"I can't believe your mom let us have this much food," Elias said, his mouth half-full of microwaved pizza. They sat at the kitchen counter, surrounded by an impressive array of snacks—chips, cookies, leftover pizza, and two cans of soda.

  Marcus shrugged, trying to appear nonchant. "She likes you. Says you're a good influence."

  Elias nearly choked on his pizza. "Me? A good influence? Does she know me at all?"

  "She says you 'bring me out of my shell,'" Marcus admitted, making air quotes with his fingers.

  "Well, she's not wrong." Elias nudged Marcus's shoulder with his own. "Remember before we were friends? You barely spoke to anyone."

  Marcus remembered. Sixth grade had been rough—new school, no friends, and a natural shyness that made it hard to connect with people. Until Elias had barreled into his life, all chaotic energy and stubborn friendship.

  "Yeah, well," Marcus said, taking a sip of his soda to hide his smile. "Someone had to keep you from getting into too much trouble."

  Elias ughed. "Fair point. We bance each other out."

  They ate in comfortable silence for a moment, the kitchen clock ticking softly in the background. Through the window, Marcus could see stars scattered across the night sky, reminding him of the celestial cipher they'd just solved.

  "So what do you think the box will show us?" he asked, trying to sound casual. "When we solve all seven yers. Our heart's 'true desire' or whatever."

  Elias seemed to consider the question seriously, his usual restless energy momentarily stilled. "I don't know. Something we want but don't know we want, maybe?" He paused. "What if it shows different things to each of us?"

  The thought hadn't occurred to Marcus. "You think that's possible?"

  "Well, we have different desires, right?" Elias said, staring into his soda can as if it held answers. "Different things we want from life."

  Marcus swallowed hard. "Right. Of course." He tried not to think about what the box might reveal to him. About who it might reveal.

  Elias gnced at the clock and groaned. "It's almost midnight. We should probably call it a night."

  "Yeah," Marcus agreed reluctantly. "We still have school tomorrow."

  "Don't remind me," Elias sighed. "Mrs. Pembroke's calculus test."

  "Which you haven't studied for," Marcus guessed.

  "I was busy finding magical puzzle boxes!" Elias protested, gesturing wildly. "Priorities, Marcus."

  "You'll ace it anyway," Marcus said, rolling his eyes. It was true—despite his scattered approach to academics, Elias had an almost supernatural ability to absorb information. He rarely studied but maintained nearly perfect grades, a fact that both impressed and annoyed their cssmates.

  They cleaned up their mess and headed back upstairs. In Marcus's room, Elias looked longingly at the puzzle box, which now dispyed the fourth yer—what appeared to be some kind of musical sequence with symbols that resembled notes on a staff.

  "We could just do one more," he suggested hopefully.

  "No way," Marcus said firmly. "You need sleep. I need sleep. The box will still be here tomorrow."

  "Fine," Elias pouted dramatically, then brightened. "I'll come over right after school. We can work on it then."

  "Deal," Marcus agreed.

  As was their ritual on sleepover nights, they took turns in the bathroom getting ready for bed. Marcus had a spare toothbrush that had become unofficially Elias's over the years. They moved around each other with the comfortable familiarity of long friendship, elbows occasionally bumping at the sink.

  Marcus's room had a twin bed and a pull-out trundle beneath it. As he extracted the trundle and made it up with sheets and a bnket, Elias flopped onto Marcus's main bed and sighed contentedly.

  "Your bed is always more comfortable than mine," he decred, burying his face in Marcus's pillow.

  "That's because you never wash your sheets," Marcus pointed out, throwing a spare pillow at Elias's head.

  "Details," Elias mumbled into the pillow. Then, without warning, he sat up. "Hey, I almost forgot. Did you hear about the abandoned subway station Bke and Tyler found? The one with the weird writing on the walls?"

  Marcus paused in making up the trundle bed. "No, when was this?"

  "Last weekend, apparently. They were exploring the old tunnels near Riverside Park and found a station that's not on any map. Said the walls were covered in symbols." Elias's eyes were bright with excitement. "We should check it out."

  "You want to go into abandoned subway tunnels," Marcus said ftly.

  "For research purposes!" Elias insisted. "What if the symbols are connected to the ones on the box? What if there's more magic down there?"

  Marcus sighed. This was cssic Elias—always chasing the next mystery, the next adventure. "Let's finish the box first, then we can talk about possibly getting tetanus in underground tunnels."

  Elias grinned, knowing he'd eventually win this argument. "Deal." He finally vacated Marcus's bed and dropped onto the trundle, cocooning himself in the bnket.

  Marcus turned off the main light, leaving only his small desk mp on. He climbed into his own bed and reached for his well-worn copy of "The Fellowship of the Ring" on the nightstand.

