Seventeen
CASS
I’m deep into a bottle of whiskey, completely untethered from all sense of time, when my door chime breaks through the buzz.
I drag myself off the couch, set my drink on the fireplace mantle, and check the video monitor, shocked at the late-night visitor.
“I apologize for the hour,” Anna says when I open the door. “I tried to call, but you weren’t answering.”
“Has something happened?” I ask, adrenaline clearing away the last of the alcohol haze. I can count on one hand the number of times the headmistress has portaled out to my house in the middle of the desert—and none of those were social calls.
She looks up at me, her face haunted, and I brace myself for bad news.
“Another student was attacked tonight,” she says. “A second-year mage. He’s unharmed, for the most part. He was grabbed on his walk home from a water magicks class by the river. He didn’t sustain any injuries, but the perpetrator cut a lock of his hair.”
“Hell.” I stand aside and invite her in, my mind already working through the possibilities—none of them good. Dark witches and mages have been using personal things like hair, fingernail clippings, and blood for millennia—typically in cursework and other forms of attack magick.
What’s even more frightening is that someone took the risk of assaulting a student on campus so soon after Phaines’s attack, when the entire campus is on high alert and the APOA agents have set up camp.
“So we’re dealing with a magick user,” I say, leading her to the living room. We each take a chair near the fireplace, the flames popping and hissing. “A student or faculty member?”
“Anything is possible.”
“Well, if it’s not someone already on campus, then it’s someone who was able to trick the portal magick into letting them through.” It’s just like we were talking about tonight at the Brotherhood meeting. Someone who’s convinced themselves that their mission is pure.
Anna nods, her mouth drawn tight.
“I assume you’ve looped in the APOA agents?” I ask, unable to keep the annoyance from my tone. Anna should’ve loopedmein the moment she decided to bring them on campus, but she didn’t. And here we are.
“Casey Appleton interviewed the student, and she and James Quintana are combing the area for evidence. In the meantime, I’ve asked William Eastman to review all of our existing security protocols and technology campus-wide, magick as well as mundane. Flaws in the portal magick’s design notwithstanding, he’s already expressed concerns that the portals and the in-room security systems could be vulnerable to magickal attack.”
“Or a good old-fashioned hacking,” I say. “Kirin’s been worried about that all along.”
“The magick itself is highly stable.”
“Yes, but it’s not all magick. Some of our equipment is based in regular old computer and internet technology, replete with the same issues and vulnerabilities that exist in the mundane world. The difference is we’re not talking about credit card scams or identity theft here. We’re talking about a magickal threat that could wipe out the entire campus. The entire magickal population.”
“I’m well aware of the stakes, Cassius.”
“Then you’ll agree when I say we need more outside surveillance. In-room and doorway cameras aren’t enough. The campus is vast, and a good portion of it lies in complete darkness at night.”
“Students need to restrict their outings at night—that’s a safer bet,” she says. “Perhaps we need to reschedule the night classes. Consider implementing a curfew.”
“This isn’t a war zone, Anna. Restricting freedoms is not the way to ensure safety. We need better equipment. Most of it’s outdated anyway—long overdue for some upgrades.”
“I’ll need to request funding for something of that nature. The board needs to approve it and find room in the budget.”
“How long will that take?”
Anna lowers her eyes. “Minimum, two weeks. And that’s if I trade in a few favors and push hard for emergency funding.”
I rise from my chair, anger making it impossible for me to sit still. “So you were able to hire a new librarian within days of Phaines’s disappearance—a woman whose qualifications are as thin as paper, mind you—yet it’s going to take weeks to get the money for equipment that can keep our students safe?”
“The board overrode my decision about Janelle Kirkpatrick. She carries a lot of influence here, Cass. You know that.”
“You think she can be trusted?”
“I don’t think her motives are necessarily good ones,” Anna admits. “But as for whether she can be trusted? That remains to be seen. We simply need to keep her close.”
