CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

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The foyer's empty now, and Chloe immediately turns down a long hallway

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The foyer's empty now, and Chloe immediately turns down a long hallway. Carved wooden doors with bronze numbers march down the right wall, but on our left, the wall's made entirely of glass.

Which means I'm still on display for all the students out front to see.

I keep my red face down, staring at the dark polished wood floor, counting each step in an effort to calm myself.

But I'm not freakin' calm.

With every step I take, my anger burns hotter.

My body's aching from a million recent insults, and my life's a goddamn wreck.

I'm so over all this shit.

My whole life I've been ignored, abused, and bullied. And now I'm thisclose to getting executed because a mythical monster tried to eat me. Screw this secret society bullshit.

Enough already!

I'm fuming by the time we reach the elevator at the far end of the hallway.

The steel doors slide open, revealing even more clear glass at the back of the elevator.

Dubois shoves me into it.

"Don't touch me!" I round on him with my teeth bared.

"Leave her alone," Chloe snaps.

He glares at her, but she's ignoring him, pressing her palm to a bronze metal plate on the wall. Instead of choosing one of the buttons with a floor number, she pushes the one with a Metatron's Cube on it.

The doors slide shut, and my stomach flips as we start to rise.

After a second, I dart a glance out the clear back wall and edge closer to the doors, wishing I could grab the rail. Too high.

Students are boarding the buses, and they're all walking around my backpack like it's infected with the plague. It's all alone on a bare patch of sidewalk, stuff half-falling out.

Whatever. No one here's gonna steal my dirty clothes and dollar bills. Not even sure I need them anymore.

Heat rushes through me again, my anger boiling over.

The elevator dings, and Chloe turns to Dubois. "After you."

He steps out almost reluctantly, and Chloe leans in, close to my ear.

"Be quiet in there," she whispers. "Be respectful. And let me do the talking."

I nod stiffly, then follow her out of the elevator, and into

an open space much like the first-floor foyer.

Part of the clear dome and Redwood canopy are above us, and the floor is polished wood with another large stone tile engraved with a Metatron's Cube.

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