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Bash sits on the remote and shakes his head. “What’s the point? It’ll only upset you more.”

“I need to be prepared for what everyone is going to think about me!”

“We already have a good idea. Is listening to more so-called news going to help?”

“Yes!”

He shakes his head. “It’s not.”

“They’re lying about me in front of all of Valora!”

“Forget about them.” He comes over and puts his arm around me.

“Why? Nobody else is going to.”

“They will if you give your side.”

“Right. Like anyone is going to listen to me—the self-absorbed bully.”

Bash brushes some hair away from my face. “According to them.”

“And how exactly am I going to get my story out there? Nobody’s going to want to hear it, and even if they do, they’ll just spin everything in the worst possible light. I can’t win.”

“You can’t win? Your uncle, the well-loved king, stood up for you on the news.”

“But that clearly wasn’t good enough.” I glance at the screen. “All anyone is going to remember is what Earwig and her nasty dogfish said.”

“And who is more powerful? Tiberias or the gang of dogfish?”

“That’s yet to be seen,” I mutter.

Bash gestures toward the TV. “That show you were watching is a joke. Nobody takes those two anchors seriously. They’re basically a live gossip column. How many people do you think are actually watching it at this late hour?”

“How about all of the academy? You know those three told everyone about it before they left for the station.”

“Even if that’s true, you’ve been here long enough for people to figure out their own opinions of you.”

We stare each other down until I finally speak. “I’m not going back there ever again.”

“What’s your plan, then?”

I rise. “I’m going to find those spell books—with or without your help. Then we’re going to the surface and we’ll live with my mom.”

“Didn’t you just say you’d drop finding the spell?”

“Things have changed. Again.”

“You don’t even want to fight this? Get your voice out there? Tell people the truth?”

“They won’t listen to me.”

He gets up. “You won’t know until you try.”

“And risk another mob? No thank you.” I head down a hall and peek in each room. A bathroom and several guest rooms. No books in any of them. I go back to the living room.

“Find anything?”

“Coral probably kept the good stuff on a different level. It would be too easy to get here. Now the question is, are the books upstairs or down?”