Wren squeezed her eyes tighter. Damn. She knew this voice. She'd heard him so many times in class even though it was just one lesson - she'd hear his voice perk up every now and then a million times.

'I ... thought I heard voices.'

Footsteps crawled closer. Wren opened her eyes a little to see a shadow that belonged to none other than Duncan Archambeau. She saw Jake's face peer up at her. Even though he wasn't saying anything, his face screamed, 'Is that who I think it is?'

Duncan edged closer towards the round table Jake was squatting uncomfortably under. He flipped through the open book and looked around.

'Hm.'

He took one or two steps back, then Wren noticed Jake had his face scrunched up, all red. His eyes bulged out and the way his cheeks puffed out told her that he had air collected inside. He did not look good, considering the way his face was reddened, and he looked as if he was about to sneeze -

Wren's heart stopped beating.

Oh Lord.

Quickly and hastily, Wren drew her hand across her throat, making wild hand movements that were supposed to say, 'Hold it in, hold it in.' The way Jake was shaking his head was a bad sign ...

Duncan hummed as he tapped his foot. He was calm. He didn't look like he was dying for Professor Haldes to call his name out to answer a question. He looked relaxed.

He looked like ... he was waiting.

Suddenly, a loud 'atchoo' conquered the silence of the room, making Wren jump slightly. She rolled her eyes, knowing immediately it was Jake. Duncan turned on a heel sharply.

'Who's there?'

'No one,' Jake squeaked. Wren groaned inwardly, pressing her palm to her forehead. A frown from Duncan.

'Kai, is that you? Stop playing pranks.'

Wren jogged her memory back and then remembered Kai, brother of Corinne. Were Kai and Duncan meeting up? Honestly, she wouldn't be surprised that Kai would be here - but Duncan?

Duncan did not seem like the boy you'd expect who wants to find out about Shadow Angels - if that was what he was doing.

'Uh -' Jake squeaked again, looking at Wren for support. Wren made the stop sign.

'Are you telling me I should stop?' Jake mumbled, loud enough for Duncan to here. Wren nodded vigorously as Duncan sighed.

'Yeah. Get out of there. I think Estella's on her way now.'

What? Wren swore under her breath. Enigmatic Estella would be here. Of course she would be here. Of course anyone would be here.

No reply from Jake.

'Kai?'

And Duncan looked under the table.

No! shrieked Wren's mind. Why would he look under the table? NO!

'There you are, Kai! I told you to stop fooling around and that Estella's gonna be here in five -' Duncan froze when he saw Jake's face. Jake seemed as paranoid as he was.

'Um, hi?'

Duncan shrieked and collapsed into a heap of boxes backwards. Wren hurled herself out of her hiding spot, grabbed Jake's arm and shouted Ladislaya's name twice as fast, hoping Duncan would be too overwhelmed to notice anything.

'Do we run?' Jake yelled.

'We run!' Wren screamed.

'Where's Ladislaya?'

Out of nowhere, Ladislaya appeared behind Wren, panting. 'Call me Effiene. Middle name's my code name. Now let's get out of here.'

'Wait!' Duncan shouted after them.

But they didn't have to wait - for as they made it up the stairs, they bumped into a figure that was unmistakably Kai. Tall, muscular, broad shoulders - even anyone could recognise him just by seeing his shadow.

'What the -'

The three of them collided into him, falling onto the ground with Jake rolling down the stairs.

'What the hell's going on in there?' Kai's voice perked up.

'Kai!' Duncan shrieked from inside.

'Dun - hang on -'

Wren felt her head. A nasty bump was forming. She'd hit her head against the corner of the wall after colliding into Kai and now she felt like she was about to puke.

Ladislaya groaned beside her. Wren opened her eyes to see Kai and Duncan towering over them. Wren groaned and turned to her side.

'I feel like I ate a whole bag of Cheerios and my stomach just gave up on me,' she whimpered.

'You girls good?' Kai asked.

Wren turned to face him. 'Does it look like we're good? I just hit my head against the corner of the wall!'

'It'd be great if you learned how to solve your own problems,' Kai said, offering his hand. She grasped it as he pulled her up. 'Thanks, I guess,' she said, turning back to Ladislaya. 'Ladislaya, you okay?'

She whimpered. 'C'mon,' Wren gripped her hand, pulling her up.

'Okay, I've got questions,' Kai said, clearing his throat.

