Chapter 29 Caulder
Irritation hummed under my skin. Bechora had brought along Shadrie, Miles, Zypher, Gabriel, and Archer for our scheduled one-on-one session.
While helping her gain control of her magic was the focus of those sessions, I’d started viewing them as time alone with my mate.
Having five other people crammed into my office ran counter to that.
“Professor Sabelus is missing,” she said without preamble, causing me to shove my irritation aside. “And I think a number of students are as well.”
“Explain,” I said, sharper than I intended.
Bechora didn’t flinch. If anything, her focus seemed to sharpen under the shift of my tone.
“Professor Sabelus hasn’t shown up for a single History of Magical Warfare class in a while.
I thought maybe he’d just decided not to bother getting out of bed with the way he sleeps at his desk instead of teaching, but then the Dean stepped in to take over today. ”
“That alone wouldn’t be enough to raise alarm,” I replied automatically, already turning over the possibilities in my mind. Faculty absences weren’t unheard of. Less common than students leaving the Academy, certainly, but not abnormal on their own.
“The Dean said he went to the human realm to find his mate,” Bechore replied. “And it’s not just him. There are students missing, too.”
“Aside from Vexis?” I asked.
Bechora frowned at me, the name clearly unfamiliar.
“He's a demon who went missing after the orientation for First Years,” Zypher supplied. “I asked Thrackborne to look into it as it’s highly unusual. I’d meant to tell you, Dilectus, but I assumed when Thrackborne didn’t have an update for me, that his suggestion the male simply chose to leave was correct. ”
I grimaced. I’d been so caught up in spending time with Bechora that I’d let the missing demon slip my mind.
“Actually, there’s more to his disappearance.
I believe you were correct to suspect something was wrong.
I’ve been through all the records for this term's new students and couldn’t even find an invitation to the Academy for him. ”
Zypher went still beside Bechora, fire flashing in his eyes.
“What do you mean?” Bechora asked, not looking away from me. “There’s no record?”
“I mean,” I said, forcing my tone into something controlled, “there’s no invitation, no acceptance, no dorm assignments or class schedule. Nothing at all to tie him to the Academy at all.” I paused, letting that settle. “It’s as if he was never here to begin with.”
“That’s not possible,” Shadrie said immediately. “Everyone knows the Academy is at least a little sentient and keeps records of every invitation sent.”
“Who would be capable of erasing all of that?” Gabriel mused.
“The Dean,” answered Miles, pushing his glasses up his nose.
“There’s a whole section in a book on the Academy’s history about how the presiding Dean has the ability to connect to the magic of the Academy itself and even alter it.
It’s how she was able to put campus on magical lockdown.
But why would she erase all traces of a student? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Unless it does,” Bechora said. “The only reason to do something like that is if you’re involved somehow. Who knows how many students she’s had a hand in making disappear.”
“We can’t be certain they have disappeared,” I cautioned. “There is every chance they’ve simply left the Academy, and their records have been removed for other reasons.” It sounded unbelievable even as I spoke the words.
“Unlikely,” Bechora shrugged. “Considering the prophecy, what we know about the King, Sabelus, vanishing under the same pretense as most of the people in those documents you gave us to look through. My money is on foul play.”
“There’s no proof to tie this to anything,” I reasoned.
“So, we find some,” Gabriel said.
I considered his words for a moment. If there truly were students vanishing, we needed to know why.
If they were at all connected to whatever the king was up to, then we needed to know that too.
If anyone could help make those connections, it would be the princeling and his stone-brained guardian.
As much as she’d hate it, Bechora would need to put her issues with them aside if we wanted to get any answers.
“We should bring in Vallynn and Dante,” I said finally.
“They’ve been working against Evarian in secret.
” Bechora opened her mouth to argue, but I held up a hand for her to let me finish.
“It was Vallynn’s contact at court that gathered the information in the documents I asked Miles to look through. ”
“No, absolutely not,” she huffed when I finished speaking.
“I know you have your issues with them, but they can help. With this at least,” I replied.
Bechora crossed her arms, her stance going rigid in a way that told me she’d dug in her heels. “I don’t trust them,” she said flatly. “And I’m not interested in working with people who’ve already proven they’re more than happy trying to manipulate the people around them.”
I sighed, uncertain how to make her see sense.
