CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Another day, another murder.
I spent the morning both shocked and sulking at what transpired last night. I half expected the Professor to blast my door down and burn me alive, but there’s been no sign of him. I’m in no mood to be scolded anyhow. Forcing me into Sab’s head like that was…not cool.
And the way I blasted him back? That was power. If I’m honest, it was intoxicating in its own way, to turn the tables.
It’s not long, however, before word begins to filter down the grapevine there’s been a third murder. Lily pieces it together for me from what morsels she’s managed to come across given there’s no big PA announcement or bustle from the faculty.
Lily sits on my desk, swinging her feet. “That creepy governance professor, one with the peg leg, found her first—or one of part of many the killer decided to leave around the second floor.”
“Fuck.”
“Is exactly right, but they’re keeping this one tight—real tight.
“Why?” I ask, scratching at my throat trying not to think about the blade drawing across it last night.
Lily shrugs. “I guess a murder here or there every couple of months…you can sweep that under the rug, but three? Fucking three in such a short space of time? That’s kind of crazy. It’s escalation.”
We head out for morning classes.
Again, no sign of Darkwood.
But there is something different about the Academy.
Students speak in hushed whispers, throw worried glances over their shoulders.
Word has spread.
It’s fear.
It doesn’t matter where you are or who you are, the message is clear: you could be next.
It’s pretty obvious in class, too. No one seems to be in the mood for much. Lumina’s professors seem to pride themselves on student interaction. With that crucial element out of the equation, they labor through each class. Everyone’s just going through the motions.
Even passing smaller groups of students, trivial topics that dominate most academy conversations have been replaced with gallows humor—not that it hits the mark. No, melancholy has settled deep into Academy bones.
I do my best to steer clear of it. I’ve seen enough misery outside the walls of this academy. The girls and I agree to not speculate on the case and continue our training. Whatever might come, we need to be prepared. Our main focus has to be on becoming stronger. Pointing fingers at who we think might be Mortis won’t help.
I grow worried coming into Black Arts that the Professor might make an example of me in class, embarrass me, but he’s absent. Peg Leg takes the class instead, completely out of his depth.
We head to the common room later, which we find oddly empty. It seems like everyone’s decided to barricade themselves in their rooms instead. Probably a smart idea.
Ava stokes the fireplace, prodding at it with a poker. She does strike me as the pyromancy type, burning down schools and what-not.
“I swear I’ve had it with this whole killer thing,” Lily complains, keeping her voice down. “These idiots in the little girls’ room were blaming it all on that Lucian kid, from divination, and yes, he’s creepy as fuck and probably behind a homicide or two inais, but nope. Not here.”
Lily looks over to where Ava is kneeling by the fire. “Surprised no one’s brought up your name yet.”
Ava stands, placing the poker back. “Because I refuse to live by everyone’s stupid societal laws and customs, that I should dress like a barbie doll and ooh and ahh over the boys. Fuck that.”
I actually laugh at this. “So no one’s caught your eye?” I tease.
She returns back to staring into the fire. “Please. Technology surpassed a simple human penis a long time ago.”
Lily leans over to where I’m sitting, whispering. “She doesn’t get much action.”
“I can fucking hear you,” says Ava.
I stifle a laugh. “I’m with you,” I announce to the room. “Boys, men…I’m not sure I see the appeal sometimes.”
Lily shakes her head. “The both of you need a good dicking.”
I laugh. “A good ‘dicking’? Are we in good Britian awaiting an audience with the Queen?”
“Fuck off,” laughs Lily. “You know what I mean.” She leans forward to where random books are stacked on the table in front of her, selecting one at random and flicking through the pages. “Didn’t you say your grandmother was into herbology, Ana?”
I nod. “Definitely liked plants more than people, which I have to say, I kind of get.”
Which draws me back to Gran attending Lumina. What did she learn here? What did she discover?
Lily picks up another book, reading out the title, “Summoning the Elements in Times of Crisis.” She tosses it back onto the table. “Jesus, when are they going to get some new material around here? I’d kill for a Cosmo.”
But Ava seems more interested in me. “You haven’t decided to follow in your grandmother’s footsteps, Ana?”
I almost tell them the answer is in ‘her-bore-ology,’ but no, I never share her obsession with plants. She claimed that unlike people, the plants weren’t going to fuck her over or bite her head off—at least not most plants. And that always made me question what someone must have done to her, what she must have experienced to think this way. Maybe she experienced it right here.
“My tastes have always been a little darker,” I confess.
“So how do you plan to do us in then?” Lily asks casually. “I bet it’s the fire poker for Ava, and for me? Please tell me it’s death by orgasm.”
Something I’m sure the Professor could arrange, but I laugh back, “Guys, do I look like a murderer?”
They both look at each other across the room and answer together. “Yes.”
I throw my hands up. “Really?”
Lily picks up another book. “It makes sense. You and your sweet ass showed up here completely out of the blue with,” she pinches her fingers together, “very little practical experience in the Arts, and that’s only because a certain Professor took a shining to you inais.”
I remember his words: watching you.
