the middle of battling the Nocturns, even that was too much to ask.
     

Chapter Seven
     
    We waited in the living room of Airlee. It was strange to be back there after so much time had passed and so many changes had happened. Lough and I were both silent. I tried to think of something to say, but everything was mundane or depressing by turns.
    We weren’t in Airlee long before the front door slammed open. Neither of us were out of our chairs before Sip came stomping around the corner, her purple eyes shooting off fiery sparks.
    “Sorry,” she said, “I know you just went through a lot to make sure the demons bringing me back didn’t get me killed. I do appreciate it.” Her lower lip trembled a little, but she kept going. “Come up to Lisabelle’s and my room.” She said it almost defiantly, driving home the point that Lisabelle would be right back.
    Lough and I got off the couch and followed her. My body was still tired, and it protested when I placed my hands on either side and pushed myself out of the comfortable cushion. But we needed to talk, and I didn’t trust the common room. Even if there weren’t listening spells, I didn’t look at my fellow students in the same way anymore. Golden Falls had changed that. It had changed a lot of things.
    “Come on,” Sip cried as she bounded up the stairs. “I’m the one who was a prisoner. You all were just in a war. Hop to it.”
    “I knew we were going to get here,” Lough grumbled. “I just didn’t know it was going to happen so quickly.”
    It was the closest I had come to cracking a smile in a while.
    Sip and Lisabelle’s room was in the middle of the hallway, so I had a few steps to brace myself. Sip flattened her hand against the door for a moment. I saw it tremble a little as she took a deep breath.
    “This will be the first time I’ve gone in and she’s not here,” she said with her back still turned, speaking so softly we could barely hear her. “But she’s not coming back anytime soon and we’re all going to leave. I don’t want it to become normal that she’s not here.”
    Lough and I didn’t know what to say, but luckily Sip didn’t seem to expect an answer. She pushed the door open and went in without any further hesitation, then spent her first five minutes back in the room on irrelevant organizing. It was the first time we’d all been back to our rooms since Golden Falls, after all. We’d had to leave a lot of stuff there, and now I was doubly glad I’d had Keller get my mother’s box out of the place before we were attacked.
    Neither Lough nor I really wanted to come into the room. It was singularly decorated, making clear the distinct personalities of my two friends. Sip loved neon, green, orange, and yellow. Her side of the room was covered in bright colors, from bedspread to window curtains, even the wall decorations. She also loved tea and had set up a small tea-making station next to her desk.
    Lisabelle’s side was unadorned and all black. Her mother, an interior decorator, had never seen it, but Lisabelle claimed she’d have a heart attack if she ever did. I wondered how she’d feel about her only child going over to darkness. All the other darkness mages had, long ago; they made up the group of powerful evil forces we called the Nocturns. Lisabelle’s parents and her Uncle Risper were the last holdouts, and of all of them, Lisabelle