Page 5 of Bonds of Magic
“Then what is the time and place? Besides, Cory deserves to know. He’s the one who was almost taken.”
“The more Cory knows, the more danger he’s in,” Isaac snapped. “For all we know, Sheridan has nothing to do with tonight.”
“Then how the hell did Erika know how to do that spell?”
“You will recall that there are other faculty who could have played a role instead. We don’t even know if this was the doing of one person acting alone.”
Abruptly, I realized he was right. The files I’d found in Teresa’s rooms were almost as odd as the coin in Sheridan’s. I hadn’t even told Isaac about the files, I’d been so angry about the coin. But he was right. There could be more than one witch behind tonight. Quickly, I brought Isaac up to date on my search of Teresa’s rooms.
“I fucked up,” I said when I was done. “I should have told you sooner. Tonight was my fault. I’m sorry.”
“Hmm,” Isaac said, ignoring my apology completely. “We’ll need to look into that.”
He didn’t take me to task, which annoyed me, because I knew I deserved it. But before I could say anything else, Cory spoke.
“It’smyfault,” he said quietly.
“What?” I said. It came out harsher than I intended.
“It’s my fault,” he repeated. “I was the one who wanted to go on that stupid hunt. If I hadn’t gone, none of my friends would have either. Erika wouldn’t have done it without me.”
“I doubt that very much, Cory,” Isaac said. “From your description, it sounds like she was under a compulsion. Certainly, you did not put it on her. The question is, who did?”
Cory shook his head. “I should have done something. I should have stopped her somehow.” His voice cracked as he spoke, his sorrow still fresh. “If I hadn’t waited in the trees for so long, if I’d pulled her away faster—”
“You did everything you could.” I tried to make my voice warm. It still came off as stern, but it was better than last time. “You fought to save Erika, and you fought to save yourself. You weakened Jude. If you hadn’t, Sebastian wouldn’t have been able to kill him.”
“But if I’m the reason the guy was there. If he was supposed to find me and kidnap me, then itismy fault. If I weren’t at Vesperwood, Professor Romero would be okay, and Erika would still be alive.”
“If you weren’t at Vesperwood, it’s quite possibleyouwouldn’t be alive,” Isaac said. “You certainly wouldn’t have your freedom.”
“So I’m supposed to trade my friend’s life for my freedom? How is that fair?” The raw edge of Cory’s voice quavered.
“It’s also possible that if you’d never come to Vesperwood, your power would be used against you to kill thousands, if not millions, of other people.”
“What power?” Cory said. “I can’t evendoanything. I couldn’t even save—”
“You did your best,” I said, cutting in before he could spiral any further. I understood his feelings, but I really didn’t want himgetting it in his head that he was too blame. “You did everything you could. Vesperwood is safer tonight because of your actions. If you hadn’t been there, Jude would be roaming around campus, and I can promise you, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill other students in his search to find you.”
Cory shuddered.
“But he’s dead now,” I added. “He can’t hurt you.”
Cory didn’t seem to find this very comforting. “I still don’t understandwhy,” he said. “Why would someone want me so badly that they’d try to abduct me?”
“As I said before, the less you know, the better,” Isaac said.
“But that’s—”
“The truth, Cory,” Isaac said. “I promise you that. If I thought sharing more information would keep you or the rest of the student body safer, I would. But the fact is, the danger you’re in increases directly with the amount that you know about what’s going on. Suffice it to say, someone is looking for you because they want to add your power to theirs. The more you know about them, the easier it will be for them to find you. I suggest you do your best to forget the names you heard here tonight.”
“But I don’t have any power to take,” Cory objected.
“Which brings me to my second point.” Isaac looked at me. “If there are forces willing to attack Cory, attempt to abduct him, possibly kill him, then it’s critical that he be able to defend himself, while awakeorasleep.”
His look grew harder, and my stomach roiled. I had a bad feeling about whatever was going to come out of his mouth next.
“Sebastian will be relieved of all teaching duties for as long as he needs to recover—an as yet unknown amount of time. I can find someone to cover his classes, but I can’t assign just anyone to take over his private lessons with Cory. It will have to be you, Noah.”
