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If they’d detected the anomaly in both my mom and my sister, then perhaps we’d been right in guessing there were Fenna in Mom’s background.
“Does that mean my brother hasn’t got this aberration?”
She nodded. “It only appears in the females of the line.”
Which suggested the Fenna had only ever been female.
She plucked the final sensor free, then motioned toward the small table tucked into the corner of the room, behind the locked door. “Feel free to grab a drink. You’ll probably need the electrolyte boost after all that.”
I hopped off the chair, retrieved my coat and shoved it on, then poured a glass of the orange-colored liquid. It was as sweet as fuck, so I downed it quickly, then dropped the cup into the waste basket.
The other tester approached and handed me several sheets of paper. “We’ll send the results electronically to your father, as he requested, but for your own information, you sit just above mid-range, at six point nine.”
“Which is way higher than I’d expected.” Even with the boost of wild magic, I’d thought that, at best, I’d register a high four or low five.
A six point nine put me on the low end of the scale when it came to my father’s line, but for most “regular” royal witches, that was an acceptable level of competence.
Even if I remained an “underpowered disappointment” to my father, I had no actual reason to be disappointed in my native capacity for magic.
The tester’s eyebrows rose. “I’m surprised you’re pleased, given your family generally sits in the mid nines and your father is one of the few witches to reach a near perfect ten.”
And was no doubt pissed off that he was only “near-perfect.” “I left home when I was young and have never been trained—”
“Training has nothing to do with native strength, young lady. It only refines and sharpens your skill in using it.”
I half shrugged. “That may be true, but when you’ve grown up being told you’re useless, then these”—I shook the papers—“are an unexpected and quite brilliant result.”
“I guess it would be.” He stepped back and unlocked the door. “The results will be officially registered by tomorrow.”
“Thanks.”
I walked out to find Saska waiting for me in the hall. “Why are you here? Is there a problem?”
She pushed away from the wall and fell in step beside me. “The council have decided, in the light of recent events, to restrict the hours of trial to a couple of hours either side of midday and avoid the twilight hours.”
Meaning it was going to be a short day today, given it was already close to eleven. “That won’t stop this bastard’s killing spree.”
“To date, he hasn’t been active during the day,” Saska said. “Until that changes, the new timing will allow all witnesses time to return home safely and raise all necessary protections.”
All witnesses primarily meaning my family rather than me, I was betting.
“That doesn’t explain your presence. What’s wrong with the driver who picked me up this morning?”
“Nothing at all. The boss just wanted a bit more beef on the detail, and I definitely fit that description.” She glanced at me, amusement twitching her lips. “He likes you.”
“Sadly for him, I’m taken.”
“So he’s said.”
My eyebrows rose again. “He discusses his love life with you?”
“Only out of hours.” My expression must have been somewhat horrified, because she laughed and added, “We’ve been besties since we were kids. Besides that, when you’re dealing with the worst inclinations of royal witches on an almost daily basis, there is no one else you can really trust or confide in except your teammates.”
I guess that made sense given the sensitive nature of the information—and the crimes—they were probably dealing with.
I rolled up the test results and tucked them safely into my purse. They might not be of any practical use to me in my everyday life, but I had a hankering to frame the damn things and put a big “he was wrong” over the top.
I looked up barely in time to quick-step around a student too busy looking at her screen to check where she was going.
