by Imogen Rose
“Alfred, wait.” King Sebastian stood and paced the floor. “Based on what I have seen and heard, I’m sure that the headmistress has been compromised. That puts us all in danger, and it puts our offspring in danger. Yours, too, Alfred.
King Alfred had a kid at the Academy? Or was King Sebastian mistakenly referring to McKenzie?
“Sebastian’s right,” Cassandra said. Her low, gruff voice was as formidable as her looks. “We cannot allow the principal of the school where we send our offspring to be compromised in any way. Have her brought to us. Spencer, can you take care of that?”
“Sure. I’ll have someone take Cordelia back and return with Frau Schmelder so we can figure this out.”
“No, wait,” I protested. “What about Quinn?”
“Cordelia, I understand your concern about your friend. Is he your boyfriend?” Suman asked, her voice gentle and sweet. “But he’s not a concern of this council. Like Alfred pointed out, he’s not even here in London, and we don’t have any jurisdiction in New York. I’m sorry.”
I could feel myself getting worked up, my heart starting to beat out of control. The meeting was not at all what I had expected. Why were they ignoring Quinn? I decided to change tactics. “It’s possible that Quinn’s in the middle of whatever is going on.”
“Maybe,” Spencer said. “And even though this particular council has no jurisdiction, I do. I sit on the New York council as well. So I can contact them to find out if anyone has heard from Quinn.”
I felt a sense of relief wash over me. Finally, someone seemed to be in my corner. “Thank you,” I said gratefully.
“Good, that’s settled.” King Alfred got to his feet. “Cordelia, you will have to excuse us now. It was nice to meet you. Please extend my greeting to your parents. Spencer, can you have Frau Schmelder brought here now?”
“Alfred, I would prefer it if Cordelia stays while we talk to Frau Schmelder,” Spencer said. “In fact, I’d like her brother to be brought here as well, so there is no miscommunication when getting to the details.”
King Alfred sighed. “Fine. Is that okay with everyone else?”
Suman and Nora nodded straight away. Schaeffer and Hickman looked to each other and nodded. Cassandra, her face set in an impenetrable mask, glared at me.
“Cassie, your daughter attends that school,” Nora pointed out.
“That’s not the issue. I just don’t want an outsider present while we discuss this. I don’t know this girl at all, and I have no reason to assume she’s not involved in some way. We don’t know her agenda.”
“I don’t have an agenda,” I said. “I’m just here to find my friend Quinn. And to do that, I’ll help you in any way I can.”
As Cassandra stared at me, I felt as if she were boring a hole through my eyeball. She finally threw her hands in the air. “Okay. This is highly irregular, and we’ve more pressing topics to discuss, but let’s get this over and done with.”
“Good, I shall be back shortly.” Spencer stood up and then faded away.
I tried to relax, but my stomach was in knots. I couldn’t help but feel that things were going to get worse, much worse.
The whole time-travel thing was neat. It meant that we didn’t have to wait long for Spencer to return, even though it must have taken him some time to track down The Smelt and get her to wander over with him. I wondered if he’d talked to her about it and convinced her to come or just grabbed her.
By her expression, I guessed the latter. She was fuming. Her lips turned in a snarl when she spotted me. Ryker had arrived as well, bringing Pascal, who looked confused, but very impressed when he checked out his surroundings.
“Hey, Sis,” he said.
“Thanks for coming, Pascal,” Spencer said. “And my apologies, Frau Schmelder, for bringing you without your permission. But I do have authority.”
“I know that!” The Smelt hissed. “But this is very annoying. I was asleep. What the heck is so important that you had to do this? Need I remind you that I schooled you all—apart from Spencer and Cassandra—and know each of you intimately? I won’t stand for any disrespect.” She glowered at Spencer. “What do you want from me? And how did you bypass my shield?”
“I travelled back to just before it went up and retrieved you. My apologies for discombobulating you.”
