Worse, it was so aggressive that it affected the motive and the clarity of her thoughts.I couldn’t get a solid ear on what she was thinking.It was usually pretty easy if I were doing it to any non-magical person.Still, since I’d arrived at school, I was noticing that everyone had pretty solid blocks around their minds and emotions.
Some, like Harkert and Owens, were nearly impenetrable.
But that panic had been too strong for even the dean, who was probably packing a butt ton of power, and couldn’t be hidden.
“Please do your best to avoid interrupting the members of the school board, Ms.Chamberlain.”
I looked up at the dean as she pushed open a thick wooden door, revealing a large conference room of sorts.It had probably been a meeting chamber for witches ages ago, and now it was filled to the brim with stuffy old geezers in suits and robes.Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
“I’ll do my best.”
As the four of us stepped into the room, I was quick to peek around the space, looking for the body that we were going to examine.I didn’t relish the idea of being caught off guard by it.I wanted to control when that bombshell dropped.Unfortunately, I couldn’t see anything.
“Dean Owens, I don’t recall instructing you to retrieve students along with Professor Harkert.”
The voice pulled my attention across the room and behind the curve of a massive table in the shape of a ring.The empty center cleared the view for the intricate tilework on the floor, and in each of the chairs surrounding it, there was a person seated, eyeballing me and Temps like we’d stepped in dog shit on our way in.
The one who’d spoken was directly across from us and looked like something straight out of a TV show.He was probably in his fifties or so, dark hair streaked with gray, and scowled at us as he sat there in his black robe, his fingers tented in front of him.
Cocking a brow, he finally pulled his eyes off my stepsister and me, zeroing in on Dean Owens.“There had better be a fantastic explanation as to why twostudentsare in the faculty meeting chambers.”
She stepped forward, lowering her head in a semblance of a bow and regarded each of the twelve members before speaking.
“These students have offered their insight to aid in the investigation.Ms.Montgomery is a pupil of Professor Harkert’s, has been studying under him for some time,” Okay, that was a lie unless you counted reading his books, “and will act as his assistant.Ms.Chamberlain, on the other hand, well, you’re looking at the first morrighan to set foot on campus in twenty-five years.”
An odd zing cut through the room as the school board reacted to Owen’s words.But what really stood out to me personally was the timeframe she’d mentioned.A morrighan had attended school twenty-five years ago.And at that time, my mother would have been about eighteen.She was the only other morrighan I knew of, the woman who’d prepared me for this magic before her own death.
Did Mom go to school here?
“Regardless of their apparenttalents,” Robe Asshole cut in, “they are students, and we do not need inexperience mucking up our investigation into these heinous crimes.”
My hands squeezed into fists reflexively, and I wanted to tear across the room and kick this wanker right in the dick.As I fumed, I could sense Temps close in behind me, her hand finding my shoulder and offering a sympathetic squeeze.
“What would ‘muck up’ the investigation would be to turn away resources when this board is so desperate in need of them.”
The entire room turned its attention to Professor Harkert.I turned over my left shoulder, watching him as he stepped up in front of the dean and leveled the head douchebag with a look.I could read the annoyance and superiority simmering in Harkert’s blood, like he knew this man and didn’t think very highly of him in the slightest.The guy behind the table felt exactly the same, and they were in a bit of a standoff as Harkert took off his glasses and began to wipe them off with a handkerchief from his pocket.
“A morrighan is wildly beneficial to this situation, and it’s not like they’re going on trees.Ms.Montgomery is my assistant, and I cannot do my work without her.So either pull your head out of your ass and let us get to work, or get comfortable with the idea of another body dropping soon.”
Temps’ mouth fell open as she stared at Harkert, and I just smiled.That had been damn fun to watch, and it certainly painted our mild-mannered professor in a very different,very sexylight.
I could watch that man tear the old bastard apart all damn day.
Dickless crumpled like a cheap suit, ducking his chin as he flustered in his chair.I could tell he was about to say something else when another member of the school board stood up from her seat and gestured toward a door on the left side of the room.
“Get us answers.Preventing more deaths is the only important thing here.”
As she flicked her wrist, the double doors slid apart, revealing a room with a single table in the center and basically no decor, where this part of the room had been full of the stuff, from books to lamps to paintings all over the wall.On that table was the body.My stomach dropped as I instinctively reached for Temps’ hand.She was right there for me, and I had to blink away the image of my mother lying in a coffin I knew she didn’t want, as I’d been forced to go up to her like that and “say goodbye.”
“Are you okay?”Temps looked back at me, but I only just noticed it as my eyes were glued to the sight in the other room.
“Y-Yeah.I’ll be fine.Let’s just do this.”
Harkert appeared to be the only other person besides my stepsister to see my reaction, and when I met his stare, he gave me a slight nod, his eyes holding mine in a moment of silent communion.He’d seen dead bodies before, of course.I knew it from the moment he warned us in the classroom, and now, it was so painfully clear to me that they had been the bodies of people he loved.
We crossed the room, slipping into that other space that had been hidden, Dean Owens right behind us.The area around the body smelled strange, a pungent, almost sweet scent that I guessed was likely the herbs and concoctions keeping the flesh frozen in time.They couldn’t have it decaying when we still needed to study it—or right in their office.
“Temperance,” Harkert’s voice blasted through my thoughts as I stared down at the person lying on the table, “the cart over there should have our supplies on it.”