“If they know anything useful, we should at least talk to them,” Archer piped in. “I’d imagine a prince would know more about what’s happening with the king and why, than anyone else.”
Bechora’s posture eased, and a twinge of jealousy hit me at how easily the wolf shifter seemed to have swayed her when he wasn’t even bonded to her yet.
“I still don’t like it,” she said, before looking at me. “But if you’re certain this is the best way to find out what’s going on, I’ll agree to it.”
“Good,” I replied. “First, we need to gather more information. We need to know for certain these students you mentioned are actually missing and haven’t simply left the Academy, or happened to skip class on a day when you were already looking for suspicious connections.”
“How do we do that?” Miles asked. “Sure, we can compile a list of names, but if their records don’t exist, we don’t have any way of contacting their families to be sure they didn’t just leave.”
“Making a list of names is the right place to start. From there, they should have friends, roommates, professors who know them well. We can use the information we gather from those people to determine who may have actually left and who is missing under… suspicious circumstances. At the very least, a list of names will help us determine if any other student records are simply gone.”
“And where exactly do Vallynn and Dante come into this, considering you’re sure we need their help?” Bechora challenged. She may have agreed to include them, but she was making it clear she wasn’t happy about it.
I needed to explain to her exactly what I’d been doing with the prince and his gargoyle companion.
Taking a moment to look at everyone gathered in my office, I let out a slow, steady breath before launching into the tale.
She’d already pieced together that the murdered dragon clan, in the documents I’d given to Miles, was my clan, and that I’d been the sole survivor simply because I’d not been present.
I hadn’t told her how finding my family slaughtered had led me on a near suicide mission to take my vengeance on the king.
Or how Vallynn and Dante had intervened, showing me proof of Evarian’s misdeeds and giving me hope in the form of a plan to work against him, saving anyone we could from his clutches.
By the time I finished, she’d moved to my side of the desk, pushed my chair back enough that she could fit in my lap, and wrapped her arms around my neck with her head lying against my chest to comfort me.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked, not caring that we had an audience.
“With the campus on lockdown and the prince’s spy executed, it felt irrelevant. We haven’t been able to continue what we started and had no way of getting information from the court, until it was decided to bring Dante’s father in, even if we had.”
“Wait, Dante’s father?” Shadrie asked. “As in Odoth Vazgurr, Captain of the King’s Guard?”
I frowned at the ice mage. “Yes. That is who I’m speaking of. Is there an issue with that?”
“No,” she replied, shaking her head. “I mean, I don’t know. I haven’t been to court since I was a teenager, and Odoth always seemed like the type of male to always do the right thing. I couldn’t believe someone like him could have a son who’s such an asshole like Dante—”
“Shadrie, you’re starting to ramble. Get to the point,” Bechora said.
“Sorry,” the ice mage winced. “I’m not sure I have one, I’m just surprised, is all, but if Odoth is feeding Vallynn information, it’s bound to be accurate. I don’t think he’d act against the king without a solid reason.”
“Faking an attack from the human realm while killing his own people seems like a solid enough reason to me,” Bechora shrugged.
I suppressed the smile that wanted to form at her words. “Odoth is an honorable male, but he hasn’t relayed any information as of yet. I’m not sure if that’s because there’s nothing to relay, or if it’s because he’s taking extra precautions against getting caught.”
“Right. Well, we definitely should bring Vallynn and Dante into the inner circle, in case he does pass anything along,” Shadrie continued, nodding to herself.
“I hate the idea of working with those assholes almost as much as B does, but we can’t pass up the opportunity to get our hands on intel that good. ”
“Just to circle back and make sure we’re all on the same page,” Miles interjected. “We make our lists of missing students, bring in Dante and Vallynn to find out everything they know, tell them what we know, and figure out how to find proof of any connections?”
“Yes,” Bechora spoke. “Except, let's maybe not tell them everything . They don’t need to know about the prophecy or what I actually am. At least, not until they prove they can be trusted with that information.”
“Perfect,” I said. “Now, if the rest of you don’t mind, this was supposed to be a private tutoring session. If we’re all agreed on the plan for now, I’d like to get back to the intended purpose.”
“I know what that’s code for,” Shadrie cackled. “Come on, boys, that’s our cue to leave.”
I shook my head as she ushered the others from my office. The last thing I heard before the door closed behind them was Miles asking what it was code for.