by Sarina Dorie
The principal had said students were being abducted after graduation, causing their school ranking to go down. If Demeter was behind that, it certainly was worth murdering to cover up.
When Jessica had blackmailed Charlotte, she’d mentioned something about her brother. Nine years ago in class, Charlotte had gotten upset when the guest presenter mentioned Latin as being able to save one from Fae. Perhaps Charlotte had firsthand experience about what the Fae could do. They might have killed her brother and enslaved her to do their bidding.
It was all conjecture. Vega needed more information. Unfortunately, Demeter wasn’t her student this semester, so she couldn’t watch her in class and try to mine information out of her.
“What?” Demeter asked, her sweet façade crumbling, and her face turning pink under Vega’s scrutiny.
Vega kept her face neutral. “As a Celestor with an ability of divination, I sense a detention in your near future.”
Demeter rolled her eyes. Vega continued walking. As soon as she was past the table, she removed the amulet. She would need it to prove to the principal that Demeter was actually Charlotte, but she still intended to gather more information first. Perhaps Malisha would be able to provide the rest of the evidence they needed to connect Demeter to the crime.
Vega watched from a distance, ice settling in her belly as she noticed Demeter sneaking glances at Siobhan seated at a nearby table. It was possible she’d already caught on that Vega’s special helper was asking about the notebook and who might have loaned it to Sherry.
If Demeter was guilty, Vega wouldn’t let her harm anyone else at her school. These were Vega’s students. No one would lay a hand on them, Fae or Witchkin bullies. Vega made another pass around the table.
She pointed to Demeter. “My powers of divination were correct. The principal would like to see you in her office.”
“Why?” she shrieked, true panic in her voice.
Vega didn’t know what Demeter was liable to do if she thought she was going to get caught. For that reason, Vega called upon her favorite pastime—lying.
Vega waved a hand at her dismissively. “Someone put a worm in my coffee this morning. I can tell it was you from that guilty look. Now you can reap the rewards of your behavior with a lunch detention.”
“But I didn’t do it. I wasn’t near your coffee.” Demeter actually looked relieved that was what she was being accused of.
Naturally a murderer would be.
Vega gestured to the door. “I will not tolerate dallying. You are going right now.”
Demeter made a show of looking angry. Vega walked two steps behind Demeter, her gaze on her hands to see if she reached for a wand. Magic could be performed without it, but the wand helped focus the magic and was particularly useful for fifteen-year-olds.
Not that Demeter/Charlotte was a teenager.
Vega took Demeter to the principal’s office, but Mrs. Gordmayer wasn’t in. Neither was her secretary.
Demeter smirked. “I guess I’ll just wait for her to come back.”
“That’s right. You can wait for her in the detention room.” Vega escorted her there next, knowing she was unlikely to escape with the wards.
The room was empty, a rarity for lunchtime, which probably meant Henrietta had only recently left. Vega couldn’t imagine the principal would allow the average student serving a lunch detention for talking too much in class to be left alone with a supposed murderer like Henrietta. Most likely, the other detentions were in teacher classrooms. If Henrietta had only recently left, that meant her brother might have come to pick her up. On the other hand, the principal and secretary could have been away because they were with the Witchkin Council who had come to arrest one of their students.
Henrietta was a pyromaniac Elementia, not a murderer.
Demeter crossed her arms. “You can’t give me a detention without filling out a referral form.”
“I just did.” Forms were for other people who had time to waste.
Vega nudged Demeter inside. She closed the door on her and locked it. She strode back to the principal’s office down the hallway.
Mrs. Gordmayer still wasn’t in.
Vega paced back and forth. She had the amulet to prove Demeter’s true identity. Malisha might have looked into Demeter’s records, but it would be handy if Vega was able to examine those. She hadn’t seen Malisha at lunch. Probably she was off doing something to incriminate Vega in some way.
