Page 91 of Trivium

“Metaphysical reading,” she said after a long period of silence.

Lennox nodded, thinking to himself. “Thought so.”

“How do you know what this book does? How do you know about human magic?” Zeina understood it in theory, but she hadn’t had time to truly process it. “You suspected it. How?”

Lennox looked at her, his face serious. “Because I have it too.”

62

LOVELEENA

Loveleena had waited all week for the right opportunity to use the truth potion on Ren. Finally, the day after the Slayer party, she found it. She hadn’t seen much of him since joining his covert adventures in Jarrah. He had confessed Park’s involvement, but that was where the conversation ended.

It had taken months for him to even reveal that.

She wasn’t waiting around to find out the rest. If the truth potion didn’t work, she would use whatever leverage she needed to get the truth. That included going to the authorities about Ren’s secret activities. She didn’t care if Park was in support of it or not. What did it matter if he was gone and she never found him?

Sitting with Serena and Lennox in the mess hall, Ren drank casually with his friends. The rest of the hall was sparce as all the students were off cramming for the final assessment or recovering from the night before.

Late afternoon sunlight streamed through the windows, catching on the far wall and bathing the room in a warm glow. Act casual, she told herself as she sat beside Ren, truth potion in her pocket. A lot had changed since she had asked Zeina for the truth potion. Her magic was out of control. Worse still, Ren knew. She was now an accomplice to a traitorous heist. And Park felt so far away he might as well be dead.

Being cordial hadn’t worked.

Putting up posters and harassing students in the mess hall hadn’t worked.

Becoming the best student in her year meant she gained the respect of her peers and Defenders alike but it hadn’t given her answers about Park.

She learned from her father that the best way to get someone to talk, was to wear them down over time and she had promised herself she would try everything she could.

Consequences be damned.

So, when she had learned of a rodent whose teeth imbedded into one’s flesh, causing seizures and requiring extensive surgical removal, she knew what she needed to do. What was unique about the rodent is that it regrew new teeth in seconds, allowing it to bite human after human, without so much as a dent in its day. A few nights prior, she had purposely left a breach in the wall open, with an attraction potion at its base, and the entire Academy awoke to an infestation of the small creature, with at least twenty students and faculty needing a healer.

The professors were pissed.

The students were frantic.

But it’s not like anyone died or anything.

And until the Academy gave her what she came for, she would continue to make it unbearable. At some point, someone would crack.

They had to.

Maybe under the influence of a truth potion, it would be Ren.

“Serena, I’m so glad I caught you because I’ve been dying to ask you something,” Loveleena said in her friendliest noble voice, ignoring Ren.

“Lay it on me,” Serena said confidently.

“How would you come at your opponent from behind and effectively head lock them if they were bigger than you?”

“Oh, yeah, that’s a tricky one!” Serena lit up as she talked. Even while speaking about fighting, Serena’s aura held a special lightness.

“It makes sense on paper, but I think I need to see it, you know? To really get it? Maybe you and… whoever is the tallest can show me?”

Loveleena knew very well Ren was the tallest at the table.

“Ren,” Serena ordered, “Stand up.”