'We've got questions,' Wren said suddenly. Kai looked taken-aback.

'No we don't,' Ladislaya said quickly. 'Continue, Kai.'

'Wait, where's Jake?' Wren asked, interrupting the commotion.

'Oh, he rolled down the stairs earlier,' Duncan informed her. 'It was a figure, but I assumed it was Jake the way it was groaning.'

'He,' corrected Wren.

'Yup. He.'

'What were you three doing here?' Kai asked dubiously, looking from Wren to Ladislaya. Ladislaya to Wren. And then vice versa.

'Breathing,' Wren said, adjusting the hem of her shirt, trying to make her face look convincing. 'Oxygen,' she added on second thought.

Kai nodded slowly, raising his eyebrows. 'This is -'

'What were you doing here?' Wren asked, avoiding the question.

Kai winced. 'Why are you avoiding my question?'

'Political reasons. Tell me, Kai, do you wander around the library often at night or is it just a special occasion tonight?'

Kai looked at Duncan and did a double-take. 'It's a -'

'Why were you even here?'

'We were - we were having a boys' night out,' Kai said lamely.

Ladislaya raised an eyebrow.

'Whoop!' added Kai in an unconvincing cheer after an afterthought. 'Whew. We were gonna do our boy guy stuff y'know. Nothing girls will understand.'

'I've heard of girls' night out, but I never knew boys' night outs were a thing.'

'We have created our own ... thing,' mumbled Duncan.

Wren raised an eyebrow. 'Last time I checked, Estella isn't a boy.'

'And when was the last time you checked?' Kai pounced at once.

Wren shrugged. 'Forever.'

There was a clatter from inside the room and all four of them turned around to see Jake rubbing his swollen head, staring up at Kai, Duncan, and Estella in amazement.

'Are you in a secret society?' Jake wheezed.

'I can't tell you that,' Kai said.

'That means you are in a secret society, otherwise, you'd just say no,' Jake said in awe.

'No I - I'm not in a secret society.'

There was a small, awkward pause between the two groups. Both stared at each other - girls with folded arms and boys with hands on their hips. Jake was staring at the four of them with his mouth open. Wren found joy inside of her - they were supposed to be the ones lying, but somehow, they'd twisted the whole story around like Uno reverse.

Just when Kai opened his mouth to speak, Estella appeared. She was dressed in her pajamas, looking half-awake.

'I demand for sleep.'

'Yeah ... later,' Kai said, looking at Wren and Ladislaya out of the corner of his eye. Estella noticed the two girls.

'Since when were they part of our society?'

Wren's ears perked up.

'We just caught them there!' Kai said. 'One minute I was walking into the room and the next these two and Jake were bumping into me!'

Estella looked at Wren and Ladislaya inquiringly. 'What are you doing here?'

'What are you doing here?' Ladislaya retorted.

Estella shrugged. 'Mm. Just showing up to a typical secret society meeting.'

Both Kai and Duncan groaned.

'You weren't supposed to say that!' Kai whined.

'What?' Estella said, scowling.

'You just told non-secret society members we're having a secret society meeting. Now the cat's out of the bag.'

'What do you mean? I can't tell people about the secret society?' Estella said in disbelief.

'Well - yeah!'

There was a short pause.

'Why not?' Estella said, disgruntled.

Kai looked outraged and pissed off at the same time. 'Because it's secret!'

'Ohhh,' Estella said after a moment's pause. She snapped her fingers. 'Yup. Okay. I get it now. But now Wren and Ladislaya know it all, there's no turning back now - so why don't we get our meeting started? Chop-chop.' She went down the stairs, whistling quietly.

Jake gaped up at Kai in astonishment. 'So you are in a secret society!'

'Yeah. Whatever.'

Wren and Ladislaya turned to Kai and Duncan, speechless. Kai and Duncan sighed. 'You can't tell anyone this, okay?' Duncan said. 'It's a secret society and it's supposed to be secret. So please don't spill.'

Wren pretended to think. 'On a condition,' she said cheerfully. Kai and Duncan's faces fell.

'What?' Kai said, disgruntled.

'You let me, Ladislaya and Jake be with you guys down there this whole night until your meeting's over.'

Kai and Duncan looked at each other.

'Can we - can we get to discuss it first?' Kai asked.

'No.'

'Fine. You can come. Just promise you won't say anything to anyone. Not a word.'

