Page 63 of Bonds of Magic
I had hoped some of the pent up desire would dissipate overnight, but it had only gotten worse. Usually when I felt like this, I generated some excuse to go to Pointe Claudette and find Lew. But I didn’twantLew anymore.
In fact, I had been in Pointe Claudette last night, before my lesson with Cory. I’d been trying to get my head on straight, and left campus hoping that some physical distance would help. But as soon as I was sitting at the Balsam Inn, drinking with Tom, I’d just wanted to be back at Vesperwood. Wanted as much time with Cory as possible.
Lew hadn’t even been there, and I hadn’t missed him.
I sighed as I got out of bed. I couldn’t have Cory, so my morning workout would have to do. If I punished my body enough, I could beat it into submission. Make it stop wanting.
Maybe.
***
I had dinner with Seb in his rooms that night. He was almost ready to return to teaching, but still found the refectory overwhelming for meals. So much commotion made him dizzy, he said, and I didn’t mind the break from my usual routine of eating alone in my cabin.
I was still stewing about Cory as I walked through the halls after dinner, so caught up in my thoughts that I almost didn’t see a door opening halfway down the hallway. The slight squeal of the hinges was what caught my attention, and I froze as someone stepped out into the hall, carrying a small box in their hands.
Not just any someone. Teresa.
I moved automatically to obscure myself behind a large planter with a potted palm. It wasn’t a perfect hiding place, but it was better than being right out in the open. My eyes narrowed. This section of the manor was full of the triples and quads usually assigned to freshmen. And I was pretty sure that roomin particular belonged to Rekha Bakshi, Adenike Odediran, and Meredith Stein.
What was Teresa Molina doing coming out of their room?
She turned back to say something to whoever was inside the room. I held my breath, listening, but they were too far away for me to hear anything.
It wasn’t unheard of for professors to visit student rooms. After all, I met Cory at his room every time we had a lesson. But Teresa didn’t teach freshmen. I’d heard her voice her disdain for them in several faculty meetings. ‘Too weak to be worth much,’ she’d said once.
And yet, she’d had these student files in her study, Rekha Bakshi’s among them.
It was probably nothing, and yet…
Teresa began to walk down the hallway, away from me. The door closed. Teresa reached the end of the hall and turned right. And I made my decision.
I wanted to know what was in that box.
It wasn’t easy to follow someone through Vesperwood’s manor. There were so many twists and turns in the corridors, so many sharp corners and unexpected doorways that staying hidden from your quarry wasn’t the problem. The problem was your quarry hiding from you.
Every time Teresa turned a corner, I crossed my fingers that she’d still be visible by the time I reached it. But following her was getting me nowhere. If I wanted a peek inside that box, I needed to engineer a run-in.
So I did. Literally. In the middle of a corridor that led towards Hex haven, I called out, “Teresa! Did you see them?”
Before she even turned her head, I began barrelling down the hall, heading straight for her.
“Did they come past you?” I shouted, getting closer.
She looked at me, confusion painted across her features, but didn’t move out of the way. Excellent.
I raised my gaze, fixed it on a point farther down the hall, like I was searching beyond her.
“Did you see them go—” I began, and ran into her without finishing my question.
She fell to the floor with a thump, and the box flew out of her hands. I suppressed a smile of triumph as I picked myself up and went for it, before Teresa could untangle her skirt from her legs.
People like her could scoff all they wanted about Combat being a ‘basic’ skill—not specialized like magical instruction. But one of the first things I taught my students was how to take a fall, and how to recover from it.
“Oh, no,” I said, putting on a show of discombobulated dismay. “I didn’t mean to—here, let me get this.”
“No, leave it,” Teresa said, but it was too late. I’d already scooped up the box.
It was a small thing, about the size of a child’s shoebox. It was made of dark, polished wood with gold designs inlaid in the top. With my back to Teresa, I flipped the lid open.
