Tiana’s grin widens. “You’re right. I’m not here for you.”
She stands from the desk and walks toward me, her cloak swaying with each step, and stops a few feet away with her hands gripping her elbows.
“Something’s wrong with my brother,” she says. “I just saw him a moment ago and he was acting strange.”
My brow furrows. “Huh? When I left him he wasn’t well. He was in bed. I told Headmistress Ebony he wasn’t going in to work...” I trail off. The words dissolve as the realization catches up to me, and a growl builds low in my throat. “He snuck off the moment I left.”
My tail hisses through the air behind me and my claws itch under my nails.
“He was looking for my mother,” Tiana says, watching my reaction carefully. “But that’s beside the point. What’s going on?”
“I don’t know. He...” I pause. Aaron’s business is Aaron’s business, and I’m not sure how much of it belongs to his sister. My mouth closes.
Tiana puts her hands on her hips and shifts her weight to one leg, her mouth set in a thin line of no-nonsense expectation. She looks so much like Angie that a smile pulls at my lips.
“I don’t know what the hell you’re smiling about,” Tiana says flatly. “Look, I’m here for my brother. That’s it. You came to me asking about my father Eric. That means he’s been talking to him.” Her eyes sharpen. “How about you tell me what that’s about.”
I sigh and lean my hip against the edge of my desk. “I don’t know. He introduced me to him. In the forest.”
Tiana’s jaw tightens. “Oh, really? He’s reaching out to Eric?”
“I don’t know if he reached out or if Eric reached out to him. He wanted me to meet him, so I did.”
“What else?” Tiana takes a step closer. “I know there’s something else because you came to me.”
“I could feel something was off.” I search for the right words, but they don’t come easy. “I don’t know what it was. But I don’t trust him.”
My ears twitch and swivel toward the door. Below us, through the floor and down the hall, I can hear movement. Footsteps, a chair scraping. Meekah is down there.
Tiana follows my glance toward the floor. “I’ve already distracted Meekah with a temporary spell. It’ll break shortly.”
I stare at her. She says it like it’s nothing.
“Eric is not a good man,” Tiana continues, her voice dropping lower. “He’s manipulating my brother.”
“There’s a veil over him,” I say.
Tiana’s brow creases. “What are you talking about?”
My nose twitches as I pull in her scent again, deeper this time. Peeling back the layers.
“There’s a veil over you too,” I say.
Tiana snickers and waves a dismissive hand. “I’m not cloaked.”
“It’s not magic.” I hold her gaze. “It’s in your blood. The same as Aaron’s. It’s easily masked, though. I didn’t catch it because I wasn’t paying attention.”
Tiana goes quiet. Her hand drops to her side and the sharpness drains from her face. She presses her lips together.
“Hmmm.”
She turns away from me and starts pacing, her cloak trailing behind her across the floor. She crosses to the window and back, her fingers tapping against her thigh.
“I wonder if this has something to do with the Witching Glen,” she murmurs.
“The Witching Glen?” My ears perk forward. “I never understood why it was closed.”
Tiana stops pacing and turns to face me, her expression stern. “You can thank my mother for that. She had a conscience. When Aya died, dark magic was lifted from the supernaturals she’d cursed, but it didn’t vanish.” She pauses, letting the weight of the words settle. “A witch or warlock can still gain access to dark magic. They simply need to know where to look.”
