Page 28 of Monster's Delight

“How did you know I was out here?” I repeated my question from earlier.

Aiden groaned and fisted his hand in his hair. “I could feel your magic working, all right? It’s just a thing I can do. I can’t explain it better than that right now.”

“You can feel my magic?” I asked, my heart beating faster. “Is that normal? Can you feel other people’s?”

“Just yours.” He looked at me meaningfully, although I didn’t understand what I was supposed to understand from the conversation. Finally, he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You should get back to bed before someone finds you here dressed like that.”

I had forgotten what I was wearing and had to look down at myself. While I’d been working my magic on the hallway, my robe had loosened, revealing my new lingerie. The alcohol must be doing its job, because I felt more confident than usual. I traced the neckline with one finger and asked, “Do you like how I’m dressed?”

“Sweetheart, you always look fantastic, but right now, I’m having trouble resisting you. You’d better go before I claim you,” he growled.

I may not have grasped the meaning of his words, but his tone made me wish he’d follow up on his threat. I moaned slightly and swayed toward him even more.

His nostrils flared and his eyes flashed with red fire. “You are not making this easy for me, Siobhan.” He turned and ran, bouncing, down the hall to his still-open door, leaving me staring after him.

I don’t know how long I stood there, but apparently it was too long.

A throat cleared behind me, the sound deep in the silence of the foyer.

Once again, I found myself whirling around to face someone unknown, although I had the presence of mind to close my robe first this time.

Fortunately.

Because I was facing the Dean of Students.

And he did not look happy.

Well, curses.

CHAPTER9

I followedProfessor Dunlop down the hall to his office in the teacher’s wing.

“I thought your office was on the main floor?” I asked his back tentatively. “Why is it on the fifth floor?”

Professor Dunlop slowed his pace until I was walking beside him instead of behind him. He glared at me, his bushy eyebrows making him look even more ferocious. “My office is where I need it to be.”

I thought about that, my mind still sluggish from the alcohol and Aiden’s flirting. “It moves around the school?”

“That would be nearly impossible,” he scoffed. “I thought you were more intelligent than this.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m not at my best right now.”

He seemed to soften at that, or at least his brows unfurrowed, making him look more approachable. “The door is enchanted. I can access my office from any floor as long as I have my key.”

“What happens if you don’t have your key?” I asked, intrigued.

“Then I have to go all the way down to the main floor,” he replied, unlocking the door and opening it with a flourish. “After you.”

I stepped inside and promptly forgot why I was there. Other than a small space around the desk for movement and seating, every inch was crammed with artifacts.

My eye was caught by one item and then another. An ancient scroll, unrolled to show the drawing of a winged apparatus, had me walking closer. I squinted at the tiny signature on it that readDedalus.

“Is that...?”

I barely heard his reply, something about it showing the prototype for the wings that Icarus used, because a mirror taller than me was beside the scroll. It was ornate, carvings of beautiful people on the trim in gold.

“That’s Apollo’s Mirror,” the professor said. “Apollo was the God of prophecy, as well as the God of the sun. A person can gaze into the mirror, and with the correct spell, see their future.”

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