“We’re not talking about me. We’re talking about you. They were wondering what you’ve been up to.”

“Nothing.”

“That’s what I told them. I told them nothing. I said Omen hasn’t been getting up to any mischief. That’s not what Omen does. He leaves all that stuff to me.”

“Because I do.”

Auger nodded. “Because you do. That’s right. You leave all the stupid stuff to me. That’s kind of our deal, isn’t it?”

“Is it?”

“Yes, it is. I’m the Chosen One, so I have the crazy life. You’re the normal one, so you have the normal life. That’s how we operate.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“You didn’t know that I have the crazy life?”

“I didn’t know we’d divided it up. When did we do that?”

“When we were born.”

“I mustn’t have been paying attention.”

“It’s our system,” said Auger. He pointed to himself. “Chosen One.” He pointed to Omen. “Lucky one.”

Omen raised an eyebrow. “Lucky one? Really?”

“Yeah. Aren’t you? I mean … aren’t you?”

“I suppose so,” Omen said. “In a way.”

Auger adjusted his position slightly. “So our system, our deal, is predicated on you staying out of trouble. It’s predicated on you staying safe, and uninjured, and non-concussed. What part of that do you not understand?”

“The word ‘predicated’.”

Auger leaned closer. “What’s going on with you? What’s happening?”

“Nothing. I hit my head. It was an accident.”

“Was it Ispolin?”

“Jenan had nothing to do with this,” said Omen.

“I’ll kick his ass.”

“Please do, but he still had nothing to do with this.”

“Then why has he gone?”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s gone,” said Auger, leaning back. “He and his buddies. All of the Arcanum’s Scholars, they packed their things, left their schoolbooks and vanished. Nobody even saw them leave.”

“Huh.”

“That’s all you’ve got to say? Because I heard that Jenan attacked you earlier. Like, seriously attacked you, and then attacked Miss Wicked when she got involved.”

“Yeah,” Omen said. “Yeah, that happened. He was slightly nuts at the time, though. He said he was going to kill me.”

“They’ve expelled him.”

“Probably a good policy.”

“His dad’s going ballistic, apparently. ‘How dare you expel my son, don’t you know who I am?’ That kinda thing. The fact that Jenan’s vanished with all the others hasn’t helped calm him down. You think they’re off sulking somewhere, or is it something else?”

“How would I know?”

Auger kept observing him. “Valkyrie Cain was here this afternoon,” he said. “Nothing to say to that, either? That’s interesting. Valkyrie Cain ran through the school, blood everywhere, at roughly the same time you had your accident.”

“You think she did this to me?”

“No. Probably not. Still, it’s a bit of a coincidence, wouldn’t you say?”