Vega strode toward the secretary’s closet where he kept records. She paused when she saw the open folder on his desk with Frida Lakshmi’s name on it. She flipped through it and read. Nothing incriminating there. Frida was now a boring housewife of a Fae-Witchkin relations diplomat.
Charlotte Winters’ file included an extensive list of appointments she’d had with counselors for therapy that the school had provided, though the contents of those appointments were not disclosed. There was one note about Charlotte’s brother in the old guidance counselor’s handwriting. Apparently, he wasn’t dead. He was the only family member who hadn’t been murdered. He had been captured and enslaved by Fae. The file generically listed it as the “winter court.”
They had failed to note anything about the Geamhradh Court. The devil was in the details—and Vega had seen those details with her own eyes.
Demeter Winters listed Charlotte Winters as her older sister and guardian. Vega snorted. Convenient.
The next file listed the names of students who had gone missing or who had mysteriously frozen to death shortly after graduation. Vega hadn’t known the administration tracked students after they left—until now. The number of student deaths had risen in recent years.
It didn’t completely surprise her to see her name written on a Post-it note with the message:
Watch Vega Bloodmire. The incidents started the year she was enrolled.
Of course they would try to blame her! Here she was, doing the right thing, trying to save her school, and they wanted to pin these deaths on her. She should have known. She didn’t know why the principal had hired her at all.
Didn’t they realize the incidents had also started the year Charlotte had enrolled? Hidden under the top files were two more. One had her name. She itched to know what dirt the administration had on her. The other file had Malisha Bane’s name.
Vega didn’t know which she wanted to read more.
“Excuse me, Ms. Bloodmire!” Mr. Gordmayer strode through the door. “Those are confidential files.”
She arched an eyebrow at him, lifting Charlotte’s folder. “They aren’t going to stay confidential if this is the file of a murderer.”
He snatched the files from her hands. “That is none of your concern. The principal is handling all matters of security with the dean of discipline. You can just—”
Vega didn’t let him finish. “Where is the principal?”
“She’s in the cafeteria looking for a student.” He closed the files on his desk and stacked them neatly. “School business stuff. Nothing I can talk about.”
Of course. “Has Henrietta Stevens been arrested by the Witchkin Council?”
“No!” His eyes went wide. “Why would you think that? She’s waiting for her family to pick her up.”
“Is that so?” She glanced at his orderly desk for a clue, a notice from the Witchkin Council, or any other hint at what might be coming for Henrietta to punish her for a crime she hadn’t committed. “She wasn’t in the detention room when I went in there.”
“Did she escape again?” His brows drew together, and then he laughed. “Oh, I bet you swung by when I walked her over to the restroom. She’s in there now.”
His words sank in.
“Son of a Fae!” Vega swore. “You left her in there with Charlotte Winters? Unsupervised?”
“I think you mean Demeter Winters.” Mr. Gordmayer shifted from foot to foot nervously. “Well, the dean will be along to supervise in a moment.”
Vega
shook her head in disgust. She wasn’t allowed to leave her students alone for one moment, but this imbecile left two dangerous students alone in a locked room? The dawning apprehension on Mr. Gordmayer’s face told Vega he was aware he had made a mistake—a worse one than losing a pyromaniac student. He didn’t even know half the facts about Charlotte.
Henrietta had seen Charlotte’s/Demeter’s true face and the Fae ward protecting her. If there was anyone in more danger than Siobhan, it would be the only other girl who knew what she looked like.
He coughed. “Maybe I should go check on them.”
No sooner had he gotten the words out than a bang exploded from down the hall.
Vega ran toward the noise. She hoped it wasn’t too late. Mr. Gordmayer had just locked the murderer in the same room with a girl she had a motive to murder.
Vega threw open the door to the detention room. Charlotte held a cauldron, flames surging out. Henrietta was on fire.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Baptism by Fire
Vega stumbled back from Henrietta, shielding her eyes from the intensity of light. She collided with Mr. Gordmayer, who cursed and then choked on a plume of smoke. A black cloud roiled toward them, diffusing some of the light.
