I blink. “Brimstone?”
The cat meows plaintively in response. She stands with her front paws on my collarbone.
“How did you get here?” I lift her up and get out of bed. I see the bag I’d brought with me from the Underrealm toppled over on the table in the corner. “Have you been hiding in there this whole time?”
She puts her paw on my face.
“Naughty girl,” I say.
She hisses.
“Sorry.” I stroke her head, trying to soothe her before she gets really angry. “But do you know how much trouble I can get into for bringing a hellcat into the mortal world? Intentional or not?”
She purrs.
“I missed you, too, Brim.”
She climbs up my chest, sinking her little claws into my skin as she goes, and then settles on my shoulder.
“You must be hungry.”
My thought is to get Brim some food and then figure out how to hide her in my room from the others, but when I enter the kitchen, I find it already occupied.
Dax sits at the kitchen table. A paper sack giving off an unfamiliar smell sits in front of him, and he’s holding a tablet of a sort that resembles a larger version of my iPhone. The light coming off the screen illuminates his face in the dark room. A look of worry is etched into his features. I am about to turn around and leave when he looks up from the tablet. He sees me and turns the device off.
“Couldn’t sleep?” he asks, his voice sounding strained.
I stand there awkwardly for a few seconds. I am not sure I have forgiven him yet, and I am even less sure if he’s forgiven me.
Brim meows.
Dax’s eyebrows arch when he realizes Brim is on my shoulder.
“A little stowaway,” I say.
“Naughty—”
“Don’t make her mad. She’s feeling a little touchy on the subject.”
“If Simon sees her …”
“I know. But I need to get her some breakfast before she decides to eat one of us.”
Brim hops off my shoulder onto the counter. She waits expectantly as I inspect the fridge for something to feed her. Either Simon or Dax has stocked the fridge, mostly with foods that I don’t recognize. I move aside Simon’s bottle of beet juice and find a package of something called cold cuts. I smell it and then hold it out to Brim for her inspection. She sniffs it and bites the corner of the package. I take that as approval and tear it open. She anxiously snatches bits of the meatlike substance from my hand, nipping my fingers in her overexcitement.
Dax pulls something from the paper bag that sits on the table. It looks like meat and cheese wrapped in a really thin, round piece of flatbread. He takes a bite and sighs. “You know I volunteered to be your guide because we’re friends, but honestly, I would have done it just for the late-night taco runs. Man, I missed Mexican food.”
Dax finishes his so-called taco and then turns his tablet back on. He swipes at the screen a couple of times, and then grunts with displeasure.
“What are you doing?”
“Trying to catch up on things since I was here last.” He points at the tablet. “I’ve been researching local news, that sort of thing. They’ve already got a write-up on what happened to that girl they found near the grove. It says that doctors concluded that she had a massive heart attack, passed out, tumbled down the slope, and fell into the lake. If she hadn’t been found by some fellow students, she probably would have died of hypothermia or drowned. They say she’s in a coma.”
“Massive heart attack? That means her heart seized up, yes?”
“Yes.”
“How old is she?”
“Seventeen.”
“Is that normal?”
“No.”
“Were there any wounds? Was there blood?”
“It doesn’t say.”
Brim licks my fingers, greedily searching for more meat. I pull another slice from the package and give it to her whole, distracted by a suspicion that edges into my thoughts.
“What are you thinking?” Dax asks. “You’ve got that look.”
I pick up Brim, who is trying to chew her way into the package of cold cuts. “I noticed a weird smell at the lake. Like death lingering in the air.”
“But the girl didn’t die.”
“Exactly.” I look at Dax. My suspicion is going to sound crazy—even to him. “What if Brim wasn’t the only stowaway who passed with us through the gate?”
Dax laughs. “You’re kidding, right? That’s impossible.” He looks at me and his laughter dies. “How could it get out?”
“I don’t know.” I suddenly feel stupid for suggesting it. But if my suspicions are right …
“I’ll look into it,” he says. “Meanwhile, you rest up. You’re going to need your strength.”
I give him an inquisitive look.
“You’re starting school on Monday.”