Page 58 of Strength of Desire

That’s what he’d said, when we reached the door and safety. He honestly thought I might have just let him go. That realization had hurt like a stab to the gut.

I was trying to keep him at arm’s length, trying to cover up my desire for him—and fear of him. But all I’d done was convince him I hated him. When the semester began, I would have thought that was a good thing. But now?

I didn’t have a good answer for that anymore. I didn’t have any answers at all.

I shook my head and moved on, losing his group in the crowd. I had more important things on my mind tonight. I didn’t have time to worry about whatever that kid was doing to my head.

I caught sight of Isaac on the far wall, talking to Nat and Teresa, and, eventually, I made my way through the crowd to join them. I broke into their conversation without preamble.

“I need to talk to you,” I told Isaac. I shot a glance at Nat and Teresa. “Alone.”

Nat’s eyes widened, and I knew she was going to ask me about this later. Teresa cocked her head to the side and studied me for a moment.

“Now?” she said, her voice pleasant, but carrying an edge of suspicion.

“Now,” I said flatly.

Isaac nodded, and said graciously to Nat and Teresa, “If you’ll excuse me for a moment, I will rejoin you later. Such an interesting discussion about horoplexic anodes.”

Teresa’s eyes narrowed for a moment, but Nat touched her wrist and pulled her away, heading back towards the bonfire. Isaac turned to me. No one was close to us, but he lowered his voice anyway.

“I assume this is important, for you to so flagrantly interrupt the conversation. Teresa and Natatlia won’t forget that.”

“It is,” I said, “and it’s fine. I have a cover story. By tomorrow morning, the whole school will know that an unknown trio of students were shooting arrows at Sheridan’s windows this evening. I told Sheridan I would do damage control, which explains why I’m talking to you so urgently.”

Isaac nodded. “I’m assuming this group of students is not, in fact, unknown to you?”

“They’re not. Because they don’t exist.”

“Soyouwere shooting arrows at Sheridan’s windows.”

“Well, I needed a cover story for breaking into his rooms.”

“You broke into—” Isaac ran a hand across his face wearily. “I did tell you to be discreet. I know I did.”

“I needed a way to get in there,” I protested. “And his room isn’t well-placed for sneaking. It was easier to just break in.”

“And why, exactly, did you feel the need to search his rooms?”

“Because you told me to spy on him,” I said. Isaac gave me a hard stare, and I realized I’d raised my voice. With effort, I lowered it again. “I talked to all of them first, but no one said anything suspicious, unless you count Hans getting so flustered he almost confessed to the Kennedy assassination. So I thought I’d search their quarters, see if I found anything interesting there.”

Isaac raised his eyes to the ceiling. “I suppose this is what I get for not being more specific. So you broke into Sheridan’s rooms and single-handedly added to the rumors of danger swirling around this school. Did you find anything to make those rumors worthwhile?”

“I did,” I said, dropping my voice even lower. “Sheridan had one of Argus’s coins in his living room.”

Isaac’s eyes snapped back to me. “You’re sure?”

“Positive,” I said. “You know what that means.”

He pressed his lips together, then shook his head once. “Unfortunately, I don’t. And neither do you.”

“You can’t mean that.” I stared at Isaac in disbelief. “Sheridan is working for Argus. There’s no other explanation.”

“There are plenty of other explanations,” Isaac countered. “Sheridan works primarily on arcane magic. He might have picked the coin up at some point in his travels and kept it for study. He might not even know what it means. Or perhaps he does, and he found the coin on the grounds, and is leading a parallel investigation.”

“When I gave him my story about students shooting at his room, he asked if I really thought it was just students. He seems to think someone is after him. He wasn’t in his rooms when the moraghin attacked, but in the woods near the gym instead. He thinks the moraghin might have been sent for him.”

“Interesting,” Isaac said, one eyebrow just barely rising.

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