Chapter 3 - Cole
CHAPTER 3 - COLE
“ W here are you?” I growled at the ledger pages I reviewed for the tallies of stock in and out, recorded by the Hadrians like Blaze’s grandmother.
I checked the time on my sports watch for the fifth time this hour. Luna and I had plans for this afternoon that I refused to cancel. This was the last day of our winter break, the rest of it chewed up by long days repairing what we could of the damaged Veil.
Talon assigned us to search for any missing inventory, hoping to catch Nelle’s accomplice. He hoped that the task was a welcome distraction from the despair in Blaze’s mind.
When we went to Babcia’s office with the request, she cussed at us in Polish, telling us to do it ourselves, and dumped the books on her desk. Four thick registries of magical ingredients from the last year.
The pressure to nail our suspect ached in my shoulders. The longer they remained at large, the more damage they caused the Academy.
With the clock ticking, we split up the task, Blaze reviewing the documents related to the Academy, and I took those related to the Guild operations that Talon supervised.
Blaze and I had cleared piles of spell books from her desk to make space for our task, while she pottered in the storage rooms. Then we divided them up between us and spent the last two hours pouring through records, hiding our investigation from any witnesses who might alert our potential traitor.
If we weren’t hunting down the suspected second infiltrator, Kymbal had Talon, Luna, and me out day and night stabilizing the hole our girl created in the Veil to bring the djinn army through to Earth. So much for the winter vacation plans. Worth it to have my brother back safe and sound.
The adrenaline of busting the traitor only went so far, and I needed more caffeine to stay awake. I grabbed my mug, cursing at the lack of coffee in it, and at the grounds left in the pot on its heating cradle.
The motion startled Blaze and he flinched, his body stiffening, gaze jumping around the room, fingers fisting the pen in his hand.
“You okay, brother?” I asked.
“Fine.” He took one last look at the shadows in the corner of his grandmother’s office before bending his head to read the registry. By the way he flipped through the pages too fast to scrutinize, I knew I was in for more work to double-check them.
Fine, my ass .
It was obvious that he didn’t feel safe since returning from Camus’ castle. Fast movements, loud sounds, or darkness prompted his panic. He didn’t say anything more about his ordeal other than what he told Kymbal, Venellan, and Talon’s temporary Darnax replacement. I didn’t blame him for coming back with baggage.
Nelle made me question my sanity when we dated, gaslighting me, blame-shifting, and lacking empathy. I could only imagine what she did to Blaze when in the confines of a cell.
“Let me know if you need to stop.” I kept hold of the mug, conscious of moving again and alarming him.
“I’m not leaving until I find the traitor.” Blaze nudged the pot in my direction in an obvious attempt to cover his fear. “You need more coffee, you’re out.”
I didn’t want to leave him alone when he was clearly going through something, but instinct told me he needed a moment alone to re-group.
Giving him space, I snatched up the carafe, and said, “Back in a minute.” The coffee refill break would also serve to stretch my legs, get the heart pumping, and blood flowing. “Want more cookies?”
“You’re always eating.” Papers rustled as Blaze flicked them.
Never known him to turn down one of his grandmother’s cookies that she baked for us while we scoured the ledgers the last two days. Another clue he wasn’t his usual self.
I ran my palms seductively down my chest. “Gotta keep up this Adonis body for our girl.”
Blaze snorted, the first smile he cracked the entire study session.
Apart from the shitty two weeks we just had, things felt easier between us, our natural bond returning with each day, and I welcomed it. Beyond the hurt of leaving the Guild, I missed my friend, our close-knit friendship, and rebuilding that outweighed the heartache and pain.
I shrugged with the pot. “And I need the energy for my morning boxing workouts with Talon.”
I left and went to the Hadrian’s kitchen to prepare more coffee, loading water into the percolator and refilling the filter with ground beans. Mission accomplished, I returned to Blaze’s grandmother’s office and set the pot back on the cradle to do its magick.
Blaze twitched again as if he hadn’t heard my return. Rapid pumps of his back said he breathed hard. Clenched fists on either side of the book implied he barely held on. Whatever troubled him was getting worse, not better with time. He refused to visit the campus psychologist and his earlier response indicated he didn’t want to talk about it, so I left it alone. We felt hopeless and ran out of options to comfort him.
Pretending not to notice his reaction, I waited for the coffee to drip, tapping my foot, checking the time again. One hour before I had to leave and get ready for my date. I felt like an asshole leaving him alone when he clearly needed his friends.
“Quit doing that, it’s distracting.” Blaze’s finger trailed the entries and he recorded odd ones in a notebook to report to Talon for further investigation.
Harmless motions like that never bothered my brother before. He returned from Camus’ castle a changed man. Talon, Luna, and I agreed to keep a close watch on him to make sure he didn’t fall into depression over his suspension and losing his magick.
Liquid dripped through the filter, and I thanked the coffee gods.
Maybe I could get him talking indirectly about a common interest.
