Page 21 of Bonds of Magic
My eyes narrowed. “Do you know something I don’t? Something Ishouldknow?”
“I know that a mole is most useful when you know who they are, and they’re unaware of this fact.”
“Fuck moles, Isaac. We’ve been trying to finish Argus off for seven years. We need to act now.”
“What we need is caution. Vesperwood is a powder keg. Admitting that Erika’s death came at the hands of an incubus would ignite it. Yesterday, Professor Matthews approached me and suggested we send all our paranormal students home. ‘Just to be safe.’ She thinks it was one of them who let the moraghinin. And last night, Professor Botros paid me a visit to explain why we need to stop admitting paranormal students in the future, and why he believes they don’t belong in Heal. How long before someone bars paranormal students from their classes? How long before bullying grows out of hand? Before one of our students dies?”
“A student has already died,” I pointed out.
“A tragedy. But I would like it to remain an isolated one.”
“Maybe we should send everyone home, then,” I said, echoing something Cory had said last night.
“And play right into Argus’s hands? Cory is safest at Vesperwood, within our wards, surrounded by faculty and other students. And any students we did send home would not remain safe for long, if Argus were able to locate Cory and control him. To say nothing of the fact that our paranormal students would be at an incredible disadvantage if they were sent home. Not a single other university will admit them. Vesperwood provides them not only an education, but safety. Many of them have no clan, no pack, no community to welcome them back. How many would we endanger by sending them away?”
I sighed. Isaac had a point. Maybe several points. But I wasn’t happy about it.
“Fine,” I said. “We’ll do it your way. Which is…what, exactly?”
“I’m glad you asked.” Isaac smiled as though I’d acquiesced from the start. “Here’s what you’re going to do.”
***
“Noah!”
Seb’s voice was surprised, but he was smiling when I entered his rooms later that day. He lay stretched out on his couch, covered by a rich maroon and gold plaid blanket. He was wearing one of his signature cardigans again, this one a dark forest green with thick cables running up the arms. For once, he had a T-shirt on underneath it, though, and not his standard button-up shirt. That was his equivalent of dressing down.
“How are you doing?” he asked as I walked further into his living room and sat in an armchair across from the couch.
“I’m okay,” I said, because I couldn’t think of anything else to say.
How would I even summarize what was going on, if Icouldsay it out loud?
Isaac and I are pretty sure one of the faculty members is in league with Argus and working to destroy Vesperwood and enslave humanity. Oh, and kidnap and control Cory Dawson. Who I can’t stop fantasizing about fucking. You know, the usual.
I was pretty sure that Seb, at least, was on the up and up. He’d taken a bullet to the abdomen. That would be a hell of a sacrifice to make, just to convince us he was on the right side. Plus, he’d killed Jude. Argus wouldn’t be happy about that.
“I should be asking you that question, though,” I said, giving Seb a once over. “That’s what actually matters. Howareyou?”
“Oh, doing about as well as one can do, under the circumstances. Orlando took care of the worst of the damage before they even brought me inside. Now I have to lie here for the next few weeks and keep still.”
“He and Cinda couldn’t heal you all the way?” I asked. I knew there were limits to healing, but they were both supposed to be powerful witches.
“Doing that would have sapped most of their energy and mine,” Seb said with a shrug, after which he winced. Maybe he really wasn’t supposed to move. “The wound would have been healed, but I’d be so depleted from the process that the rest of my body might have fallen apart.”
“Yikes.”
“It’s not all bad.” He patted a stack of books on the coffee table. “No teaching for the next few weeks means I can finally catch up on some reading. There’s an article or two I’ve been thinking about writing up.” He made a face. “But I wish I didn’t need to sleep quite so much. I’ve barely been able to get through two chapters today, in between naps.”
“If your body needs rest, listen to it.”
“Probably a good idea,” he agreed. “So.”
I frowned. “So?”
“So why don’t you tell me why you’re really here?”
“I’m… checking on you?”
