I keep waiting for him to jump, grab, or try to kill me again, but he seems content to watch me struggle with riddles and run from one end of the campus to the other. It’s unnerving. I’ve never spent any amount of time with him that wasn’t filled with threats, mesmers, or intimidation.

Once we’re back outside, I check my bag: the jewelry box; the mug from the piano; a flashlight from the fountain in front of the graduate school building; a very hard-to-spot tiny metal key that had been wedged between a pair of bricks on the journalism building; and a candle that had been tucked in the crook of a statue’s arms.

I look up to find Sel studying me again, as if he’s waiting for me to turn demon by accident.

“Where are the hounds?” I ask, and he shrugs.

“I created them, but I gave them a little push to make them more independent. I felt one earlier near the Campus Y, but it didn’t catch your scent.”

“Oh, lovely,” I drawl. “Were you going to warn me a bloodthirsty hellhound was nearby?”

He scoffs. “Why would I do that?”

I groan and look down at the list for another clue. “ ‘I was the first and my rest is the oldest, let there be no debate.’ ” I pull my cheek between my teeth.

Sel, perched on one of the many low stone walls around campus, watches me with hooded eyes as I puzzle through the riddle. I’m certain he’s been figuring out the riddles before I do and enjoying not telling me the answers.

I check my watch. I have an hour left, we’re in the middle of the campus, and there’s no use walking until I figure out where to go.

I pace back and forth and Sel’s eyes, glittering in the darkness, follow my steps. “ ‘I was the first and my rest is the oldest, let there be no debate.’ Just my luck this is some sort of uber obscure medieval crap.”

A hoarse bark of laughter escapes Sel, and we both blink in shock at the genuine, uncontrolled sound. The sound of someone who’s not used to laughing. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him express anything other than carefully aimed barbs, seething irritation, or dry sarcasm. He must see the thought on my face, because his expression goes stony in a heartbeat. Like he’s flipped a switch inside.

I walk to the edge of the wall down a few feet from Sel and look out over the campus. I start at my left, my eyes following the line of buildings in front of us: the low dining hall, the towering library breaking the skyline, and the Bell Tower striking three thirty.