Unlike the blackened corpse Vega had seen the day before, flames licked up the fire Elementia’s legs, engulfing her without burning her. The only thing that was actually on fire were her clothes.
Henrietta shouted over the crackle of flames. “What did you think was going to happen when you aimed your stupid potion at me? I’m a fire affinity. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.”
Vega couldn’t help smiling at that. She had known Henrietta was a survivor.
Charlotte dropped the cauldron and backed away. She held up her hands in a defensive gesture. Vega was warded but not from all forms of attack. She drew starlight out of her core and into her hands, drawing runes of protection, but she knew she wasn’t going to be fast enough.
“Stop!” Mr. Gordmayer shouted. “There will be no fights at this school.”
Both girls ignored him. Charlotte flung lethal shards of ice at Henrietta. They melted before they made it past her heat, turning to steam.
Henrietta stalked closer to Charlotte. “You stole my amulet, tried to kill me, and attempted to frame me for murdering your friend.”
Charlotte shrank back.
Vega couldn’t blame Henrietta for being mad. She hated to tell her to stop. It was another one of those annoying teacher duties that was right up there with filling out paperwork.
“If it were up to me, I would let you get your revenge,” Vega said. “She clearly deserves what’s coming. Unfortunately we’re at school, and there are rules.” Vega studied Henrietta for signs she might be about to lose control before glancing back at Charlotte, who might be plotting how to murder them all. “If you kill someone—even if there is a good reason—it will probably go on your school records.”
“There’s no probably about it,” Mr. Gordmayer said.
“The smartest thing you can do is calm down, back away, and let the adults handle the situation.” Vega gestured for Henrietta to step away from Charlotte.
Vega had used up her premade spell to slow time the day before. She wished she’d prepared another for this moment. If Charlotte retaliated after Henrietta snuffed out her affinity’s flames, Henrietta might not be quick enough to rekindle her fire to defend herself against ice shrapnel.
Vega kept her hand down at her side, using stored starlight to construct a barrier between Charlotte and Henrietta. It wasn’t as strong as what she could have done at night, as her powers were more aligned with moon and darkness than sun and brightness. She subtly appropriated fire and ice from the students to help reinforce her spell. Technically taking someone else’s magic was unethical—illegal if caught—but all was fair in love and student murderers.
Plus, it was extremely efficient.
Henrietta complied and backed away, but her flames didn’t diminish. “For the record, she started it with her goblet-of-fire trick.”
Mr. Gordmayer edged farther away from her. The fire was eating away Henrietta’s clothes, and he turned away. “Perhaps I should get my wife to handle this.”
“You do that,” Vega said. “I’ll just be alone with these juvenile delinquents, one of which has murdered multiple students at this school.”
Mr. Gordmayer glanced at Henrietta. “Oh. Um.” Apparently, he was still under the impression she was the guilty culprit.
“Go.” Vega waved him off. Administration would just slow her down anyway. She needed Mr. Gordmayer gone in order to handle things in her unorthodox ways.
He edged out the door.
Vega removed her wand from her sleeve to arm herself. Charlotte wasn’t just going to willingly confess. There were truth potions, but Vega hadn’t prepared any. She would need to trick Charlotte into talking. It was one of many skills in her arsenal that she practiced daily, though usually she only exercised this much wit to figure out who had cheated on a quiz or who had stolen someone else’s pencil.
This would be Vega’s true test.
She removed the folded note from her pocket. If Charlotte recognized it as the one she had set on Vega’s pillow, she did a good job concealing her recognition. Her glamoured face was a stony mask.
Vega channeled Charlotte’s essence as she wove her spell, not difficult for a future Merlin-class Celestor since she was so near. “Witchkin sight, use your might. Show me what is Charlotte’s by right,” Vega said.
Charlotte’s eyes went wide. No doubt she realized her cover was blown.
