Myheart sinks. Dylan trusts me. Am I really going let him fail because of me?For so long I’ve wished for real friends—for someone to have my back.Is this the kind of friend I want to be?No. I’ve got to at least try my best. I can always quit after this tryout.Near the end of the hallway, Dylan and I find a staircase hidden away inthe darkness. We both ease down the steps as quietly as possible. A dark stone room waits at the bottom of the stairs. A row of pedestalsruns down the middle, leading to a tall red door in the middle of the backwall.Dylan raises his dagger, his eyes darting around the room. I grip thehandle of my ax and move to his side. As we near the pedestals, I keepwaiting for something to jump out. For some alarm or booby trap to go off.Nothing happens.Dylan presses his lips tight. “This feels . . .”“Too easy?” I finish.“Way too easy,” Dylan agrees. “Unless this test is just deciding which ofthese treasures is the most valuable.”I take a look at the pedestals. There are four in all, each a little taller thanthe one before it. The first pedestal holds a painting of a giant sea dragoncrushing a large wooden ship. Electricity sparks across the beast’s massivebody.“The leviathan,” says Dylan, coming up beside me. “One of the sevengreat beasts.”Dylan continues to the second pedestal where a bowl of clay sits. It’scovered in primitive markings.“I bet that’s beyond ancient,” I say.Dylan’s eyes go back and forth between the two pedestals. “Does thatmake it more or less valuable than the painting?”“Good question.”Dylan shakes his head in frustration. “This is impossible.”On the third pedestal is a glittering diamond bracelet. The fourth holds agolden crown covered in jewels. I stare at the last pedestal. The diamondmight make me rich, but a crown would make me queen. But it can’t be thatsimple, can it?I want a closer look. But the moment I step beyond the diamond bracelet,a loud boom echoes through the room as something crashes into the otherside of the big red door.I turn to find Dylan staring wideeyed.“Take another step,” says Dylan.I move closer to the crown.Boom! Another bonerattling crash. Every step I take toward the crowncauses something to slam into the door.“Grab the crown!” Dylan shouts.I sprint the rest of the way and snatch the crown from the pedestal. Thered door bursts open, sending a wave of water through the room. It knocksme off my feet and carries me back to the third pedestal.I whip my head around looking for Dylan and find him sliding, wavinghis arms for something to hold on to. He slams hard into the back wall andvanishes.He must’ve woken up.Meaning I’m on my own now. I dropped my ax when that wave hit me,but at least I managed to hold on to the crown. Seeing as how the dreamhasn’t ended yet, it’s pretty clear that just having it isn’t enough. I need toget back up the stairs.The room beyond the door is full of water, but it isn’t pouring out. It’slike the water has been magicked to stay inside. A huge, dark shadowappears. I swallow and grip the crown more tightly. What could that be?Shimmering gray scales emerge from the watery room. I recognize themfrom one of Quinton’s old nature magazines. A water python. Actually, theking of water pythons—that thing’s head is the size of a car.The giant snake hisses and bares it fangs, its beady yellow eyes glaring.Can’t give up. I need to think of a plan. But what? Maybe if I can get tomy ax I can fight it off?I crawl through a foot of water to the last pedestal, putting it between thesnake and me. I glance around for my ax. Yeah, because that’ll do a lot ofgood against that thing. Dumb plan, Amari.I’ll have to make a run for it.Another menacing hiss fills the room.I sprint for the stairs, but the giant snake doesn’t give chase. A realizationstrikes me like lightning—the crown isn’t what we came for. I stop justshort of the stairwell and drop it.The instant my foot touches the first stair the world around me vanishes.I wake up in my bed, a pair of Wakeful Dream shades over my eyes.An agent lifts the shades from my face. When I sit up, I’m surrounded bythe other girl trainees.“How do you feel?” asks the agent. Her name tag says Special AgentMeredith Walters.“Sleepy,” I say. “Did I pass?”“You made it the longest,” she replies, “and that’s usually a very goodsign.”“And Dylan, he’s all right?” I ask.Agent Walters nods and stands. “Now that everyone is awake, please goto the locker rooms and get changed into your trainee uniforms. Onceeveryone is dressed, we’ll head to the briefing auditorium to meet withAgent Fiona and Agent Magnus for the results. I must stress that the tryouthasn’t concluded, so no talking among yourselves.”“It seems the girls have arrived,” says Agent Magnus from up onstage.“Please come up and stand next to your partner.”I see Dylan near the end of the stage and take the spot next to him. Hiseyes ask me how it went but I can only give him a small shrug. I’ve eithergot this thing all figured out, or I screwed it up bigtime.Agent Fiona clears her throat and steps to the center of the stage. “Nowthat everyone’s here, allow me to start by saying that no matter how ye didduring your tryout, ye should be proud of yourselves. This tryout isdesigned to trick ye, to test your instincts and your ability to work as ateam. Instincts and teamwork are the foundation of what makes a greatagent.”She continues. “Every single action was judged, but there were threeautomatic disqualifiers. The first test was simple: Did ye leave the librarytogether? There were quite a few close calls but ultimately only two pairsfailed that task. When I read your names, please exit the stage and meetwith Agent Walters at the entrance for further instruction.”Once those trainees are gone, Agent Fiona shoots the rest of us a sneakysmile. “Next, we offered ye the chance to get yourselves a weapon. Andthen we gave ye a chance to use it. Depending on the combined level offamiliarity with the supernatural world, there were more or less clues thatMr. Zombie was absolutely not a threat. For instance, a pair with nofamiliarity had Mr. Zombie appear in pink polka dot pajamas humminghappy birthday whilst carrying a bouquet of flowers.”Chuckles erupt in the theater.