Gentle hands in my hair, stroking my face.
“Come on, baby. Come back to us. Come on, Stevie.”
I open my eyes, take in some of the water. Wait for the image before me to solidify.
“Doc?” I whisper, and he nods, his eyes glazing with emotion. “You were right,” I say. “Mental manipulation—acceptable form of self-defense.”
Doc smiles. “You were listening.”
“Always.”
“What do you need?” he asks, brushing the hair from my face. “Tell me what you need. Anything.”
Managing another weak smile, I say, “Tea. A proper cup of tea.”
“That can be arranged.” He stands up, holding me close against his chest. Kirin, Ani, and Baz gather around us.
“Let’s go,” Doc says, and they link arms.
Baz holds up a hand, whispers an enchantment.
The Forest of Iron and Bone scoops us up and deposits us back home.
Fifty-Two
STEVIE
“That was Trello,” Baz says, putting the phone back in his pocket. “No sign of Phaines, but she’s got her best mages out tracking him.”
Devane squeezes my hand. “We’ll find him, Stevie. Don’t worry.”
“He’s got the books,” I say, for what feels like the hundredth time. “The spells that will lead him to the arcane objects.”
No one responds to that. Thereisno response for that.
We’re sitting in my living room the night after Halloween, the last rays of sunlight warming my face, mages gathered around me, refusing to leave my side. I’m mostly healed from the ordeal—the physical parts, anyway. Despite what Dr. Devane says, fearisreal—at least for me, at least right now. Every time I close my eyes, I see that boot stomping down on my face, the blood slicking over his lips, the crazed look in his eyes as he demanded the translations.
Professor Phaines betrayed me. Betrayed us all. I trusted him. All along, with all the secrets and hushed whispers, I thought he was the safe bet. The sure thing.
“I can’t believe I trusted him,” I say, closing my eyes against a fresh onslaught of images.
“It wasn’t just you, Stevie,” Dr. Devane says. “He had us all fooled—for years. Decades. Even the Headmistress.”
“Even the Claires,” Baz reminds me.
Turns out those “special sessions” Carly mentioned that night at the river party? Phaines was just trying to tap into their psychic skills, to manipulate them into helping him find the spellbooks. Carly reallywastrying to warn me last night.
Apparently, after our call got disconnected, she called Baz, told him the same warning. It wasn’t long before the guys stormed the library looking for me, but by then I was already unconscious and tied to a dead tree.
It was my owl that finally led them to me. He was injured—Phaines hadn’t lied about that. But he wasn’t dead.
Dr. Devane thinks I’ll be able to start working with him more directly next month.
“About the objects,” Kirin says now, removing his glasses and polishing them on his T-shirt. “I’ve been doing some research this morning.”
“Of course you have.” I smile.
He smiles back.
