“I don’t trust him,” said Vik. “He’s so broody and possessive… He talks weird, he just gives me a bad sense. I don’t like you around him.”

There Vik went again, playing up the protective brother routine. “I can take care of myself, you know.”

“Can you?” he said. “Normally I would agree, but I can’t take into account crazy people.”

“He’s not crazy!” I snapped, perhaps a little too quickly. “He’s just… Yes, I agree, there is something very strange about him. But I don’t think he’s violent, or would hurt anyone.” Not me, anyway, I thought, remembering Travis.

Vik huffed. “I don’t like the way you defend him.”

I scowled. “Well I don’t like you following around Ms. Epistola like a lovesick kitten every day after class, speaking of weird people with possibly eeeeeviiill motives.”

Vik blushed, and he frowned deeply. “I’m not a lovesick kitten. She’s my tutor and I have things to discuss with her. Academic things.”

I couldn’t help myself; I gasped, sucking in air as I did. “She tutors you? When?”

“After school,” he said, a little smug. I could tell he liked how upset it was making me. “She comes by to see my parents—”

“She was at your house?”

“Yes, she wanted to see some of our family’s heirlooms, particularly the Necronomicon.” He hesitated, but then shook his head. “But when I looked for it I couldn’t find it. I’m afraid it may have been stolen.”

“She visits you at your house?”

“She is my tutor, Andi!” he ejaculated. “Yes, and I just told you the Necronomicon might have been stolen!” He looked me levelly in the eye. “Do you know anything about it?”

“No, and why should I care?” I didn’t mean it. I had ached to look through that book again, to unlock the mystery of my dreams. A part of me, a big part, thought that perhaps it all was a piece in the greater puzzle of Riley Bay. He had only appeared after I read from the book, after all…

I shook my head. That was absurd. It was just some old book. “Maybe Riley stole it. If you hate him so much, go ask him,” I snapped.

“Maybe he did!”

“I was joking!”

“Well I wasn’t! He showed up right after we read from it!”

“Well maybe your tutor stole it.”

“What do you suspect her of?” demanded Vik. “Why are you so threatened by her? She’s just my tutor!”

“Tutoring you in what? ‘Marine biology?’ Well she’s teaching the wrong class if all she’s interested in is that archaeology and weird religious stuff!”