“Welcome to my home,” King Alfred said, his voice smooth but firm. “I apologize for the inconvenience, Frau Schmelder. We’re concerned because it has been brought to our attention that you may have become compromised.”
“Compromised?”
King Sebastian nodded. “Yes, is it possible that a demon may have possessed you?”
She pursed her lips. After thinking for a moment, she took a deep breath. “There was an incident at school—I am guessing that’s why Cordelia is here—which I assume is spurring this question?”
“Yes, that’s right,” he replied.
“I wish you’d come to talk to me about this, Cordelia,” she said, throwing me a venomous glance. “However, I guess you felt that I was what…unreliable? Don’t answer that. Suffice it to say, there is definitely a discrepancy in my timeline during the morning that Cordelia came to my office. I have no recollection of her visit, but my secretary assured me that she had indeed come by. Furthermore, I have no recollection of another staff member, Quinn, coming to my office and asking for a leave of absence, which I clearly signed.” She took a deep breath. “This has naturally been an enormous worry for me. I’ve been conducting my own investigation into this with the help of the Academy’s most powerful witch, Professor Bern.”
“And what have you found out so far?” King Alfred asked. “Have you located the boy?”
“Professor Bern is friends with the head witch of New York, Edith, and we’ve been in touch with her. She has sent out feelers to try to locate Quinn. We’ve not had much success yet, other than confirmation that he did indeed disembark at Newark International Airport. We confirmed that from images we received from their security cameras. Thankfully, the New York council has operatives working for the American TSA. But we have no idea where Quinn went after that. There was no sign of him meeting anyone, so we’re assuming he took a taxi or a car picked him up. We’ve been busy talking to the different taxi and limo services.”
“Have you informed his parents?” Suman asked.
“No. I plan to do that as soon as I have more clarity on the situation.”
“Okay, let’s go back and discuss your lapse in memory,” Cassandra said. “Have you any idea what might have happened?”
“Much as I hate to admit it, I fear that I may have been compromised, as you put it, by a demon. The complete lack of memory, and the fact that I was functioning at the time, certainly point to that. It’s just that I can’t understand how. After a minor incident last year, I had Professor Bern cast a boundary spell around me. I don’t understand how it could have been breached.”
“Most likely by a very powerful demon,” King Sebastian said.
“Precisely,” The Smelt agreed. “But we don’t have any of those at the school. Anyway, I have made doubly sure that it doesn’t ever happen again.”
“You have no idea who it was?” he asked.
“No, and I have been searching through my memory for answers or clues, but nothing so far.”
“It was an old woman,” Pascal offered rather unexpectedly. I had wrongly assumed he’d know to be quiet.
“Old woman?” Cassandra asked. “Did you know this, Sebastian?”
He nodded.
“Well, I didn’t!” The Smelt spluttered. “How do you know that, Pascal?”
Pascal had everyone’s attention while he described how he knew about the old woman aspect. I couldn’t help feeling that King Sebastian knew more, but he certainly didn’t share that information with the group.
“Well, I can’t pretend that I’m not perturbed, but I can reassure you that it won’t happen again. Your children are safe at the Academy.”
“A
part from Quinn,” I reminded her.
“I’ll find him,” she said forcefully.
“I admire your confidence,” Cassandra said. “And since Quinn is not our concern, I’m happy to leave that to you. You seem to have it in hand, especially if Edith is assisting you. Now, are we done here?”
The months after the meeting in London had been busy, but frustrating. Frau Schmelder punished me for my disloyalty, and she recruited Professor Bern to help. I was suddenly busier than ever before, with every hour of my days and nights having to be accounted for. I was enrolled into several advanced classes that were supposed to help me acquire the skills needed to fulfill my apprenticeship. My student load was increased to include another eleven Initiates. It wasn’t as though I didn’t enjoy the work, but I felt that time was ticking by without me having a minute to focus on other things. I guessed that was the point—to keep me from taking things into my own hands again.