Vega lifted the note and held it out to Charlotte. It glowed, just as Vega had suspected it would.
Charlotte must have realized that was the moment she truly wasn’t going to get out of this mess. She hurled ice shards at Vega and tried to dodge between Henrietta and Vega, but Vega’s ward held. Henrietta hadn’t doused her fire yet. Henrietta simply stepped into Charlotte’s path.
Charlotte shrieked as she collided with Henrietta’s fire. Vega nodded with approval. Charlotte stumbled back, grabbing a burnt arm.
Charlotte edged away. Tears filled her eyes. “Please, you don’t understand, Vega. It was an accident.”
Vega highly doubted that. She tapped the wand against her chin, thinking over her next step. She understood how Charlotte had committed murder. She even understood why. Others had discovered her secrets. Vega even understood why she would frame others—namely so that someone else would be blamed. Leaving the notes on Malisha’s and Vega’s pillows had been just one more detail to throw them off her trail—and lead them to suspect a ghost instead. The only detail she couldn’t comprehend was why Charlotte would have worked for the Geamhradh Court when she could have asked the principal to dissolve the Fae markings and been set free.
They had something over her that Vega didn’t know about. Vega’s only choice was to make her think otherwise. She was taking a chance bluffing, but it was her only option.
Vega studied her opponent. “Your brother is in the Witchkin Council’s custody. What do you think they will do with him?”
Charlotte’s lower lip quivered. “That means he’s safe? He isn’t with the Fae?”
Ah, so the Fae had used her brother to coerce her to do their bidding. Vega had suspected the Fae had been using her. Now she knew enough to manipulate Charlotte into talking.
Vega arched an eyebrow upward. “Your brother isn’t safe from anyone if the Witchkin Council thinks he has anything to do with these murders.”
“No! He had nothing to do with it.” Charlotte shifted to the right and then the left, as if searching for a gap in Vega’s defenses. “He didn’t even know. He’s been their prisoner for fifteen years.”
Vega pushed more starlight into her wards. It was tricky running multiple high-energy spells at the same time, but it was what she needed to do in this case. She readied a binding spell. She needed to push
Charlotte into admitting the truth, to explain the entirety of her situation, and to reveal all accomplices.
Without her time-slowing spell, Vega needed to use a different magical aide to enhance her skills. She had to ensure Charlotte didn’t find a weakness in her defenses while she was running multiple magics at once.
Vega needed to keep Charlotte talking, to distract her, and to draw information out of her as she retrieved a talisman from her vault.
“The Witchkin Council knows you weren’t working alone,” Vega said. “They will assume he is the person who is helping you.”
Years ago, Vega had constructed a small portal so she could carry the contents of her purse with her at all times. She reached into her pocket and opened the portal into her purse.
“No, it was all me.” Charlotte stepped closer to the window. “The Fae said I had to. If I refused, they would kill him. They’d already tortured him. I had to serve them. It was the only way.”
Henrietta strode into Charlotte’s path, shaking her head. She held out her hands, shooting out fire. A ring of flames smoldered on the floor around Charlotte. She was forced to back into the center so she wouldn’t be burned.
Vega nodded approvingly at Henrietta. The principal would probably complain about the state of the detention room later, but that was the administration’s problem.
Vega’s problem was keeping her students safe from Fae. She was so close to the answer. She didn’t want to tip her hand and admit she didn’t actually know why the Fae had coerced Charlotte. If she did that, Charlotte might figure out that Vega was lying about her brother.
“You do realize you could have gone to someone for help. One of your teachers.” Vega lifted her chin. “You could have revealed their scheme long ago. Instead, you allowed the Fae to manipulate you into hurting others.”
Subtly, Vega slid her hand through the portal in her pocket to her purse. She groped past bottles of perfume, her coin purse, a bottle of whiskey she’d appropriated from students—and kept for herself—and a tin of breath mints. Her talisman was in that bottomless pit somewhere.