Page 10 of Bonds of Magic (Vesperwood Academy: Incubus #3)

NOAH

I pushed open the door to Isaac’s office. It was early, the morning after my first lesson with Cory, and I had a day’s worth of classes to prepare for. But Isaac had sent a vocator message at dawn, asking me to visit him. Not asking, actually—telling.

“You need to arrest Sheridan,” I said as I entered. “And Teresa. Maybe Hans and Autumn for good measure.”

Isaac looked up from his desk, where he was holding something that looked vaguely like a silver and gold Rubik’s cube—if Rubik’s cubes had ten sides and were covered in tiny runes.

He arched an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“Yeah.” I crossed the room and stood in front of his desk. “I honestly don’t know why you haven’t done it already. We need to question them and find out which one of them put Erika Martinez in that trance.”

Isaac went back to studying the artifact in his hands. “Are you so sure one of them is at fault?”

“It has to be one of them.” I made a grab for the hunk of metal, trying to pull Isaac’s attention back to me. He tutted and pulled it away. “Are you even going to look at me? You’re the one who asked me to come here before I did anything else today.”

“I have also asked you to knock. Repeatedly.”

He stared at the artifact. His brow furrowed, then cleared as he twisted one side twice to the right, then down once, and to the left. The runes realigned and flashed gold in his hands. Finally, he set it down and looked up.

“And I’d think you’d have the sense not to grab at a magical artifact just because you’re frustrated. Particularly one capable of burning off your fingers, if you don’t know how to handle it properly.”

His look was severe, and I struggled not to take a step back. I wasn’t afraid of Isaac, or the look he gave me. Just…wary about that lump of metal. That was all.

“Why did you ask me here, then?”

I flopped down into one of the chairs in front of Isaac’s desk. It was the one Cory sat in two nights ago. I swore I could even smell his scent for a moment, like clean cotton and dark berries.

Get a grip , I commanded myself internally.

“To discuss our investigations,” Isaac said. “And to make sure you don’t go haring off on a revenge mission that could cause incalculable damage.”

“What kind of damage are you worried about me doing? You can’t seriously be protecting them.”

“I’m protecting this school.” Issac’s tone was heated.

“Do you have any idea how many messages I’m fielding?

Constant contact from donors and families telling me to shut the university down, to call in investigators from the Council, or to expel a quarter of the student body.

Vesperwood’s status as a functioning, independent university is hanging by a thread. ”

“All the more reason to haul the ward-keepers in and get some answers.”

“And how do you propose to do that without the entire school finding out?”

“Who cares if they find out? If one of them is working for Argus—hell, maybe more than one—then what matters is stopping them, not keeping it a secret. Bring them in, hold them for a while, and use a little force.”

“You’re talking about torture,” Isaac said flatly.

“Torture? Hardly. Neglect, at worst. A cell, some bread and water, a friendly chat…”

“Noah.”

“If that’s what it takes to find out which of them is in league with Argus, that’s what it takes.”

“The Council uses torture,” Isaac said, his lips twisting. “You know how I feel about that.”

“So use a truth trance, then. Problem solved.”

“A truth trance doesn’t work unless it’s entered into voluntarily,” Isaac said mildly. “You know that.”

“So whoever refuses to enter one is our man. Or woman. Whatever.”

“It’s a witch’s right to refuse a truth trance for any reason,” Isaac said. “It’s a very invasive procedure, putting the witch undergoing it in a vulnerable position.”

He didn’t need to explain that to me either. I could barely stand the dream-like trances Isaac put me into once a week. A truth trance would be way more intimate.

“I know. But I’m pretty sure once you explain to somebody that we’re concerned they’re working with an incubus to enslave humankind, they’ll be willing to go along with it. Assuming they’re innocent, that is.”

“Assuming they’re innocent,” Isaac repeated.

“And if they’re not? If the one we look for isn’t the very first person we question?

Word of our investigation will spread, alerting the culprit before we ever reach them.

