Page 43 of Malice in e minor

“A lot of people think they are gay because they are together, but they are into the person, not the gender. I think Isobel understands gay, but she doesn’t understand having no sexual or romantic feelings and thinks Leif just needs the right incentive.

“I can’t promise anything because they hate me now, but Azriel likes to play with his food and I was his muse once. I know him better than anyone here except Orion and Misha. He’s probably going to get Isobel’s attention off Leif, Meadow, and you by directing it to himself and then he’s going to use it to get rid of her in a way that doesn’t blowback on anyone here or get this place shut down.”

“Does she really have that power?”

“This is a private school. We don’t get any federal or state funding. Your patron pays for nearly everything here. We do need the donations and people coming to see the shows we put on.

“You’d know her father if I told you his name and you probably wouldn’t like him. He couldn’t cut off most funding, but he could convince people not to come watch performances. I get people the contracts they want by inviting important patrons to their thesis performance. If they don’t attend performances, people don’t get their dream jobs. The reputation of this place took decades to build, and it was hard earned, but it can be destroyed if we cease to be able to keep our promises.”

And I’d never say this to Harlowe because she was already suspicious as fuck and wanting to run, but Isobel’s father had the power to get the IRS looking into the funding of Blackvale. You basically didn’t want anyone looking that hard at the holdings of an immortal. Especially when getting him in for any type of interview to defend himself was going to be impossible and if he got annoyed, he might smite someone.

Basically, the devil wasn’t super shady with his money and gave a ton of it away, but his holdings had a public face in front of the multiple aliases he created behind the scenes.

“So, what can I do?” she asked.

“Nothing. Avoid her and focus on the ballet until next semester when you have to worry about classes.”

Harlowe looked like she wasn’t all that interested in doing nothing. She was mad about Meadow and honestly, I was too when I found out that was how she lost her eye. Azriel and I were the best people to get rid of Isobel.

It would be best if Azriel and I worked together for a coordinated attack, like when I was his muse, but I understood why he didn’t want to work with me.

Even if it still hurt.

The first thing I did after finding out Isobel was an eye stealing monster was go back to my dorm and call JaToya when I knew she was on her lunch break. I told her she didn’t need to unseal the file because I got the deets. Orion and Topher did a decent job calming me down. Now, I was just pissed off.

“What the actual fuck? She just scooped that girl’s eyeball out like a melon?”

“I don’t know. Meadow didn’t give me a ton of details and she doesn’t remember anything. She woke up in the hospital missing an eye and her friend was never heard from again.”

“Are you panicking or pissed?”

She knew me so well.

“I already panicked, so I’m pissed now. Meadow is really nice and Isobel just dumped a big turd in my cereal. I was really excited about scoring this ballet.”

“Was? I know you didn’t quit over maybe losing an eye. You’ve got two.”

“Asshole. I didn’t quit and nothing about this is going to make me. It just dampened my excitement. You should see Leif’s mood boards. I’m pretty sure if I look at them again, I’ll forget she could be lurking around the corner with a melon baller.”

“We took those self-defense classes in case we got mugged. Disarming a trust fund kid with a melon baller should be easier than disarming someone with a knife who wants your wallet. You don’t have to worry about grabbing the pointy end and she’s probably never been kicked in the vagina before. You could do one for all of humanity by kicking her labia out her nose.”

“And then her daddy gets me black balled for fighting back.”

“Yeah, you let me handle that part. You might not have put two and two together, but her father is Darren Shackleton. You know, that guy? He’s probably got some things in his closet way worse than covering up his daughter is a psychopath. He likes to campaign on being a self made man since he didn’t come from money, but he handled estates and wills before he got elected and he’s never written a book. Paid public speaking doesn’t account for the amount of wealth he’s amassed. I looked into all that when you said his daughter doesn’t understand consent. I’m going to look a little further and it’s not going to require anything dangerous like getting into sealed records.”

“This is just a lot of drama considering I’ve only been here a week.”

“On the bright side, the eyeball drama made you forget about the devil wanting your soul drama.”

“Oh, fuck you.”

“Write your ballet and flirt with some hot artists, Harlowe. It sounds like you’ve amassed some guard dogs at Blackvale and you’ve got me here. Don’t go anywhere without them and keep an eye on the girl she hurt you think is cute.”

Yeah, she was cute, but I saw her reaction when I told her Rue was hosting the part I invited her to. I wasn’t her type, but Rue was. Rue was one of the nicest people I knew and super talented. I might be starting to get some complicated feelings I was going to completely ignore until I died, but maybe I would meddle a little if they were both interested.

“My lunch break is over, but we have a plan, right? If it starts going ass up, we can always move to Plan B.”

“I left my flame thrower in the storage unit.”