Page 81 of Shadow Caster
She clipped ahead in her neat one-inch heels, down the right side of the library, and past the contemporary fiction section to come to a halt near a small desk pushed up against the wall.
“She was found here,” Madam Florina said. “I leave the library open during daylight hours for the odd students who choose to burn the dawn rays. I came in at sundown to find Miss Faraday slumped in this chair. Her books were on the floor.”
Books? “Just textbooks?”
“Yes.”
“What about notes?”
“Excuse me?” Madam Florina flashed Master Payne a confused smile even though I’d been the one asking the questions.
Master Payne smiled and patted her arm. “If Miss Faraday was studying, she would have had pens and notebooks with her.”
Madam Florina shook her head. “No, nothing like that was found.”
My pulse kicked up, and I barreled off through the stacks to the back of the library, cutting left and then right.
“Miss Justice?” Payne and Florina followed.
There it was. Minnie’s nook. A half-drunk blood bag sat beside a set of neatly arranged pens and a notepad with a paragraph of writing in Minnie’s cursive script.
“She was here. She was studying here. Whatever got her must have done so when she went to get more books and then dumped her at the other desk.” I scanned the area, looking under the table and up the walls until… bingo. There it was, a copper grill vent. And clinging to the grill was some neon yellow gunk. “Look!”
Master Payne studied the residue.
My mind raced. “Something entered here and then …” I scanned the floor to find more drops of gunk. “It tracked her.”
Master Payne crouched to look at the droplets. “Madam Florina, do you have a pen pot I can have, please?”
* * *
Payne staredat the gunk through a microscope.
I was hovering, but damn it, we had evidence in a pot. “Do you know what it is?”
“It’s organic,” he said.
“Okay. But where did it come from?”
He sat up and tapped his fingers on the countertop. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Maybe I can be of assistance?” Madam Mariana entered, bringing the scent of jasmine with her. “I bumped into Florina, and she told me about your discovery.”
Payne blinked across at her. “Aren’t you meant to be at the fortress?”
She smiled. “I was picking up some texts to take with me.” Her gaze dropped to the microscope. “May I?”
I moved back to give her space.
She leaned across Payne’s lap to peer into the eyepiece. “Hmmm. Organic. Alive, replicating. Interesting. Maybe a parasite of some kind?”
“The thought did cross my mind.” Payne smiled warmly at her.
Madam Mariana glanced my way. “Maybe you should escort Miss Justice back to her dorm, Carter. I’ll have another look at this sample and make some notes. I’m sure if we put our heads together, we can figure this out.” She dimpled at him.
He cleared his throat, and the tips of his ears blushed. “I’ll drop in and see Brunner. Let her know what we found.”
She tutted and waved a dismissive hand. “We have no idea what this is yet. Better to go to her with answers, don’t you think?”