'Promise,' Wren said.

'We have a deal. Great.'

Wren followed them back into their secret society room. 'So it's just you three?' she asked. 'You, Duncan and Estella?'

'And Aurora,' Kai said, confirming her worst thoughts. 'Aurora?' Wren said, playing along. Kai walked over to one of the many bookshelves and picked one up. 'Yeah. Aurora Nightshade. She was the one with the idea to have a secret society.'

Wren and Ladislaya glanced at each other.

'Everyone's curious about the Shadow Angels,' Kai went on, dragging two chairs from the corner of the room. 'Of course we couldn't turn down the idea when Aurora proposed.'

He set down the two chairs on the ground and went back to drag another.

'We're supposed to meet her tonight. No idea where she is now. She usually shows up to meetings late, because she hates getting up from bed.'

'Don't we all,' murmured Ladislaya.

Kai got out some boxes and set them down vertically on the ground. 'Besides, there were no rules against having a secret society in the school anyway.'

'How many meetings have you had?' Wren asked.

Kai shrugged. 'Not many. We started probably a month ago. We meet twice a week, so ...' he counted on his fingers, 'around eleven times, maybe?'

'There was once we canceled because we had to stay in for Dark Arts,' Estella reminded him. She raised her eyebrows when Kai looked confused. 'Homework? We had to prep the day after.'

'Oh yeah. So that makes that around ten meetings, I guess.' Kai put the book down on the box and turned to Wren. 'How did you guys know about this place? I mean, only secret society members know about this.'

'Tigers have stripes, we have ways,' Wren said matter-of-factly.

Kai glanced at her from the corner of her eye.

'What were you doing here?' Duncan asked.

'We ... saw Aurora outside,' answered Wren automatically. Duncan sat on the chair and opened the book, rifling through the pages.

Kai raised his eyebrows, clearly not believing her.

'What? We did,' she said, widening her eyes.

'Then why isn't she here?'

'She was outside. And I believe she still is. She was just lurking around the woods like she was waiting -'

'Oh damn,' Kai said, sinking down on his chair, pressing his fingers to his face. Wren frowned. 'What?'

'She must have been waiting for the Ghouls.'

'But she said she was waiting for the Shadow Angels,' Ladislaya protested, frowning.

'She told you?' Estella said, perking up.

'Not ... not really. She just described it. And by her description, I thought she meant the Shadow Angels.'

'Wait, how can she wait for a Ghoul, whatever that is?' Wren asked, frowning.

'We don't usually let non-society members go through the information we find out,' Kai said, standing up and taking the open book from the round table. 'But there are two things you need to know. Shadow Angels and Ghouls are like shoes and socks, but they're not the same.'

'Interesting choice of words,' Estella grumped. Kai ignored her and flipped through the pages until he landed on a page with a picture of a monstrous humanoid. It looked emaciated and had a hunchback.

'It feeds on corpses,' Kai added. Wren winced.

'That's beside the point.' Kai trailed his finger across the page and pointed to a short paragraph. 'Look. This is where the Shadow Angels come in. Ghouls control the Shadow Angels. They tell them what to do.'

'I thought Shadow Angels do nothing but lurk around in the shadows?' Ladislaya said uncertainly.

'Yeah. Shadow Angels lurk in the shadows and are perfectly harmless when ghouls aren't controlling them. But when the ghouls do, watch out,' Kai said, flinching himself. 'Ghouls control Shadow Angels to steal others' spirits.'

'Why don't they do it themselves?' Jake asked.

'Shadow Angels are like disguises to them,' Kai explained. 'With Shadow Angels, they get to hide their true identity. That way, they won't get captured.'

'You can capture a Shadow Angel?' Wren asked.

'No, not Shadow Angels. The ghouls. You can capture ghouls. But not everyone though. Only the Ghoul-catchers can. They've got special weapons of that sort.'

Wren didn't say anything. She watched Kai flip through the pages of the book.

'So that's what you're doing?' she said finally. 'Studying about some ... monster?'

Kai sighed and closed the book. 'I know. It sounds totally insane. But Aurora wants to find out because ... she has personal interest in them,' Kai finished his sentence, avoiding eye contact with Wren.

Wren furrowed her brow. 'Personal interest?'

Kai hesitated before answering. 'Yeah, that's what she said. She said something about "bad experiences in the past", that's all.'

