Page 105 of Bonds of Magic
“What do you think you’re doing, you lumbering buffoon?” she shouted. “What is the meaning of this? Let me go this instant and explain yourself.”
“No fucking way,” I growled. “I’m not giving you another chance to hurt these students.”
For the first time since barging in, I looked around the rest of the room. There were only two other people—Rekha and Izzy Amber, another freshman. Izzy sat on Teresa’s sofa, clutching a teacup in one hand and the silver and emerald necklace I’d seen Teresa carrying before. She looked shocked.
Rekha jumped up from the sofa, looking pissed.
“I’m not hurting them,” Teresa protested. “We’re havingtea.”
“Yeah, and you were about to place them under the same enchantment you put on Erika.”
“I—what?” Teresa craned her neck to look up at me angrily. “What are you talking about?”
“I know you had her file. I saw it in your office. I know you’ve been getting close to these kids for months now. I don’t know how you managed to get Erika under your thumb. Isaac can get that out of you. But I’ll be damned if I let it happen again.”
“She’s not trying to hurt us,” Rekha protested.
I shook my head. “Rekha, you don’t understand what’s really going on here. I’m sure she said it wouldn’t hurt. I’m sure she promised you a lot, but it’s a lie. She’s trying to use you.”
“I amnot,” Teresa objected.
I kept my eyes on Rekha. “She put a spell on Erika that let her control Erika’s movements, her decisions, everything. She took her over completely, then left her to die. And she’ll do it again with you.”
“I didnotensorcel Erika,” Teresa said.
“I don’t know what you think is happening, Professor Braverman,” Rekha said, “but I think you’re the one who doesn’t understand. Professor Molina was helping us.”
“She was giving us necklaces,” Izzy piped up from the sofa. She’d set her teacup down, but hadn’t moved otherwise. Her gaze bounced back and forth between me and the door, like she couldn’t decide if she wanted to help or make a run for it.
“Girls, I appreciate your loyalty, but in this case, it’s misplaced. Teresa is behind the attacks on the school. She let the moraghin in, she enchanted Erika, and she—”
“Oh for goodness’ sake,” Teresa said from the floor. “I wasn’t trying to enchant them, I was trying to bribe them. Accuse me of that if you must, but don’t try to pin Erika’s death or the moraghin attack on me. My crimes, such as they are, are far more mundane in nature.”
She glared up at me, exasperated and defiant. I stared back, her words sinking in.
“Bribing them? With what?”
“With those necklaces you practically trampled on the last time you ran into me. What do you think?”
I looked over at Izzy, who held hers up helpfully. Then I looked at Rekha, who shrugged and pointed to the second necklace, lying on the couch where she’d been sitting a minute ago.
“But why?” I asked Teresa. “What do they have that you want? They’re freshmen.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rekha huff at this mortal insult.
“They’re freshmennow,” said Teresa. “But they’re the top two witches in their class. I was trying to get them to join Hex.”
“Really?”
“I tap a few each year.” Teresa looked up at me pointedly. “Call it unethical if you like. I think it’s simply practical. But in no lights is it dangerous or illegal.”
I frowned. Surely it wasn’t as simple as that. Of course, professors wanted the best and the brightest in their own havens. But would they really stoop to bribing them?
“What’s with the necklaces?” I asked. “What do they do?”
“They provide a well of extra power.” Teresa’s tone thoroughly implied her incredulity that she had to explain this to someone as thick as I was.
I remembered the pieces of metal and stone that I’d seen on her work table before. “And you make new ones every year? That seems like an outlay of a lot of energy.”
