She taps my hand. “Well, now that you know you can trust me, I have some questions.”
“All right… hit me.”
“When you’re in bed with the two of them, is it really that good? I mean, what is it really like. I mean really. Are they hung like wolves?”
I throw my head back and laugh. “I just told you all of that and this is where your mind goes?”
She waves my concern away. “Excuse me, sister. It’s been so long since I’ve seen any action, I feel the need to prioritize my questions. Right now, I need you to spill the threesome wolf sex beans.”
Chapter Ten
JOELY
“So, whose house is this anyway?” I ask, warming my hands on my coffee mug.
Roz serves up two plates of scrambled eggs and toast and then sits at the kitchen table with me.
She takes a bite of her toast. “Professor Xandra Drysdale. Teaches advanced conjuring and alchemy. She’s an old classmate of my mom’s back when they went here. She’s on sabbatical for two years in India, living with some nuns in the mountains. I promised I would check on the house and keep her plants alive until she gets back. She won’t mind that we spent the night.”
I turned my phone off yesterday, but I don’t need to check my texts to know that Angus, Marco, and Van are worried sick about me. I can’t blame them, the last time they saw me I disappeared into the bloodthirsty mob outside the Society. But I know they can feel me just like I can feel them, so if nothing else, they know that I am okay. I just need some time. I’m not ready to argue with them, to go to battle with them again. Not yet.
We clean up after breakfast and put the house back the way we found it. Roz hasn’t said anything, but I know she needs to get back to her family at home. It’s still the holiday break after all.
“So, what are you going to do?” Roz asks.
I shake my head, because I have no idea. “I should probably go to my room and get some fresh clothes. After that, I don’t know.”
“Fair enough,” she says. “And if you need a place to hide out, you know where Xandra Drysdale hides her key.”
We walk back toward campus, our arms looped together, enjoying a companionable silence. I have my hair tied up under a black wool cap, and I’m wearing a scarf to cover some of my face. I feel like an idiot for speaking out because as much as it kills me to admit it, Van is right. It’s made me a target.
It’s so quiet on this residential street, it feels like I am in a dream. Or maybe this is real life and everything else was a dream.
“What’s that sound?” I ask absently. It sounds like someone’s watching a sporting event on television and the home team just scored.
Then we turn the corner and reality comes crashing back with a vengeance.
We’re a block away from campus with a view of the quad, and from here it looks like all hell has broken loose.
“Holy shit,” Roz stops walking.
I tug on her coat. “Let’s go.”
There must be two thousand people gathered on the quad. There are groups holding up signs and marching in one direction while another group shouts at them. People have set up tables for gathering signatures for petitions and others are rallying their followers with bullhorns and magic. As we move through the crowd it’s clear this is my fault.
“Oh my god.”
Some of the people are calling for the dismantling of the Society of Ancient Magic. Others are demanding a more thorough investigation into the missing students. One group is shouting about the importance of pure magical lines. Their chants of “Keep Ancient Magic Pure!” fill the air.
A group of magical police stand around a booth, asking people to sit for questioning in their investigation. Roz and I skirt around them and try to find a route that will get us across the quad and to the dorms.
“This is unreal,” Roz says. She’s gripping my hand as we try to maneuver through the throng. At the far end of the quad, the statue of Reginald Whitmore Blakeborne topples over amidst a raucous cheer.
I spot a gap in the crowd and pull Roz toward Stonemill Hall. We work our way along the edge of the crowd and then to the path toward the dorms.
“So much for your precious Society.” Eliza’s got her blonde hair pulled into two ponytails that hang down her back. She hurries toward me, her protest sign laying on her shoulder. I can’t read what it says from my angle.
“Move it, Eliza,” Roz says.
My sister doesn’t move. She’s blocking the path and the other students with her fan out, preventing us from leaving.
“Have you heard? They’re saying that the whole Ancient Magic thing is a ruse to lure people in to be eaten by werewolves,” Eliza says.
“That’s ridiculous,” I say. “You really buy that?”
She nods, her eyes wide and crazed. “And, that the Vessel of Truth was actually the home of a demon who is working with the werewolves to bring them back into power over the mages. They’ve found an old scripture that foretold all of it!”
My sister is insane. This is more than just jealousy or a feeling of bitterness.
What have I brought here? To Eliza? To those with her? Why am I her target in this fight?
“Don’t look at me like that. Up until today you totally bought into the whole Ancient Magic thing. You think you’re better than all of us, but guess what? It’s all a lie, and we’re here to make sure the truth gets out!” Eliza leans closer to me, her words precise and full of righteous anger. And satisfaction. She’s enjoying saying all this to me.
That hurts more than
