Page 62 of Baneful Magick

I need to focus.

My footsteps echoed in the empty hallways of the subterranean levels that made up the archives. They were found deep underground, tunneling throughout the grounds of Greywood. Thatcher didn’t know the full extent of their sprawling expanse, and I had no intention of informing him of that. He might be the president of this conservatory, but this wasmydomain.

The coolness of the earth chilled the halls enough that I could see my breath. The light gray stone hallways would have been freezing if not for the magicked lamps on the walls, but even those orbs couldn’t provide much heat.

Smoke drifted out of an open room ahead of me, and my lips lifted in a snarl.Ambrose.

Stalking forward, I glared at the lounging fae that was looking through a book as he inhaled deeply on his pipe. The sweet scent of the opium surrounded him, and if not for the drawn look on his face, I would have said something about it. The stressed look instantly disappeared when he realized I had arrived, giving way to his signature cocky grin.

“Where is Falke?” I asked.

“How you two-leggers stand being this deep in the ground I’ll never know,” a deep voice rumbled.

The professor joined us, slowly walking into the room in human form. It was jarring seeing him like this. Falke steadfastly refused to use magick to take on human form unless it was an emergency, but the tunnels weren’t tall enough to accommodate his centaur body.

“So what are we going to do about the two dead students?” Ambrose started, staring at me expectantly.

“What pieces are missing?” I asked, walking around a table to the shelves along the back of the room.

“The first body was missing the heart, liver, and left hand. Second was missing the right hand, head, and three left ribs,” Falke supplied. He ignored the chairs in favor of pacing in the small open space of the room.

“Odd that what they harvested from both was so different.” Ambrose hummed, his fire-like eyes glowing.

“I had that same thought,” I muttered, glancing through the titles in front of me. None of these would have details on rituals involving parts of dead bodies. “Do we have any updates concerning the identities of the victims?” I directed this to Falke, who shook his head.

“Not yet. No one has been reported missing by any of the professors or students.” His brow was furrowed with concern as he rubbed his face and kept pacing. “It makes no sense.”

“What if they aren’t students?” Ambrose proposed after a few moments of silence. “The first corpse didn’t have any magick left in it, but maybe the victim didn’t have any to begin with.”

“Ahuman?” Falke spat the word with distaste.

“Just throwing out possibilities.” Ambrose shrugged, not the least bit perturbed by the other man’s reaction. “Or whateverkilled them drained them enough that their magick couldn’t be sensed.”

“Or Thatcher lied about it,” I suggested, walking over to browse some of the other shelves. I swore there were necromancer books in this room the last time I was here. Where could they be?

Necromancy was a good place to start considering the deaths and missing parts.Maybe I’ll need to start somewhere else if I can’t find these books soon.

“Next time, we’ll need the weaver to check the body over,” Falke said. “Do you think he would do it?”

“I’m sure we could get him to do it without an issue given the right motivation,” I said and let out a frustrated sigh. “The books I was looking for aren’t here. I’ve been looking all day, and they’re still missing.”

“Books?” Falked questioned.

“On necromancy,” I replied. “Considering the deaths and the harvesting, it made the most sense as a place to start. Plus, given our target, it could be related.”

“It might not be, though I have my doubts about that, considering…”

“Considering?” Falke followed up when Ambrose trailed off, but the fae shook his head.

“Do you thinktheywill want an update from us soon?” Falke asked when Ambrose didn’t continue.

I hummed, thinking over the question as I wandered over to sit down at the table across from Ambrose. He watched me closely, eyes aglow as he took another drag of his pipe.

“Yes, but we don’t have anything.”

“If we don’t get something soon, they’ll send others to the campus and take care of things their way. The recent deaths won’t be doing anything for their patience,” Ambrose said softly, leaning back in the chair.

He wasn’t wrong.

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