Force of Nature ▸ House of Anubis [3]

chapter fifty-six. house of aftermath

            "Well, if it makes you feel any better, I'm the son of a thief, too."

            "Your dad didn't bring a curse onto your family that caused multiple deaths."

            "He didn't help matters much, though."

            I look at the ceiling, tapping my fingers on my stomach. "I shouldn't have gone," I tell him quietly, and I can feel his eyes on me. "At least I should've... told someone so they could talk me out of it. Why did I go?"

            "To figure out what he was doing?" Jerome reminds me. "That's what you said. Did you get anything out of it?"

            "Besides information I was okay not knowing?" I retort. "Frobisher seems sure I'm going to help him with whatever he's doing. I didn't get anything that would actually help us stop him before he starts it. I didn't even get the name of the book Denby took from Victor's office."

            "The rest of your Scooby gang doesn't think those personality tests were something she's doing to get to you?"

            "KT thinks I'm being paranoid. Patricia and Eddie are fighting again with this new guy coming around, and... Fabian and Alfie haven't said anything. But I'm right, right? I mean," I ramble, "why give me a different personality test than Fabian and Alfie? She said I wasn't supposed to be there so why go ahead and have one printed up for me?"

            "She knows you would've shown up anyway. Even if you had been told she didn't ask for you, just everyone else. You wouldn't have stayed behind."

            I sigh and press my lips together. He's right. There's no way I would've let them go without me if Trudy had stopped me and said Denby didn't ask for me, just the rest of them. "Yeah... well, I'm sure when everyone finds out I went to the gatehouse alone and spoke to Frobisher—and... punched him—they'll wish I had. You're on my side, right?"

            "Always," Jerome answers immediately, with no hesitance or regret. "I'm always on your side." He leans over and kisses the side of my head. I smile lightly. Well, at least I haven't lost his trust yet. I almost don't want to tell the rest of Sibuna what happened. "By the way, I'm involved now." I turn to look at him. "You got hurt. I'm involved."

            "I got hurt?" I ask, glancing toward the ice pack. "Jerome, I punched a hundred and thirty year old guy, he didn't hurt me."

            "No, your hand is hurt, therefore you got hurt. And I told you if you got hurt, I'd be involved."

            I scoff lightly. "You wanted to be involved," I accuse, although I'm smirking. I thought he wanted out of Sibuna stuff. Guess he got pretty used to meddling after everything that happened with the Cup of Ankh and Mask of Anubis. "You just wanted an excuse to jump in head-first."

            "I'll admit, I wanted to spend more time with you—"

            "Told you."

            "—but it was my grandfather who got me involved, actually. Since you say he possessed me in the middle of the night and made me draw those spirals."

            I sit up, taking the ice pack with me as I crawl over him to get off the bed. I'm still in my uniform and I need to go change. "I'm gonna go change. Meet you in the living room, five minutes?"

            Jerome nods, sitting up. "Are you going to tell Fabian you went to the gatehouse and socked Frobisher?"

            "Kind of have to, don't I?"