Chapter 13 #3
“I know you’re right, but it took me by surprise, too,” she said.
“The Senate kept this close to the vest. I heard not a whisper of it from any of my contacts. Once I’ve had a good night’s sleep, we can reconvene tomorrow and come up with a game plan.
” Brief pause. “You had the House Phoenix girl in transmutations today. How was she?”
“She was . . . special. A natural.”
More mumbled words followed, and I nearly became part-door myself; I was smashed against it so hard trying to hear. I lifted a hand to whip off a quick rune to help carry the sound, but Liam closed his fingers around mine.
He was right. It was a bad idea. Thalienne might sense it, or, Gods forbid, I might make a mistake and wind up making them both bray like donkeys or something equally horrific.
I had to just hope they were considerate enough to speak up, because the curiosity was killing me.
“That’s one good thing, at least. Imagine if we could get a young, powerful Phoenix with a pure heart behind our cause? It could change everything.”
“From your lips to Hecate’s ears,” Thalienne replied.
The cause . . .
What cause?
“On another note, we might have even more trouble coming down the pike. I got word from Tarquinius an hour before supper. A new student professor is on the way here as we speak, at his behest. Supposedly, this student is not a good fit at Neverthorn, and he thinks they’d flourish at Heathermoor.
” She let out a snort. “That’s nearly a compliment, which, coming from that arrogant bag of wind just on its own would’ve been suspicious.
But to admit that Neverthorn isn’t superior to my ragtag band of hippies in every possible way?
Something is fishier than a wharf at high noon in midsummer. ”
“So, what’s the plan?” Bryony asked softly.
The silence stretched on so long, I wanted to yank the door open and be like, “Answer the damn question, woman!”
Finally, Thalienne spoke. “I’ve thought about it long and hard, and what I keep coming back to is this: no matter how strong or smart he thinks he is, we are stronger and smarter – because we do not stand alone. We leave him to his little plots and plans, and give him the rope he needs . . .”
“And hope he hangs himself?”
“Precisely.” I could hear the challenge in her voice, as if she was looking forward to it. “Let the Senate and Tarquinius do what they feel they need to. I’ll back us to win, every time.”
And, for a scant moment, I almost felt bad for Tarquinius.
Almost . . .
I pulled back to glance at Liam, but the motion sent my pendant swinging, and it tapped the door with a quiet clink that reverberated through my head like a crash of marching band cymbals.
Liam and I stood frozen to the spot.
“Did you hear something?” Bryony murmured.
Liam grabbed me and yanked me behind him as he pulled the door open and stepped through, blocking me from view. He flicked his hand and slammed the door shut before I could even consider following him.
“Sage Thalienne. Bryony! How are you holding up? Shame about the Senate sending those Runecoats and Mallachtan of all the senators to deal with . . .”
“Liam. I thought you were giving a tour to the girl from House Phoenix?” Thalienne’s sharp tone held more than a little surprise. And was that suspicion?
“I sent her back to her dorm already. I stopped off here to see if I could find a Ponchatrain’s Pendulum for my Quirks class tomorrow. I’m thinking I could try using it to help lull them into a trance without intruding on them mentally and help trigger Quirks that way.”
The doorknob turned and my gut churned. Fuck.
Liam might see me as grown-up, twenty-nine-year-old Harlow, but these two would see me as Hannah of a mere nineteen years.
I might still be ‘legal’ in this form, but it would not reflect well on Liam if they found out he’d been hanging out with a student in a dark room and then lying to cover it up.
Honestly, I wouldn’t blame them for firing his ass in that case, but I – and my friends – needed him here. We needed his help, which meant they could not find ‘Hannah’ here.
I tucked myself behind the door, breath suspended. But before I could draw a rune to try and cloak myself, the doorknob clicked back into place a moment later as if whoever held the door changed their mind.
“Hmm, I don’t think we have one anymore,” Thalienne murmured. “In fact, I’m fairly certain I let a student borrow it a few years ago and never got it back. That’s a good reminder for me to check my records and reach out to the archivist.”
“Thalienne, I should go,” Bryony said. “Perhaps tomorrow we can finish that discussion?”
I scrunched up my face and pressed my ear to the door again. Footsteps, only one pair, faded.
“What do you think of the girl?” Thalienne asked.
“Which one?” Liam replied.
“You know which one . . . ”
Their voices trailed off as two pairs of steps moved away.
I should have slipped out right behind them.
But I couldn’t imagine that Liam had brought – and left – me here by accident.
Not in the . . . I pulled the door back open, glancing up at the words etched into it, then smiled.
Clever man, he’d dropped me right into a honey pot.
Rare artifacts.
“Calypso?” I dug her out of my pouch and whispered to the locket. “Wake up if you’re sleeping. Time to go kraken hunting.”