Page 2 of Bonds of Magic
“We don’t have time for him to be in shock. We need answers. And if he knows something—”
“Of course he does. But this is not the way to draw it out. Take your hands off him.”
I flinched at the implication that I was about to hurt Cory. But then—had I been? I let my hands fall and really looked at him for the first time since getting back to the manor.
Out in the snow, all I’d gotten was a general impression of blood smeared across his face. But while the light in Isaac’s office was dim, I could still see that Cory had two black eyes blooming under all that blood, a split lip, a hell of a bruise across one cheek, and a crumpled nose that had definitely been broken.
And that was only his face. His clothes were torn and stained, soaked through by snow and blood. I didn’t want to guess at what the rest of his body looked like.
You were happy to think about the rest of his body a few hours ago, whispered a traitorous voice in the back of my mind. I mentally shoved it away and forced myself to take a deep breath, letting it out slowly.
Whatever had happened, Cory needed medical attention. He might not be in as dire straits as Seb, but he had clearly been in some kind of a fight. And now that I thought about it clearly, difficult as that was, I knew he wasn’t at fault here.
Probably.
Unless the kid was way more devious than I’d thought.
But he couldn’t be. NotCory. He was so sweetly naive. He’d never so much as thrown a punch before, if his performance in Combat could be believed. And Isaac was sure he hadn’t been turned by Argus yet. I didn’t know Cory that well, but there was no way the kid was that good a liar.
I sighed. I wanted to do something with all my anger, but deep down, I knew he wasn’t the right target for it.
“Cory,” Isaac said, walking over to the two of us. “Why don’t you sit down and catch your breath?”
He took Cory by the hand and led him to one of the chairs in front of his desk. A flash of something—anger? jealousy?—stabbed through me at the sight of Cory’s hand in his. I wasn’t allowed to touch Cory, but Isaac could?
I forced myself to remain calm as Isaac sat down in the other chair in front of the desk, facing Cory. He crossed his legs at the ankle and gave Cory what he probably thought was a reassuring smile. Isaac’s face wasn’t really built for reassurance, so it came across harsher than it should have. But I didn’t think Cory even noticed. He stared at his hands, which lay listlessly in his lap.
“Perhaps you would fetch us some water,” Isaac said to me, nodding at a small table by the sofa where a pitcher and a few glasses stood.
Fetch? I wasn’t a dog. I filled one glass. If Isaac wanted water, he could get it himself.
I held the glass out to Cory, who didn’t notice it for a long moment. Then he looked up for the first time, and his eyes met mine. They weren’t blank and dazed anymore. They were wide, and filled with a fear so big my heart hurt. A trickle of blood ran down his cheek from a gash on his forehead, and I fought the urge to wipe it away with my thumb.
“You’re safe.” The words fell out of my mouth. I wanted to flush, but I refused to do that in front of Isaac. Instead I cleared my throat and said, “Take it,” nodding at the glass.
Cory reached up, his blood-coated fingers brushing against mine as he took the glass. I exhaled softly at his touch, and when his eyes flicked back up to mine, I turned away, moving to stand next to Isaac’s chair.
Get a fucking hold of yourself, I berated myself internally.
Cory held the glass in front of him, until Isaac suggested that he take a drink. He did, uncertainly, like he wasn’t sure he remembered how to swallow. Then he rested the glass, surface smeared red, on his lap.
“I know you’re in pain.” Isaac’s voice was almost gentle. “I know tonight was hard. I wouldn’t ask this if it weren’t important to know the answer as soon as possible. To keep you safe, and to keep the other students and faculty safe. Can you tell us what happened in the woods?”
Cory looked at him for a long moment, then nodded.
“Thank you,” Isaac said, as though Cory had already told us something useful.
He would tell us something, wouldn’t he? He had to understand the significance of what had happened in the woods.
But it took him a while to speak. He kept opening his mouth, then closing it and swallowing, only to open it again and say nothing. At one point, he closed his eyes for so long that I wondered if he’d fallen asleep, before opening them again. That time, he actually managed a croak, before coughing and grimacing.
“Drink some more,” Isaac said.
Cory raised the glass to his lips automatically. He took a gulp, still grimacing. I could see bruises beginning to form on his neck. Was there anywhere the kidhadn’tbeen hurt?
He closed his eyes again. “It was—we were—it was so stupid. It’s all my fault.”
More blood trickled down his face, until I realized it wasn’t blood at all. It was tears, leaking from his eyes and mixing with the blood already on his face.
