Page 268 of Sigils & Spells

His sallow complexion looked even paler than I remembered, and his beady eyes appeared ready to jump out of his face and attack me on their own. The last time I saw him he had tried to blow up my school, so saying we had history put it mildly.

“I smell witch!” he said. He stared down his nose at me. “A bitch of a witch.”

CHAPTER7

“I can explain,”I said.

“Talk. Talk. Talk. That’s all you witches do,” Lugnut grumbled. He wore a mage’s cloak over his rotund body, and the smell of garlic and his personal body odor hung in the air around him like a cloud.

“Yes, we talk. That’s because we have something to say,” I said.

He grunted, expelling more of his personal stench. After I opened the vampire academy in Mystic Keep, the mages started adding garlic to every one of their meals. Mages in every realm tended to be on the quirky side, but our local ones really took the cauldron on paranoia.

I wrinkled my nose. “Sir Regal—Whatever.” I huffed. “I expect as a fellow sorcerer and guest in your establishment to be treated with dignity.”

Lugnut twisted his mouth. “Why? Why are you here?”

“I’m hot on the bloody trail of a Fang Hunter.”

He released my arm and straightened his back. “Here? Here?”

“Your guild, sir, is well known through all the realms, as a welcoming place for magic folk.”

He blinked twice.

“So,” I continued, “I thought a stranger might try to hide amongst you, kind souls.”

Lugnut scratched his chubby chin and his jowls wobbled. “Yes. Yes. We are a fine guild.”

My shoulders relaxed. “Well?” I said. “Have you seen anyone suspicious lurking around?”

“A fang … A Fang Hunter, you say?”

I tried to keep a straight face. How long does it take to bring a mage up to speed? “Yes, Sir Regal, a Fang Hunter. I’m told there’s a lucrative trade in vampire fangs on the black market.”

“Indeed. Indeed.”

I nodded. “One of my students was attacked in his … sleep.”

Lugnut’s eyes widened. “You …” A small smile crept onto his face. “You don’t say.”

I grumbled to bring him back to earth. “It’s terrible. A vampire can’t survive without their fangs.”

The mage nodded. “I … I see.” He took a deep breath. “I … I will check with our security team and have them review our guest book and CCTV footage. But … But I haven’t seen anyone strange.” He hesitated. “Other than you … you around here.”

“I’m not strange.”

“Hmm.”

“Where were you last night?” I asked in a casual tone.

The line between his eyes deepened, and he folded his arms. “Surely … Surely you don’t suspect me?”

You bet your sweet-mage ass I do, I thought, but I didn’t say that. “Look, Sir Regal, you either tell me, or you tell Donovan and Gavin. We’re trying to eliminate all the people we know. It’s a standard procedure thing.”

His face blanched at the sound of my brothers’ names.

“Well?” I asked.

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