I pick at my fingernails. “You should give me more credit than that. I knew plenty before I got here. I just didn’t practice much is all. Like, please don’t tell me you guys were free to practice whatever the hell you felt like back home?”
They look at each other and both shrug. “Pretty much,” they answer in unison, which is making me start to question if there isn’t some telepathic fuckery going on between these two I’m unaware of.
Ava speaks up. “It’s not to say I did so openly, but it wasn’t exactly discouraged. I’d head out into the forest in summer and go nuts. I’ve probably destroyed a dozen trees or more trying to perfect Fulgur Flagellum.”
“And they say spells can’t be sexy,” Lily laughs. “I wish I had a forest to practice in. Our house is pretty big by any standard, and maybe I blew up the kitchen once, maybe twice, might have blown out the windows too, but in the grand scheme of things? No biggie. And don’t get me started on the poison ivy I was growing in the basement. I thought it was weed.”
I crack up. “How the fuck do you mix that up?”
Lily throws her hands in the air. “I had a sheltered upbringing, okay? Besides all the teenage sex and drugs, that is.”
“Charming,” says Ava, deadpan.
Lily tosses a book at her, but she misses, poor Magical Governance: A Treatise landing square in the middle of the fire and bursting into ghoulish green flame.
Ava leaps back. “Fuck, Lily!”
The hands go up again. “Sorry. Sport’s not my strong suit.” Lily points a finger at Ava. “Wait, didn’t you have some story about an orb? You tried to shove it up your pussy or something, right?”
Ava’s eyebrows knit together. “It was a crystal orb, an expensive one, and I was only trying to read it, thank you very much. It’s a lot more difficult than it looks. How was I supposed to know it was going to catch alight?”
I sit up. “It caught fire?”
Ava nods. “The only casualty was the carpet, but my parents weren’t exactly pleased about it.”
“But you’re pretty talented in scrying now, right?”
Ava gives a light shrug. “Break some eggs, make an omelet—you know how it goes. I was only sixteen back then. I wasn’t really prepared.”
“Who is?” comes a new voice.
We all turn to find Cassandra standing there, platform heel pumps making her unnaturally tall.
“All you bitches are gathered here. Good.”
She looks at me and away just as quickly.
She remembers alright.
Lily goes to stand, but Cassandra puts a hand up. “Calm your tits. I’m not here looking for a fight.”
“Funny way to enter a room then,” Ava grumbles.
“What do you want, Cassandra?” I ask, keeping my voice as normal as possible given, you know, Darkwood had her petrified and forced her to watch all manner of unspeakable acts between us.
“To open your fucking eyes,” she groans, leaning into the act and closing the gap between us. “Or rather, their eyes,” she says, eyes darting between Ava and Lily. “Because of all the people in this room, you know best what I’m talking about.”
“Do I?” I say, surprise creeping into my voice. “Because I’m not sure I have any idea what you’re on about.”
“Darkwood,” she says simply, her gaze locked with mine. “He’s behind all of this.”
Ballsy, I’ll give her that. She clearly has a short memory.
Lily gets out of her chair and walks towards Cassandra. “Whoa, whoa, that’s quite the accusation. You have proof, of course?”
“Here,” Cassandra claims, setting her cell phone down on the table. “I put a bug in the professors’ lounge last week.
“You did what?” Ava says, getting up from her position at the fireplace to join us. “How did you even get a bug?”
Cassandra shrugs. “Nineteen ninety-nine off Amazon, but that’s beside the point. I figured if anyone was going to talk, it would be there, right? And I struck gold. Seems Professor Jameson and Professor Howard are a lot more vocal when they think no one’s listening.”
She swipes her index finger across the screen, the common room falling silent.
“None of it bodes well for Lumina, does it?” Ms. Howard’s voice is the first I hear. She’s the younger of the two—not more than thirty with a strange proclivity for hair accessories.
“The Academy’s name has been through the mud before. It survived then. It will survive now. But it’s not the Academy’s reputation that concerns me,” Mrs. Jameson shares her opinion.
“You’re not concerned with the good name of your workplace? Because I am.”
“The good name of Lumina is a secondary concern. My primary concern is the common denominator between the last time something like this happened and now. Damien.”
A scoff. “You really think he was behind that spree back in sixteen?”
“I don’t know, but he’s the only one from that faculty still working here, isn’t he? Besides Yours Truly. The rest of them either quit or were removed. And that’s not taking into account his little sabbatical afterwards.”
Cassandra hits the screen of her phone to pause the recording. “Here’s another conversation between those two muff-munchers, after murder two.” She swipes her finger across the screen.
“You must report this, Nora.” There’s panic in Ms. Howard’s usually calm, fruity voice. “There’s nothing for it.”
“Seeing Darkwood and Dale Donovan talking, just the day before his murder, doesn’t quite prove the act,” Mrs. Jameson states, her own tone unchanged.
“They weren’t talking. They were arguing,” Ms. Howard corrects her. “There’s a difference.”
“A professor was telling off a student. How unusual. And suspicious,” Mrs. Jameson argues, a touch of irony in her voice. “I’ll notify Isadora, but you know how chummy those two are. If Damien did play a part in Dale Donovan’s death, it’s more subtle than we realize. That’s how his beloved Black Arts work. In subtle, yet very effective ways.”
