Page 226 of The Black Witch

A bark of surprised laughter bursts from his lips, and I can’t help but cough out a small laugh, as well. I massage my aching head and look back up at him, resigned to the wild path I’ve veered onto.

Laughter still swimming in his eyes, Professor Krisitan sits back in his chair and stares at me with amused incredulity. “That’s...not a very Gardnerian thing to say,” he says, still chuckling.

I let out a resigned sigh. “I’m feeling less and less Gardnerian every day.”

He nods with understanding, and then his expression goes odd, like he sees something in my face, something he finds troubling. He swallows audibly and then...his eyes sheen over with tears.

“What’s the matter?” I ask him, immediately concerned.

“Nothing,” he says with a shake of his head, his voice breaking. He clears his throat and leans forward to set out tea mugs for both Tierney and me from the chipped tea set ever-present on his desk. His eyes flick toward me, and there’s a raw pain there. “You...you reminded me of someone, just then,” he says, his tone still ragged. “Someone I used to know.”

“Who?” I ask, confused. “My grandmother?”

“No, someone else,” he says cryptically, now closed off. “It’s nothing.”

He shakes his head again and pours tea for us, the steam rising in the air.

It’s comforting, the familiar burble of the tea as it’s poured, the scent of minty steam on the cool air, a chill seeping in from a strong draft around the windows.

Professor Kristian eyes Tierney as he pushes a cup toward her. “You would be the glamoured Fae, I presume?”

Frightened, Tierney looks sharply toward me, eyes wide, and I nod encouragingly to her.

“I can help you,” he tells her, his voice low and kind. “You’ve come to the right place. You havenothingto fear.”

Tierney stares at him blankly for a long moment and then bursts into tears, her thin shoulders heaving, her body bunching up into a protective ball.

“Oh, my dear. It’s all right.” Professor Kristian gets up and comes around to lean against the front of his desk. He hands his handkerchief out to Tierney and places his hand gently on her arm.

Tierney takes the handkerchief with a shaking hand.

“What are you, dear?” he asks her. “What type of Fae?”

“Asrai,” she chokes out.

“That’s a lovely thing to be,” he says reassuringly. “Maybe not here, but it will be when you and your family get to Noi lands, hmm?”

Tierney chances a look up at him and starts crying harder, nodding her head in pained assent. She looks small and scared and so young.

“Have some tea,” he tells her with a pat to her arm.

“Thank you,” she manages. She roughly wipes at her eyes, gets hold of her staggered breathing and takes the mug he’s patiently holding out to her, sipping at it as Professor Kristian sits back against the desk.

His expression turns oddly amused as he turns his attention to me. “Well, you have been busy, haven’t you?”

“I don’t like to be idle,” I reply tartly.

“Hmm,” he says, eyeing me with friendly suspicion. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about a missing dragon, would you, Elloren?”

My breath catches tight in my throat.

Professor Kristian looks to Tierney. “Or a freak snowstorm that fellonlyon the Gardnerian Fourth Division military base?”

Tierney’s eyes fly open wide, and she almost chokes on her tea.

Professor Kristian nonchalantly removes his glasses, fishes another handkerchief out of his pocket and begins to clean them. “You’ve both probably heard by now that over a hundred military dragons flew straight into Valgard yesterday evening and headed straight for their Dragon Master—Mage Damion Bane.”

I swallow hard. “Yes. I heard...something about that. It’s...surprising.”

---