"Sounds to me like you kids had it," Liam said, but his eyes were jumping to the people in the room. "This is also incredibly creepy. I'd been told he could do this, but I've never seen it."
"Aspen can as well," Keir said just as Ms. Rhodes marched into the office with my zez hauling a guy in behind her.
"What the - " She stopped hard. "Torian!"
"We're dealing with it, General!" Rose replied instead. "The attackers will be held in the Never. The witnesses will be sorted. Robin's going to need some help, because we have a lot..." She made her way back into view and gave Bracken a confused look. "Oh. Yours is still moving. He should probably go through first."
"I'm stalling the room," Torian called.
"Go," Ms. Rhodes told Bracken. "Rain?"
But I turned to Jack. "Can you tell us which were the attackers, Jack? Then we'll know who to move and who should stay without Torian needing to snap over and over."
"Enemy!" Jack cawed as he launched from Liam's shoulder.
Ms. Rhodes headed behind the front counter to touch a few people, pulling them from the slow-conjuration. From there, it was easy. Jack told us who needed to be moved. Ms. Rhodes could remove Torian's conjuration from that person. Bracken and Keir marched them up the hall to the closet where they were pushed through a gate and into a holding chamber. Torian waited in there, making sure everyone was frozen again.
Yep, magic made things a lot easier.
Somewhere in there, Poppy and Nevaeh showed up with Ms. Caldwell. Others arrived as well, the attackers they brought were tossed into the Never, and the witnesses were all unfrozen. By the time we were done, my stomach was growling, and I knew I was probably going to miss lunch.
But Liam heard. "Ivy, you need to cancel classes for the rest of the day. None of these kids have eaten, and lunch ends in ten minutes."
"I'll get it!" a pretty blonde offered. I was pretty sure she was the secretary who'd given me a tablet on my first day at Silver Oaks.
It all took a while, and somewhere in there, Liam moved my group into his office. Pascal was looking around with wide eyes. Keir had his legs kicked out and was leaning back like he was napping. Jack was now riding on Ms. Rhodes' shoulder, helping her somehow.
"So, what the fuck happened?" Pascal finally asked.
"Torian slowed you," Keir explained. "Well, he slowed almost everyone."
"Not that part," Pascal said, flicking a finger at the windows that allowed us to see the main office. "I'm talking about that mess."
"I don't think Ms. Caldwell was the only one attacked," I explained. "They said there were at least seven different places. I've counted atleastthree attackers at each one. I'm pretty sure there's about thirty people in stasis down in the Never right now."
"All bad guys?" Pascal asked.
"The Silent," Keir told him. "They make a vow that prevents them from giving us any information."
And the door to Liam's office opened hard. Ms. Rhodes walked in, stopping at Liam's desk to lean over it with her hands holding her weight. "Rain, I need you to get as much magic as possible tonight."
"Ok?" I asked, unsure where she was going with this.
She sighed heavily. "The problem with expelling students is that we're just building up a group of resistance out there. At this rate, we'll lose a quarter of the student body before the semester is up."
"So?" Pascal asked.
Ms. Rhodes looked up, her eyes landing on him. For a little too long, she said nothing. Her eyes shifted to Keir, then to me, almost as if checking to see if we thought she should speak in front of him.
"Pascal's done nothing but help us," I told her. "I don't know if he can lie, but I do know Keir can hear it if he does. He's also helped Aspen, so I think he can be trusted."
"You are too nice," Ms. Rhodes pointed out.
"But she's right," Keir said. "We're sentinels because we volunteered to risk our lives for this place. I can't think of a single person in that group, friend or not, who I wouldn't trust."
"Like I do my soldiers," she said softly. "Ok, so - "
The door opened again. This time, Torian entered. Liam and Bracken were right behind him, and Jack shot through the doorway, heading straight for me. Without thinking, I thrust up my arm, giving him an easy place to land.
