Leo’s heart started doing something uncomfortable. He looked up from the screen. The real library matched the game perfectly—except in the game, the hallway kept going past the fire exit, into a corridor that didn’t exist in real life.

The bell rang.

And he would type the same six words.

Leo turned. Big mistake.

The moment the school librarian said “research project,” Leo knew exactly what that really meant: forty-five minutes of blessed, unmonitored screen time. He slid into the creaky chair by the window, the one where the Chromebook’s battery miraculously lasted longer, and cracked his knuckles.

First, he opened Google Docs. Typed a title: The History of the Printing Press . Perfect camouflage.

Heavy. Dark. Keyhole shaped like an eye.