Lisa POV.

I find Roseanne in the ship's library.

On past trips, it's been one of our favorite spots. The walls are lined floor-to-ceiling with books: everything from physics manuals to recent bestsellers. Wooden crossbars secure the shelves to keep volumes from flying around when the ship moves. The mahogany study table has armchairs for six. Against the back wall is a comfy old corduroy sofa that we always fight over when we have free time. When we had free time. There won't be much of that for the foreseeable future. Roseanne is curled up at one end, clutching a leather-bound book in her lap. Hank lies next to her, wagging his tail.

'Hey ...' I squeeze in beside her. This gets me a sloppy wet kiss from Hank.

'It's my fault.' Rosie sniffles. 'I needed to ... They have to let me rebuild. They will, won't they? I didn't bring extra index cards. I'm so stupid. It's all my fault.'

I don't follow everything she's saying. Sometimes when Rosie talks, you just have to go along for the ride and enjoy the scenery. But one thing I do understand. 

'None of this is your fault, Rosie.'

'It is. I'm a Harding.'

I wrapped my arms around her. Unexpected physical contact with anyone other than Hank, especially when she's feeling upset, sometimes makes her uncomfortable. It wasn't until a year earlier she trusted me enough to let me hug her.

'Just because your family started the school ...' I falter. I realize for the first time that our fourth great-grandfathers knew each other. Their meeting set in motion everything now affecting our lives. It's enough to give me vertigo. 'You couldn't have known what would happen.'

As usual, her blonde hair is in a low braid that hangs down her shoulders. Her red sweatshirt accentuates her strawberries-and-milk complexion. Jennie has advised her many times to wear another color – dark blue or green – but Rose likes red. The fact that Roseanne is stubborn about that makes me love her even more.

 She padded her thumb absent-mindedly over my fingers. I felt goosebumps rise on my elbows.

'I did know,' she says miserably. 'And I know what's going to happen to you.'

One moment, I feel like I'm holding up my friend. The next, I feel like she's dangling me off a cliff.

My mind races. I'm dying to yell WHAT DO YOU MEAN? and pull the information out of her. But I don't want to make things worse. 

'Tell me about it?' I suggest.

Rosie wipes her nose. The gilded title of the book in her lap reads The Mysterious Island. Of course, we would have a copy onboard. I wonder if it's a first edition signed by Captain Nemo.Prince Dakkar. Fourth Great-Grandpa. Psycho Madman Grandad. I don't even know what to call him.

'Harding and Pencroft,' she starts. 'Nemo asked them to safeguard his legacy.'

I nod. I'd learned as much from Hewett. Her hands turn fidgety, but she continues rubbing unsteady circles on my fingers.

'Since Nemo couldn't destroy the Nautilus,' she continues, 'he wanted Harding and Pencroft to make sure no one discovered its final resting place until the time was right.'

'Why couldn't he destroy his sub?' I ask, though the very question seems wrong. It's like asking why Botticelli didn't burn The Birth of Venus before he died.

Roseanne traces her finger over the gold lettering on the book's cover. 'I don't know. The best Nemo could do was sink the Nautilus under that island. He knew Aronnax and Land were searching for him. He was alone, dying. I guess he had no choice. He decided to trust Harding and Pencroft with his secrets and his treasure.' 

Nemo, I think. Harding and Pencroft. 

Roseanne and I were bound together centuries before we were born. It makes me wonder about reincarnation and karma, and whether our souls might have met at another time. 

'So how were they supposed to know?' I ask. 'I mean ... how would Harding and Pencroft know when the time was right to find the sub again?'

Rosie tucks in her knees. 'That grey map in the captain's cabin. The genetic reader. They would only work for Nemo's direct descendants. Only after a certain number of generations had passed. I don't know how Nemo decided. We didn't ... My ancestors didn't know exactly how long the wait would be. Your dad tried it when he was a student at HP. No luck. Then he tried it again, two years ago, just to see, I guess. For whatever reason, it worked. He was the first.'

A clinch knot tightens in my throat.

I remember the electric sensation traveling up my arm when I had gripped that weird robotic paperweight. My father had done the same thing before me. I can almost feel his warm, callused hand slipping into mine.

 'I knew about alt-tech.' Roseanne shivers, which makes Hank cuddle closer. 'The board of trustees –they briefed me last fall. Not all the details, but about your family. And my family. I wanted to tell you, I really did. Keeping those secrets felt wrong ... and dangerous. But the trustees control my inheritance, and the school. They made me sign a bunch of papers. If I said anything to anyone, even you, they would ... I'm so sorry, Lili. Maybe if I'd talked to you earlier, we could have saved HP.'

I want to reassure her, but my voice won't work. Too many facts are swirling around in my head. I could feel the hot sensation wiggling behind my eyes.

 'I'm the last of the Hardings,' she says. 'The Pencrofts died off a generation ago. The trustees don't like me. After my aunt died ... She was the last of the really great Hardings. I'm just... just me.'

'Roseanne, if you say that one more time I-'

'When I turn eighteen,' she forges on, 'they're supposed to give me some control. But ... you know, they might never. They doubt I'm capable. Now the school is gone. I need to rebuild HP. I don't know how. I'm sorry if you hate me now, Lili. I don't want you to hate me.' Her bottom lip quivered as her eyes gave away to a fresh set of tears.

I think about small Roseanne living at HP since she was six years old. I knew about her aunt's death. I knew she had no living family, just legal guardians, but I'd never appreciated how much pressure and responsibility went along with the Harding name. All her life, instead of being loved and nurtured, Roseanne had been watched over by a council of lawyers who loved and nurtured her money while monitoring her for signs of incompetence and using her as a stepping stool. The very thought makes me grit my teeth. All I could think about the fact I wasn't there for her. At least I'd known my parents. I'd had them in my life.

'Rosie... I don't hate you,' I promise. 'Of course I don't. You weren't allowed to say anything.'

 'The others will hate me, though.'

'No. And if anybody does I will personally put pink-ducky water wings on them and throw them overboard.'  I used my sleeves to wipe her cheeks, which made them look as red as her top.

She sniffles. 'That was a joke, right?'

'No.'

 'What about the trustees? I told you what I know. They'll disinherit me and...'

'If the trustees give you any problems, I will personally kick each and every one of them in the groin.'

Rosie considers this. She doesn't ask if I'm joking. 'Okay. That's good. I love you.'

She says it with such a flat tone that anyone else could have missed it, or taken it as a polite, meaningless phrase, like How you doing? But I know she means it. If only she knew how much it meant to me.

'I love you, too,' I say softly. 'Can I ask you one more thing?'

She nods. As she strokes Hank's ear, I notice how badly she's chewed up her nails.

I'm not sure I want to know the answer, but I ask anyway. 'You said you knew what was going to happen to me. What did you mean?'

She frowns at the picture on the front of the book. A dark, jagged volcano rises from the churning sea. In the foreground, a drenched dog that looks very much like Hank trembles alone on a tiny outcropping of rock.

'When your parents found the Nautilus,' she says, 'they tried to open it. They tried to go inside. Your dad should have been able to do it. He was a direct descendant of Nemo. I don't know exactly what happened, but something went wrong. That's why HP was so careful with Taehyung. They didn't want him to go near the sub until they understood –' 

Wait,' I say, my head spinning. 'My parents' death was an accident.'

'I don't think so.' For a rare moment, Roseanne actually meets my eyes. 'The Nautilus is dangerous, Lisa. I think it killed your parents. I don't want it to kill you, too.'

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