“Still, this one tripped up a few of ye,” says Agent Fiona. She reads offsome names and more trainees leave the stage.Agent Fiona crosses her arms. “Seems the most effective of thedisqualifiers was the stranded trainee room. A dirty trick, to be sure, but also a way to take measure of your instincts and how well you analyze asituation. There was no range of difficulty for this test—it was the same forall of ye.”This time eight trainees hear their names called.“Good news, all,” says Agent Fiona. “Since we’re already at the sixteentrainees we expected to keep, it means everyone left onstage has passed thefirst tryout . . .”I blow out a huge sigh of relief. Thank goodness.“But dontcha go gettin’ comfortable, because the second tryout will be adoozy! Lucky for two of ye, the pair that scored the highest in this tryoutgets a head start at the next one. Now then, the objective was to retrievewhat was stolen, and we gave ye a hint that it was the most valuable thingyou’d find. Curiously, every pair but one left with the crown in hand. Wouldye believe the odd pair is none other than Dylan Van Helsing and hispartner, Amari Peters? I wonder, does that make ye more or less confidentin your choice?”Dylan spins around to face me, eyes wide. I open my mouth to defendmyself, but remember we aren’t allowed to speak yet. Was I really the onlyone to leave the crown behind?“I’m going down the row,” says Agent Fiona. “And I want each of you totell me why ye made the decision ye did.”All the others have similar answers.“Crowns are priceless.”“Crowns give you power.”“Crowns represent a whole nation of people.”Finally, Agent Fiona stops in front of me and Dylan. “I’d ask ye aboutthe decision, little Van Helsing, but ye didn’t make it to the end, did ye?”Dylan goes red.Agent Fiona steps in front of me. “Tell me, was it a bit of genius or asevere case of overthinking that led ye to drop the crown before retreatingup the staircase?”I clear my throat. “I’ll say . . . genius?”Agent Fiona begins to circle both me and Dylan. “Go on, then. I’d love tohear the reasonin’.”“Well,” I say. “I didn’t actually know until I tried to escape with thecrown. The water python didn’t chase me and I wondered why. Then I realized it was because the snake wasn’t guarding the crown. It wasguarding the water.”“Hmm,” says Agent Fiona. “Interestin’ theory. But why would the waterbe so valuable?”“Because the dream took place in a desert,” I reply. “I noticed it when wewere in the weapons room. The land was so barren, the only thing alive wasa cactus. And even that had been chopped down for the water already. Put aking in that desert and he’d gladly trade his crown for a drink of water.”“Shots fired!” Agent Fiona laughs. “Okay, Miss SmartyPants. Why thenwould the water python attack when ye grabbed the crown?”I grin, feeling more confident. “The crown was on the last pedestal,” Isay. “Every step closer to the crown was also a step closer to the waterroom the snake was guarding. Behind that door, the python only knew that Iwas getting closer. It couldn’t have known if I was going for the crown orthe water room.”“Still,” Agent Fiona says, coming to a stop in front of me. She eyes meclosely. “Ye were asked to retrieve what was most important.”“I did,” I say. “I was dripping wet when I got to the last stair.”“You’re absolutely correct. Congratulations! A perfect score. First timesince your brother did it. Ye and Dylan will both receive a thirtysecondhead start at the next tryout. Should ye decide to split up and choose newpartners, then it’ll apply to both your new teams.”Agent Fiona winks and adds in a lower voice, “Trust you’ll be stickingaround then, Peters?”Dylan picks me up and spins me around the stage. My arms are flailingand I’m grinning and laughing so hard my stomach aches.“That was so epic!” he says, finally putting me down. “We really did it!”I nod, my face flushing. “We really did.”Lara steps between us. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t send thatvideo to my father right now.”“What video?” says Dylan.“I recorded your partner using a spell book inside the Bureau,” saysLara. “Caught her redhanded.”“Prove it,” says Dylan.Lara pulls out her phone and starts tapping away at the screen. Her facefalls. “It’s gone! I don’t get it. It was right here!” “There you go making stuff up again, sis.” Dylan shakes his head. “Oh,and the book is mine, by the way. Amari’s just borrowing it. You tell Dad Ibrought it here, and I’ll tell Mom who really maxed out her DuboiseCosmetics credit card.”Lara just stands there, stunned. Then she huffs and stomps away from us.“Make sure you put my book back where you found it,” Dylan calls.If Lara was shocked, it’s nothing to how I feel. “You erased the videowith magic?” I ask.“Techmagic has its benefits.”“Thank you so much,” I say. “If I’d thought of that earlier, I could’vesaved myself a whole lot of worrying.”Dylan just shrugs. “Partners have each other’s backs, right?”Definitely.