“I’m still not sold,” I tell Cassandra, my tone stiff. “Mrs. Jameson is right. It’s one thing to argue with someone, but quite another to murder them in cold blood.”
“Oh, I agree,” she interrupts, raising her voice over mine. “And that’s true—for most. But your precious Professor? He’s a psychopathic prick who gets off on flaunting his power on weak, fledgling witches. I have first-hand experience.”
Ava and Lily pull closer, eager to hear what she has to say.
“What exactly are you referring to?” Ava says.
“Ask her,” Cassandra urges, nodding towards me.
Oh, fuck. Here we go. She’s really going for it.
“I wouldn’t have suspected Darkwood’s involvement in the murders had it not been for this crazy shit he pulled on me. He’s completely unstable, isn’t he, Ana?”
I want to cave this bitch’s head in. I’m sure Damien would do it for me if I asked. He threatened as much, didn’t he? Which in a way kind of confirms what Cassandra is saying.
“Ana, what is she saying?” Lily asks, her voice firm as she settles her gaze on mine.
God damn it.
I knew this would come back and bite me in the ass.
My cheeks flush, Lily and Ava’s inquisitive staring too much to bear. They’re eager to get an answer, and I’m less than willing to part my lips.
“Damien isn’t a killer,” I murmur, doing my best to look them all in the eye, to stay strong. “He wouldn’t hurt a student. He was quite distraught when Stephanie’s body was discovered, actually.”
I think it’s been clear to both Lily and Ava I’ve been spending time with him, but this confirms it, makes it real.
“Yes, but what did he do to Cassandra?” Lily asks, an edge of concern appearing. “Because she sure as shit ain’t going to tell us.”
There’s no way to sugarcoat this or back out. I’m not going to lie to the only friends I have here.
And Cassandra? I’ll deal with her in good time.
“He, uh…” I falter and look away. “He used a petrifying spell on her, to make her watch while we…you know.”
“Fuck me,” Lily says with disgust, before flinching away. “Why?”
“He was punishing her, for the way she was treating me.”
“That’s quite the punishment,” Ava adds. “And you just let him?”
I’m not going to explain our complex relationship or debate the ethics here, even though I admit saying it all aloud does make the both of us sound completely deranged. “He’d already petrified her when I got there,” I explain. “There wasn’t much I could do. In my defense, he’s had me under a mind-control spell.”
“You enjoyed it, didn’t you?” Cassandra snarls. “Every single fucking second of it.”
I’m not letting her get the upper hand her, to turn Lily and Ava against me. ““My body? Yeah, it did,” I admit, still feeling the heat in my cheeks. “My brain was protesting, but, like I said, the mind-control was too powerful. Darkwood is too powerful.”
I don’t tell them about my small magical win over him; don’t tell them how powerful I have grown thanks to our sessions.
Lily puts her hands on her hips, shaking her head. “Fuck, Ana. We told you to be careful. Darkwood’s dangerous.”
“I’m inclined to agree,” Ava nods. “And while this doesn’t incriminate him per se, what you’re saying he did to Cassandra, to you? That’s kind of vile. You can’t trust him. We can’t trust him.”
“Are we all forgetting I was petrified, against my will here?” Cassandra snorts.
Lily rolls her eyes. “Honestly, I’d petrify you if I could.”
The fucking high road—my favorite, but if I don’t try to simmer Cassandra down she’s going to do something stupid like go to the Headmistress and then Darkwood really will kill her, and that blood will be on my hands.
I don’t want that.
So I tell her, “I’m sorry.”
She looks surprised. “What?”
“I said I’m sorry, Cassandra. I’m sorry that happened to you, and I’m sorry you were forced to watch, but you cannot tell anyone, and I think you know why.”
Her lips press together, but she remains silent.
I look to the others and cannot stand the way they’re examining me now, as if I’m a stranger, someone they don’t know. “It’s complicated, okay? I didn’t approve of what he did then any more than I approve of it now, and I took no pleasure in having Cassandra watch.”
There’s truth in this—at least some of it, but if I examine myself there is guilt there, because I could have better articulated to Damien how uncomfortable I was, expressed my feelings like I did with the whole Sab-being-gang-raped-by-shadows thing. And the mind-control thing? Can I not see what is going on here? Am I that blinded by my own selfish desire?
Everyone’s quiet, the mood, which was almost jovial before, gone.
I thumb behind myself. “I’m just going to go.”
No one argues as I leave. Even Cassandra stays silent.
I get back to my room still wondering what the hell is wrong with me. I’m in a twisted, fucked-up relationship with someone who’s clearly manipulating me, with a man who clearly doesn’t have an issue being cruel for almost no reason.
I hold up the card that was waiting on my bed with its usual words, its invitation.
Will I be on the receiving end of that cruelty if I go?
It’s almost certain, but I want more than anything to be punished. Tonight, I deserve it.
Still, I need to be careful around him, to keep my guard up.
Lest I end up like the others.