Pascal hadn’t escaped The Smelt’s wrath, either. She decided to disable the one power he considered central to his very existence. He’d smirked when The Smelt had told him what she intended to do. Demonizing was second nature to him. He couldn’t even imagine not being able to do it or that the power could be taken away. He quickly found out that The Smelt hadn’t been joking. She had Professor Bern take away Pascal’s paranormal powers, with a warning that if he strayed from his curriculum again, he’d be turned into a cat—my brother’s nightmare.
The times I was able to slip away to see Jagger became extremely limited. But the tension that existed between us when Quinn was around had completely disappeared, and I felt even closer to Jagger. So even with the time constraints, the time we spent together mattered in a deeper sense.
I expected Jagger to be angry after I had taken off to London without telling him. When I did tell him, he’d listened silently, his expression never changing. Once I finished, his eyes became narrow slits. I braced myself, expecting the full force of his fury.
“Cordelia, next time, let me know before you take off. Just a text will do. Under the circumstances, you can understand how important letting me know is, right?”
I nodded. After all the stress Quinn was putting me through, I should have been more sensitive and made sure not to do the same to Jagger. In my defense, Jagger hadn’t even known I was gone, so he couldn’t have had the chance to worry. Ryker had utilized his powers to adjust the wandering so that I wouldn’t lose any time. It was as though I’d been away for merely seconds, if that. However, I should have let Jagger know. Anything could have happened, especially at King Alfred’s mansion with all those powerful and intimidating paranormals.
They seemed to have decided to wash their hands of the whole Quinn issue, leaving it entirely to The Smelt. They had, however, been concerned about The Smelt being possessed, and I was sure King Sebastian would look into that.
I found it very frustrating to sit back and do nothing. But that was that—at least for a while.
It was now almost four months later, with Faustine’s fourteenth birthday coming up in two days. Quinn was still missing, and I had just found a haiku stuck to my door.
A boyfriend missing
A lover must pay in blood
A princess must die
Why now? Everything had been static for months. Even Mason seemed to have settled into the routine of his Integration year. I turned over the note and looked at the back. The last one had had Faustine’s name scribbled on the back. Mine was blank. I wondered which princess the note referred to.
Was there any point in taking this note to The Smelt? She’d totally shut me out since London, refusing to share her plans to track down Quinn.
Plus, nothing had really come of the last note. Not yet, anyway. Neither of the notes specified a time frame for the promised massacres.
Still, the timing was unfortunate, with Faustine’s birthday celebration around the corner. We—well, Faustine’s dad—had already jumped through hoops to arrange a spectacular event for her birthday.
And this pathetic little haiku could bring it all crashing to a halt—probably for absolutely nothing. The poem was most likely another empty threat from a dastardly little cretin. Question was: Who was he…or she? I sniffed the envelope, wishing Faustine was still around, but she’d already left for class with Viola and Audrey.
That meant the note had been stuck on the door after she’d left my room. I considered just throwing the poem in the garbage, but then decided I had to share it with King Sebastian. I didn’t want him to overreact and cancel Faustine’s party—or worse, haul her out of the Academy. He was pretty fed up with The Smelt as it was—she’d even initially refused to let me help him with the birthday arrangements. I was glad he’d persevered and won.
Planning Faustine’s party had turned into my minor obsession. I had to make sure every detail was perfectly put in place, and in secret. It had been nice to spend time with someone from outside the Academy, even King Sebastian. Away from London and his royal responsibilities, he was just a nice guy and a really caring, awesome dad. He was all about making sure Faustine had the best birthday ever. I wondered if he did the same for all his children—he seemed to have rather a lot of them. He was particularly attentive in the short time I had seen him with Kismet. I hoped he’d introduce Faustine to her siblings eventually. I would bet she’d be stoked to learn that she wasn’t an only child.