'What kind of bad experiences?' Ladislaya interrupted.

Kai shrugged and fiddled with the earring on his left ear. 'I don't know. We tried asking her, but that's all she told us. I guess sometimes we all have a chapter in life we don't tell anyone about, so it's nice to respect others' privacy.'

It was a statement, but the way he said it sounded like a question.

'You haven't answered my question,' Wren said, 'how can somebody wait for a Ghoul?'

'Aurora told us that's what we were supposedly going to be studying about this meeting,' Kai said. 'She just ... knew she could wait for a Ghoul. I dunno, I'm confused too.'

'You don't think she's involved with the Dark Arts?' Ladislaya said swiftly. Kai looked taken-aback.

'Nah, Aurora? Heh ... I don't think she's that kind of person ...'

Duncan looked uncomfortable.

'If she was,' whispered Estella dramatically, 'we could have time in jail for supporting her involvement in the Dark Arts.'

Kai scowled. 'Don't be stupid, even if she was, we didn't know she was.'

'What are you talking about, we know right now she is if she is,' Estella said, shrugging. Duncan yelped.

'I can't do time! I quit the club!'

'Don't be stupid!' Kai said hotly.

'Why did she propose the idea of having a secret society?' Jake interrupted.

'Good to have support, I guess,' Kai shrugged, fiddling with the earring on his right ear now. 'Ow -'

The earring fell from his earlobe and he made a lunge to grab it. Wren looked at the book. 'But why secret?' she persisted.

'No idea. We were all in for it,' Kai said. 'I mean, it's nice to belong to a club when we're not part of other clubs, y'know.'

He stuck the earring back in his ear. 'It's just the four of us. We don't know why she specifically chose us, but we think it's for a good cause.'

Wren cocked her head the tiniest millimeter. 'Aren't you Corinne's brother?'

Kai jerked his eyebrows up, looking at Wren in the eye, half-smiling. 'Nice of you to notice.'

'How old even are you?' Wren asked swiftly.

'Sixteen. Two years older than Corinne.'

'So you're a senior,' Wren concluded.

'Exactly. Why?'

'A senior among fourteen-year-olds?' Wren said. 'Duncan and Estella are our classmates, and so is Aurora. Why'd she even choose you?'

'Holy crap, things are getting suspicious,' Jake whispered.

'Does Corinne know you're in a secret society?' Ladislaya asked Kai.

'No. Should she? I have the right to do anything I want, and she doesn't have to be there in my life the whole time, being a spy for my mom.'

A crash from above interrupted their conversation. 'Damn,' Estella said. 'We gotta get out.'

'That was fast,' Kai said.

'What's fast?' Wren asked. 'That was a crash, wasn't it?'

'Of course it was. That's the signal the portrait passageway is closing soon. It opens every night at 11:45pm and closes at 2am.'

'Why 11:45 and 2?' Wren asked, hurrying to catch the others up.

'I don't know. It's like a natural thing that happens.' Kai and Wren slid out of the passageway as the half-pillar closed slowly and the portrait clicked back into place. Kai exhaled. 'Whew. How'd you guys even figure out how to open the passageway?'

'Just - just some general knowledge from the movies.'

Kai looked at his watch. '2:01am. I suggest we all go back to bed. I don't know about you -' he pointed to Wren, Jake and Ladislaya, '-but I'm going. Duncan - Estella -?'

'Yeah, I'm going,' Duncan said, trotting after Kai.

'Same with me,' Estella said, yawning as she trudged out of the library sleepily.

Wren, Jake and Ladislaya looked at each other.

'So ...' Wren said, unsure of what to say.

'So ... change of plans?' Jake said uncertainly.

'Besides, Nicaea Valdis can wait,' Ladislaya said. All three had the same thoughts in mind - they didn't have to say them out loud to know. 'We can deal with her later. Aurora's the minor problem now, isn't she?'

'I wouldn't say minor problem,' Wren said. 'I just think we should take it slow. The information Kai gave us is really helpful. And it's also another tectonic shift in the world of Aurora Nightshade.'

Jake shrugged. 'Fine by me.'

'Who knows Nicaea's got an army of Shadow Angels against me.'

'Now let's not jump to conclusions -' Jake said loudly and the other too shushed him equally loudly.

'I think we need to get some sleep first,' Ladislaya said. 'No use researching about the Shadow Angels now that we know, huh?'