Page 26 of The Midnight Blizzard

It seemed that only a portion of the scribes did their jobs correctly. Some scrolls were neatly labeled and organized, while others had been carelessly rolled and shoved into any open spot, with either a sloppily scrawled label or none at all, and a few were in the incorrect cubby.

I opened scroll after scroll, scanning each for the name then re-rolling it tightly to replace it exactly where I’d found it. Behind me, I heard Jack shifting papers around as well, but the silence stretched long between us, crackling with unspoken tension.

Questions raced around my mind, each confusing me more than the last. Jack had to feel something for me or he wouldn’t be helping me as much as he had already done. If he did, was it purely dedication to following the law that held him back, or were my feelings different from his? Did he even know how strong my feelings were becoming, or did he merely think my flirtations were a passing fancy? But even if I was able to convince him I was sincere, it would still endanger his position if we were found out.

Though I was finally in the records hall, the place I’d longed to infiltrate even before arriving at the castle, I couldn’t focus properly. I stared hard at an unfurled scroll, trying to bully my brain into reading the words scribbled there in faded ink, but a haze fogged my vision, clearing only when I glanced over my shoulder at Jack. He was far too distracting for my good.

We continued searching for the entire morning, scouring each document from the last five years, and finally, we located a tiny cubby that was labeledLord Cedric Frost, but it was empty. Frantically, I pulled out all the scrolls from the surrounding cubbies, hoping it had simply been incorrectly filed, but there was nothing. I wanted to cry from the frustration of it. Iknewhe had a will, and he had to have sent something, otherwise there wouldn’t be a cubby labeled with his name. He had shown the will to me two years ago. If I couldn’t find it by the time the school’s license expired in three days, I didn’t know what I would do.

“The scribes will be here soon,” Jack warned me. “I’ll need to take down the ice.” He moved over to the window, placing his hand against it once more while I quickly refiled everything I’d taken out, glaring at the empty slot where the will should have been. Jack reversed his ice formation process. The ice crystalsshrank and returned to his hand until the transparent glass was all that was left.

“I didn’t find anything,” I told him, disappointment gnawing at me as I ran my fingers over the empty shelf.

“What will happen once you do?” Jack stared at the empty cubby hole.

“I’ll call the authorities and force my stepmother to turn over the inheritance so I can reopen the school.”

“And then?” Jack made his way over to the back exit.

“Then I’ll teach at the school. If I’m the heiress of the Frostwood estate, I’ll be able to teach at the manor instead of in the tiny one-room schoolhouse.”

We left the records room, looking around anxiously as Jack locked the door again before we hurried away. For several minutes, we walked in silence, each lost in our own thoughts.

“What if you stayed here?” Jack asked quietly.

I wasn’t sure what to say. “Then the children I teach would need room and boarding too. They don’t have anywhere else to go to learn.”

“What if I convinced the king and queen to open a school for mages? I could help teach.”

I closed my eyes. It was too tantalizing a dream to have dangled in front of me. Just being around Jack for a few days was enough to drive me mad. If I was around him constantly without being able to truly be with him, it would be sheer torture.

“If it was possible, I would love that. But until I find the will…”

“I know. It was just a thought. If you could convince Stephen to allow it…then we could at least see each other sometimes.”

“I don’t know if I would be content with that,” Iadmitted quietly, my footsteps halting in a shadowy corridor. A gentle snow drifted down to collect on the windowpanes outside. There was a hush in the castle that I wished would remain absolute. If only Jack and I could speak freely without the risk of anyone overhearing.

Jack’s jaw tensed. “Nor I. But there’s nothing else we can do about that.”

Knowing that he felt similarly was going to drive me insane if we couldn’t be together. “We wouldn’t have to tell anyone.” I knew it was indecent and forbidden, but if I had to continue to pretend as though I didn’t have feelings for Jack, it would eat me alive. “We could keep it secret.”

“Secrets are always discovered in the end,” Jack said sadly. “It would only be a matter of time before we were discovered.”

“I know,” I sighed. Then I perked up. If secrets couldn’t be kept hidden indefinitely, and my stepmother hadn’t given anything to the scribes for safekeeping… “Do you think my stepmother is keeping the will in her room?”

Jack’s eyes flicked up to stare at the ceiling as he considered. “I would, if it were me.”

“If only we had a way to get in there to find out.”

“We could. It depends on how many rules you’re willing to break,” Jack said with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

I shot him a look. “The roguish mage encourages a refined lady to compromise her ethics and engage in acts of burglary? Was my father aware of your flexible ethics?”

“Oh no, I always had to be dignified and proper around him. And it wouldn’t be burglary, exactly. I call it…reclaiming stolen property, and technically, you’re still supposed to be sleeping there anyway. It’sin Octavius’s records.”

“Yes, that sounds much better.”

“I have a master key.”

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