  Below him, Elias was already on his phone, the blue light illuminating his face in the semi-darkness. After a few minutes, he put the phone down and stared up at the ceiling.

  "Marcus?" His voice was quieter than usual.

  "Yeah?"

  "Thanks for doing this with me. The puzzle box, I mean. It's more fun with you."

  Marcus felt a familiar warmth spread through his chest. "Of course. That's what friends are for."

  "Best friends," Elias corrected, and Marcus could hear the smile in his voice.

  "Best friends," Marcus echoed, the words both wonderful and painful.

  Eventually, Elias's breathing slowed and deepened into sleep. Marcus put his book down and turned off the mp, but y awake for a long time, listening to the soft sounds of Elias's breathing and thinking about puzzle boxes that revealed true desires.

  The next morning was a blur of rushed breakfast, st-minute homework checking, and racing to make it to school before the first bell. They arrived with seconds to spare, breathless and ughing as they skidded into homeroom just as their teacher was closing the door.

  "Cutting it close, Mr. Chen, Mr. Reyes," Mrs. Alvarez said dryly.

  "Sorry, Mrs. A," Elias replied with his most charming smile. "Arm clock malfunction."

  She raised an eyebrow but waved them to their seats.

  The school day crawled by with excruciating slowness. Marcus found himself doodling the symbols from the puzzle box in his notebook during English, earning a curious look from Mia Chen (no retion to Elias), who sat next to him.

  "What are those?" she whispered, nodding at his drawings.

  "Just some symbols I saw in a book," he replied vaguely.

  She studied them for a moment. "They look like protection sigils."

  Marcus turned to her in surprise. "You know about sigils?"

  Mia shrugged, pushing her gsses up. "My grandmother practices traditional Chinese magic. Some of those look simir to the symbols she uses."

  Before Marcus could ask more questions, their teacher called on Mia to analyze a passage from "The Great Gatsby," and the moment was lost.

  At lunch, Marcus shared this exchange with Elias as they sat at their usual table in the far corner of the cafeteria.

  "Mia Knows about magic?" Elias whispered, gncing across the room to where Mia sat with her friends. "I had no idea. We should talk to her."

  "Maybe," Marcus said noncommittally. He wasn't sure he wanted to share their puzzle box adventure with anyone else just yet. It felt special, something just between them.

  The calculus test in fifth period was as brutal as expected. Marcus worked through the problems methodically, double-checking his work. Across the room, Elias seemed to be flying through the test, his pencil moving quickly. When he finished, a full fifteen minutes before the bell, he caught Marcus's eye and gave him a thumbs up.

  Show-off, Marcus mouthed, and Elias grinned unrepentantly.

  By the time the final bell rang, Marcus was practically vibrating with impatience. He met Elias at his locker, where his friend was stuffing books haphazardly into his already chaotic backpack.

  "Ready?" Marcus asked.

  "Born ready," Elias replied, smming his locker shut. "Let's go solve that musical puzzle."

  They were halfway to the exit when a voice called out behind them. "Elias! Wait up!"

  They turned to see Jenna Marshall, captain of the debate team and, according to school rumor, possessed of a massive crush on Elias. She hurried toward them, her dark curls bouncing.

  "Hey," she said, slightly breathless. "Are you guys going to Tyler's party Friday night?"

  "Uh, we haven't decided yet," Elias said, shifting his weight from one foot to the other—a sure sign he was anxious to leave.

  "You should come," Jenna said, smiling at Elias. "It's going to be great. His parents are out of town, and his brother is getting a keg."

  "We'll think about it," Elias promised vaguely. "Right now we've got this thing we need to do, so..."

  "Oh, right, sorry," Jenna said, though she didn't move. "Well, I hope you can make it. Both of you," she added, gncing briefly at Marcus as if just remembering he was there.

  "Thanks," Marcus said politely. "We'll let you know."

  With a final smile at Elias, Jenna turned and walked away.

  "Are we going to that party?" Marcus asked as they resumed their journey to the exit.

  "Depends on how far we get with the puzzle box," Elias said. "But probably not. Tyler's parties always end with someone crying or throwing up. Sometimes both."

  "True," Marcus agreed, pushing open the door to the outside world. The autumn air was crisp, the afternoon sun casting long shadows across the school grounds.

  "Race you to your house?" Elias challenged, already dropping into a sprinter's stance.

  Marcus rolled his eyes but couldn't help smiling. "You're on."

  They took off running, backpacks bouncing against their backs, ughing as they dodged pedestrians and jumped over low fences. For a moment, they were just two ordinary teenagers on an ordinary day.

  But waiting at home was a magical puzzle box with the potential to reveal their deepest desires. And as they ran side by side through the familiar streets of their neighborhood, Marcus wondered what extraordinary revetions awaited them in the ordinary magic of their friendship.