Page 23 of The Stone Curse
“Me too,” Hawke said. “They’ve been here a week and found nothing, which is odd.”
“Or they’ve found something, but we’ve not been told,” Shar said. “I’m pretty sure anything they find will be passed straight to the council.”
“Or not…” Hawke muttered.
“Hawke!” Farnell called from the training ground.
“I’ve got to go. But we’ll catch up soon. Be safe.” He jogged off toward Farnell and the initiate camp.
I glanced across at the alchemists before following Curi and Shar to the training room. “What do they do when they’re not mind-diving?”
“No idea,” Curi said.
“I heard that there are two groups,” Sharniza said. “One that works directly with the council and provides protection and interrogation while another works with the humans in the lab project.”
“Lab project?”
“They make the tinctures, potions, and various other healing tonics for the guardians.”
“Like Willowman?”
“There aren’t many like Willowman, Yarrow, and Flora left,” Shar said. “Witches are rare, and we’re lucky to have three here on campus. I’m sure the council would have loved to have them on staff at HQ, but you don’t strongarm a witch into doing your bidding.”
So they were here because theywantedto be. Because they wanted to help. “But what are the alchemists, exactly? Not witches or mageri, so…what?”
“Humans with abilities,” Curi said. “That much I know.” He pushed open the training room door. “And we can talk about this later.”
He was right. We were here to train, so why was the room so dark, and where was Levi?
The smell of incense teased my nose as the door closed behind us. It took a moment for my night vision to kick in and spot the two figures standing on the far side of the room.
Levi and a woman.
They broke from their conversation and crossed the room toward us. I got a closer look at the woman—slender but not athletic, dressed casually in jeans, a sweater, and sneakers. Itwas hard to determine her age in the gloom, late twenties, early thirties maybe?
“Why the gloom?” Shar asked.
“It’s necessary to the training,” Levi said.
“You want us to fight in the dark?” Curi asked.
“You won’t be fighting,” Levi said. “Not in the traditional sense.” He looked down at the woman, who nodded in agreement, her sleek bob swaying against her jaw.
There was something familiar about her. About the curve of her brows and the dips at the corner of her mouth. “And who is this?”
The woman smiled, and I suddenly knew exactly who she was.
“I’m Levi’s mother, Adaline. It’s nice to meet you all.”
His mother? He’d brought her here? My gaze whipped up to Levi. “I don’t understand. I thought you weren’t allowed to help us, but you told your mother?”
“Now that the whole elite team is down, it benefits us all if you three survive the trial. I spoke to my mother a couple of days ago and explained the situation.”
“And Ulrickson knows about this?” Sharniza asked.
“He knows that she’s visiting me…” He looked uncomfortable, and his mother continued for him.
“Ulrickson hopes we might rekindle our romance. I’m meeting with him later.”