“I’m edgy to get out of here because I’ve got a date with Luna this afternoon,” I confessed. “It’s our four-month anniversary.”
Date talk. We didn’t really get into that when it felt weird for a while there. I was over that now.
“You’re sentimental.” Blaze rested a forearm over the page to keep the book open. His eyes looked even icier in the fire and candlelight, the only light he’d allow in his grandmother’s office. Something to remind him of and connect him to his missing djinn powers.
“Admit it. I’m pussy whipped.” I snatched up our mugs, readying them for refills, adding sugar and cream to mine and leaving Blaze’s straight and black. Give me bitter and sweet any day.
A shit-eating grin took up residence on his face. “You’re pussy whipped.”
I cheered internally at getting him to lighten up.
Chuckling, I poured his top-up, setting it in front of the ledger he studied. “You’re free to date Luna now. Talon and I will welcome you to the club in no time.”
“You wish.” He lifted his mug, still shaking his head, smiling as he sipped at the burning liquid. “By the Veil!”
He dropped the mug, spilling some coffee on his chest and the desk, then cursing under his breath, grabbing tissues to sop up the mess. Without his powers, he couldn’t drink piping hot beverages anymore.
“Want some burn cream?” I asked.
“Nah.” He dabbed at the splotched, brown stain on his chest.
“You think you’re safe, but the pussy whipping sneaks up on you,” I said, a poor distraction from the pain creasing his brow.
“We’ll see.”
“You missed out on a good afternoon yesterday.” Another attempt at diverting his attention.
We all missed his company. Our brotherhood felt incomplete without him, even though we added a new member.
“I didn’t feel like coming.” Blaze went back to flicking the pages with a little too much ferocity.
Hint taken. I switched topics. “Found anything?”
“A few minor missing items.” He discarded the brown tissues in the waste basket and returned to his seat. “Candles, sage, ribbons, and crystals. That’s expected when teachers are in a hurry on their way to class and take items from the storage rooms without logging it.”
“Great,” I muttered. “There went our plan.”
“I’ve done it a few times.” Blaze fell silent at the reminder of his anguish.
I cut his sorrow down with another diversion. “No Fae dust?”
“Not yet.” Blaze buried his head back in the text, a man on a mission, his future dependent on this.
I took my seat and dove back into the task, jotting down any discrepancies in a notebook, dates, items, and quantity.
All the reading made my eyes blur, and I blinked and rubbed them. I forced myself to continue for another twenty minutes, until something caught my eye. “I think I’ve found something.”
Blaze snapped up from his sagged position over his book, yawning and stretching his chest and arms. “What?”
“Are black candles part of an invisibility spell?” I asked.
Gildrons like us didn’t get taught the ins and outs of spells as that was the Hadrians’ role. They were our go-to whenever we wanted particular spells, ingredients, or weapons. Invisibility spells required cloaking or reflection of light, and I wondered if black candles came into the equation.
“I’ll check.” Blaze’s chair creaked as he stood and moved to the bookshelf, scanning for a text, selecting one and bringing it over to the desk we shared. His finger trailed down the book’s contents page, and he flipped to the desired page. “Yep, they can be. Why, are some missing?”
I spun my book around to show him. “Three missing black candles on separate dates.”
Nothing to crow about and could be easily explained by something as minor as a Hadrian forgetting to track the inventory. Twenty missing tapers or more was reason for alarm. But we had to chase down every lead, and something about this made my gut instincts prickle.
Blaze continued to read from the spell, “It says here that invisibility spells require the scales of a chameleon, spider’s leg, newt eye, and mug wart.”
I checked my list of missing items. “They’re all on here.”
“We’ll take it to Talon.” Blaze set the book down. “Anything else?”
I reeled off the misplaced ingredients on my list, and he checked the bibliography, finding the corresponding spells, and what do you know, they assisted in the erasure of spells.
“I’ll be damned.” I put a strip of paper in the ledger to keep my page and slammed it shut. “I think we’ve found our smoking gun.”
Blaze captured pictures of the spell’s ingredients and procedure, and we took our lists to The Eye to show Talon.
He jerked his head, signaling for us to enter the conference room on the right-hand side of the room, where they often had meetings with Tollens from other Guild facilities. Matters like this required the utmost privacy when it could tip of the mole and send them running.
“What have you got?” He massaged the back of his neck like he’d been seated at a desk longer than us.
My friend stretched his legs on a chair as we ran through our findings, showing him our lists and the pictures, building our case.
At the end, Blaze asked, “Can you check the security footage of the storage rooms and find out who entered on those dates?”
“Yes, I can.” Talon’s deviant smile spelled the end of our traitor problem.
“I’m happy to help.” Blaze stuffed his notebook in his hoodie since he wasn’t allowed to wear the official Guild uniform during his suspension. “Run me through how to search the footage.”
Someone was keen to nail the traitor.
Talon crossed to the door and grabbed the handle. “With pleasure.”