I stared at the place Felix had been, not really seeing it.
I need to move. There could be more things like that out there.
I forced myself to turn and walk back to Hoteluxgic. To the tiger, Felix and I were like toys. Moving, thinking toys. The tiger gives me a riddle, makes sure I don’t tell anyone, watches me come desperately after Felix, and when we’re together, she eats us in one bite.
What fun.
I took a notebook out of my backpack and scrawled out the riddle, trying to work it out. One thing was clear- I was forbidden to tell anyone. Four lines of it strictly prohibited me from that. I swallowed. Most of it made sense- but what did ‘getting to the place with the more of you’ mean? I would need to research for that. But most of all, I had forty eight hours.
Forty eight hours to save Felix.

* * *

I arrived at my dorm the minute Ruby and Sam returned from their night trip. “Cora?” They said in unison. They both knew it wasn’t like me to be awake in the middle of the night with a backpack on and leaves on my clothes.
“Hey,” I said, smiling weakly and trying to look casual. “What did you do in Finches’ office this time?” I tried to shove the atlas out of sight, but...
“Melted butter all over his desk. Confiscated all the detention slips. Where have you been, Cory?” Sam said with a sneer, knowing that this would infuriate me. He eyed the book behind my back. “Oh, obviously, the one time Cory goes sneaking off in the middle of the night, she breaks into the library and steals books.”
I fumed. I absolutely hated it when Sam called me Cory. Having a name that sounds like living rocks at the bottom of the ocean was bad enough without a nickname to go with it.
Ruby made a small move to defend me. “You’re putting it a little thick, Sam. Why don’t-”
“Can you stop being so nice to him, Ruby? I hate you, Sam DeComo. If I was allowed to, I would jinx you until you were at my feet apologizing a million times a second. It’s bad enough you live in my dorm. But you don’t have to insult me every time you see me, and you’re stealing my best friend!” I spat in a fury. I stomped to my bed, yanking the curtains around me while Sam stood there without a trace of hurt on his face; my words were meaningless to him.
Ruby sighed. “She doesn’t get it, Sam. She’s just being her overprotective, sensitive self,” she said so quietly I barely caught the words.
Oh, great. Now one of my best friends was backbiting on me, and my other best friend had gotten bitten by a tiger and disappeared.
Which made me start to think about Felix’s last words to me: “Use… the book… please… help me.” What did it mean? I opened the atlas, looking through the images. I imagined the pictures moving and transporting me to wherever Felix was, and- wait! Transporting me to wherever Felix was! That’s what he was trying to tell me! Felix knew I had the most magical education than anyone in the school, and if I couldn’t tell anyone, I could use magic to make the book transport me to where Felix was. I just had to find out where...
I focused on the clues. I had most of it figured out. I just had to decipher “the place with the biggest jewel and the five treasures.” Did that mean… a place in the world known for being a jewel? Or did it mean it in the metaphorical sense? I studied the atlas for a while.
Images of the greatest spots in all the countries whirred in my head. It was all so confusing. And then… something caught my eye.
“India is best known for the Taj Mahal, commonly referred to as the Jewel of India.”
That was it. Felix was in India. If the ‘biggest jewel’ was a monument, then the ‘five treasures’ probably weren’t even treasures. I could figure that out later. I had to do something else first.
I had to do research to find the spell. After Sam and Ruby fell asleep, I had to sneak into the library and find something on how to make a transporting book. I couldn’t wait until morning- there was no time to waste, and who knew what the tiger was doing to Felix. For all I knew, he could already be dead. I winced.
I listened as Ruby and Sam kept chatting about their next scheme about Mr. Finch. “Did you hear what Finch did to Olive Crow? He snapped her poor leg because she stumbled too close to him. She’s in the hospital now with a broken leg.” Ruby whispered
“Serves her right,” Sam snorted, not bothering to keep his voice down. “It’s her fault she’s so clumsy- just like Cory. I hope Finch does that to her-”
“Sam! She’s my best friend! Could you stop being so rude about her?”
“Okay, okay. Besides- it wouldn’t be fun if she ended up in the hospital, I would have no one to be rude to. It’s barely even fun anymore to do that to Cory because Felix is always defending her.” Now Sam’s voice was low, too. “I don’t know why Felix even bothers. He told me himself a few weeks ago after I asked him why he was so nice to Cory.”
“What did he say?” Ruby’s voice was barely audible. I squeezed the atlas against my chest, smiling slightly and knowing that the next time Sam spoke, it would be full of disappointment about Felix’s response.
“Honestly, I expected something nicer. But he said- quote unquote- that he doesn’t like seeing people get bullied, even if it’s a nerd like Cora.”
My stomach dropped. Of course. Of course the one true friend I have was faking it all. Why was I even saving him? Wait- this was Sam speaking. He was obviously lying. I calmed down a bit, internally groaning as their conversation continued. Go to sleep already!
“Poor Cora,” Ruby murmured. “And I thought she and Felix were so close.”
The tears were unstoppable. How many times had I heard the words? Poor Cora, poor Cory, poor Coraline, every single day someone pitied me. I buried my face in my pillow to muffle my sobs, and my eyes instantly closed and sleep came over me.