Although we had hung out quite a bit while working on the birthday arrangements, King Sebastian had remained silent about his investigations into The Smelt’s possession. I gently inquired about it once, to which he’d curtly replied that he had it in hand, and he would let me know when he had any news that concerned me. I guessed he meant news about Quinn.
I read the poem again and decided that I had to show it to him because the princess reference could very well be pointed at Faustine. If it were, she’d be especially vulnerable during her birthday celebration, so we’d have to tighten security around her.
The question was, how did one provide security at an event that involved jumping out of small planes onto the icy slopes for a steep ski down the mountainside? This was going to be a nightmare on so many levels.
I got up and threw on my uniform—another part of my punishment. I was no longer allowed to wear my regular clothes. I was supposed to be at the labs doing an Initiation session with one of my new students, but I picked up the phone and called Henri.
“Hey, Cordelia. You’re late,” he muttered.
“Do you think you can cover for me? I have something urgent to take care of.”
He remained silent.
“Henri?”
“Is it to do with Quinn?”
“It might be.”
“Okay. I’ll cover. Let me know if you need my help with anything,” he offered quietly.
“I will, and thanks.”
Next, I called King Sebastian.
“Hello, Cordelia,” he said, yawning loudly.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I wake you?”
“Yes. I’m in New York, but you wouldn’t have known that, so if it’s not urgent, can we talk later?”
“Well, I feel it might be.”
“Oh? Frau Schmelder didn’t mess up any of the party plans, did she?”
“No, nothing like that. I have all that under control. I’m calling because another note, a haiku, was left on my door. I’m not sure if it was left for me or Faustine, but I thought you should know.” I read him the verse.
“Can you read it again?” he asked.
I read slower, almost feeling the anger in each of the seventeen syllables. “A boyfriend missing, a lover must pay in blood, a princess must die.”
Faustine’s dad let out a long sigh. “Well, the first line of that silly poem may be redundant soon.”
“What do you mean?”
“The boyfriend—I take it that’s referring to Quinn? I’m in New York chasing down a tip that may take me to him. May,” he repeated.
“What kind of tip?”
I was jumping with excitement.
“Calm down, Cordelia. It’s practically the middle of the night here. I don’t want to wake Annabel by chatting too long. I can’t tell you much more, just that I’ve had the demon and witch sovereigns of New York helping me investigate the matter. And it looks like we’re getting somewhere. Anyhow, all this is irrelevant if Faustine may be in danger. I’ll fly over and come and find you. Can you make sure that Ryker stays with Faustine? I’ll have Spencer send some backup to relieve Ryker when he needs it.”
“Okay.”
“And you may want to warn the lover, whoever that might be.”
I called Jagger.
“Hey!”
“Hi! Do you have time to meet me for breakfast?” I asked.
“I’d love to, but no. I’m taking Faustine skiing after her class, which will be over in ten minutes or so. Come with us. You’ll need the practice before the party.”
“Oh, I have no intention of doing any of those insane jumps. Besides, I’ll be too busy making sure that everything is running smoothly. Don’t let anything slip to our little princess.” I kept my tone as upbeat as I could.
“Cordelia, what’s up? I can feel your anxiety.”
“I found a haiku stuck to my door.”
“Stay where you are. I’m on my way.”
He hung up before I could protest the necessity of him rushing to my side. He arrived minutes later, with Faustine. He didn’t say anything, just held out his hand for the note.
“What’s that?” Faustine asked, peering at the note in Jagger’s hand. “Another one of those Japanese poems?”
I nodded. “You didn’t notice anything on the door when you left this morning, did you?”
She shook her head. “I wasn’t really paying any attention, but I’d probably have seen that. I can’t imagine it’s worth worrying about. It’s not like anything happened after the first one. Just some idiot who thinks he’s being funny. I’m guessing a troll, maybe Rea or Noella. They’re always up to mischief, aren’t they, Jagger?”