Page 62 of Monsters in Love

Chapter Eight

OFFICE HOURS

Capricorn Jade

I knew when Declan, Rothgar, and Jalen arrived back in town. I knew when they set foot on campus.

The knowledge troubled me, because this intuition went beyond the spell craft that I wove around me to keep me hidden. No, it was a deep knowledge, one that tugged at my heart and was as basic to me as breathing. It was the same inner knowing that told me when I was allergic to something or physically off.

I craved them. Their touch, their words, their looks…hell, even their presence. I wanted to feel them wrapped around me.

And I hated myself for that bit of weakness.

This need for them should go away in a few days. It needed to. It had been so hard to concentrate, and I rarely needed help in that department. In fact, I tend to hyper focus and spend hours consumed in work. The entire world could implode and I wouldn’t notice when I was in my work-flow mode.

I stood, taking a break from yet another hour of wrestling my concentration to no avail. I paced Professor Snowden’s office, willing my flagging brain and body to wake up. This was the home stretch. This term would be the culmination of the previous years’ work. I just needed to power through and finish what I started.

A whole new field of research was waiting for me, but I wouldn’t be able to get to it until I could understand the ancient scrolls that hinted at an ancient labyrinth and its hidden wealth of magic.

Instead of making any scholarly progress, all the plants were happily watered and dead-headed. The filing cabinets have new labels and a color-coded system. I cleaned, polished, alphabetized, or trashed every inch of this office. I left Snowden’s desk last.

Might as well organize it, too, as it was now a very big eyesore in an otherwise sparkling study. I quickly sorted, filed, and tossed all the academic debris that had been allowed to pile until he had a very respectable-looking surface that befitted his scholarly pedigree.

I grabbed a microfiber rag and dusted his tchotchkes one by one. I left the Key for last. A twisted bit of metal, stone, and wood that was supposed to represent the labyrinth that he was obsessed with. To me, it looked like scraps of material that someone welded together to form a surreal sculpture.

At one point, it looked like a tetrahedron, at another, a pyramid. It was admittedly fascinating, though it still held no more interest to me than being a shiny paperweight.

“Ah, my legacy,” Professor Snowden said.

I jumped, nearly dropping the thing. “Professor!” I said, a little too loud. “I didn’t see you return.” Placing his prized possession back on his desk, I back away. A few drops of blood appeared on my rag, and I saw a slight cut on my finger.

Great. That was going to be a good look. Stain your professor’s legacy.

“I wasn’t expecting you back for a few hours,” I continued. I hoped he would say nothing about his desk. He was very particular.

He was a wizened old man, tall, lean with wispy white hair atop his head that reminded me of a cotton swab. His eyes disappeared into the folds of his eyelids, and his wire-rimmed glasses clung to his face with magic that defied gravity. It was the only way something so large and bulky could balance on his delicate features.

Despite that, he could see extremely well, and often devoured pages of old text for hours.

He smiled up at me, staring in my general direction. “You know me. I couldn’t seem to stay away.” He reached for the Key. “Plus, I have a special notification to tell me if someone is at my desk.”

Cringing, I apologized. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to touch your desk. When I clean, I can’t seem to stop.”

“It’s all right, my dear, quite all right,” he patted my hand. “I understand. If I remembered you were here, I wouldn’t have worried that my work was being disturbed.”

A rising anxiety twisted my stomach into knots. He didn’t sound mad, and he was saying the right things. But the way his eyes zeroed in on the Key made me step away from him.

Maybe it was time to take a coffee break…

“Did you touch the Key, my dear?” He asked. His tone was innocent enough, as casual as anything else he would say to me. Yet my pulse quickened, and I suddenly felt very much like a little rabbit trapped in its den.

“Only to move it out of the way as I cleaned,” I said. Maybe the reminder that I’d been cleaning and organizing would make him less…strange.

Professor Snowden picked up the artifact and held it so close to his face that every now and again, some of the edge pieces clinked against his thick lenses.

I tried to act casual. It wasn’t the first time that the professor had descended into one of his moods. Usually, he would mutter to himself as he tottered around his bookshelves or scowled over delicate parchment.

Silently, I went to my desk, and searched for my small essentials kit I kept in my drawer. I took out a bandaid from amid my supplies and placed it on my finger. It was already healing, thank goddess. Papercuts along my fingers were the worst.

---