Noah, we need answers, not a professor running off in the night.

We need to destroy Argus, not mildly inconvenience him.

The element of surprise is one of our main advantages. ”

“So make the professors we question swear an oath not to spread word of what we asked them.”

“On what authority?” Isaac asked. “Undertaking an oath is a sacred process. We use oaths to preserve institutions, to serve powers greater than ourselves. I won’t subvert that process by forcing anyone to swear to me personally.”

“It’s like you’re determined not to use any of the tools we have,” I grumbled.

“I’m determined to keep this school running,” he retorted. “And I will not become a dictator, however convenient you might find it. We need to investigate further before accusing anyone. We need proof.”

“We have proof. Why else would Sheridan have that coin?”

Argus typically left those coins as his calling card when he killed people.

But they were also useful tokens that helped him find people’s dreams more easily.

Sheridan wasn’t dead, so I had to assume he wasn’t a target.

It stood to reason, then, that he kept the coin to strengthen his connection to Argus.

“He was probably planning on working with Jude,” I said.

“To help him get access to the student body. Now that he knows that Jude is dead, he’ll be working overtime to figure out who the incubus hidden among the students is.

And you can bet he’ll be looking into Erika’s death.

People already know Cory was the one who found her.

How long do you think it’ll take Sheridan to put two and two together? ”

“All the more reason to ensure Cory gains control of his powers. As for the coin, it’s possible Sheridan found it in someone else’s quarters. He may not know what it means. He may be researching it himself. He may not even know he has the coin.”

“You think someone else put it there? To help Argus to spy on his dreams?”

“It’s a possibility.”

“Teresa, then.” I didn’t really think she was behind this.

But she was a wardkeeper, and it had to be one of them who’d let the moraghin in.

“She has years’ worth of student files. Most of them for students who ended up in Hex.

What if she’s putting multiple students in trances, forcing them to apply to Hex? Bringing them under her control?”

“To what end?” Isaac asked.

“I don’t know! That’s what we need to find out. If she’s working with Argus, who knows how far back her plans stretch. Maybe she’s got an army of Erikas ready to do her bidding.”

“That would take an enormous amount of strength and control,” Isaac said mildly. “Teresa is a powerful witch, but that’s well beyond her faculties.”

“As far as you know. But if you refuse to even investigate—”

“I’m not refusing to investigate. I’m merely saying we need to be cautious. We don’t want this person dead, or on the run, before we learn the details of Argus’s plan.”

“His plan? His plan is what it’s always been. To find every half-human incubus he can and bend them to his will. To break out of the dream world and begin killing again. To enslave humanity, and any witch who stands against him.”

“Perhaps,” Isaac said, but he didn’t sound convinced. Which was insane, because Isaac had been fighting Argus even longer than I had. He knew what Argus wanted.

My eyes narrowed. “Do you know something I don’t? Something I should know?”

“I know that a mole is most useful when you know who they are, and they’re unaware of this fact.”

“Fuck moles, Isaac. We’ve been trying to finish Argus off for seven years. We need to act now.”

“What we need is caution. Vesperwood is a powder keg. Admitting that Erika’s death came at the hands of an incubus would ignite it.

Yesterday, Professor Matthews approached me and suggested we send all our paranormal students home.

‘ Just to be safe .’ She thinks it was one of them who let the moraghin in.

And last night, Professor Botros paid me a visit to explain why we need to stop admitting paranormal students in the future, and why he believes they don’t belong in Heal.

How long before someone bars paranormal students from their classes?

How long before bullying grows out of hand? Before one of our students dies?”

“A student has already died,” I pointed out.

“A tragedy. But I would like it to remain an isolated one.”

“Maybe we should send everyone home, then,” I said, echoing something Cory had said last night.

“And play right into Argus’s hands? Cory is safest at Vesperwood, within our wards, surrounded by faculty and other students.

And any students we did send home would not remain safe for long, if Argus were able to locate Cory and control him.

To say nothing of the fact that our paranormal students would be at an incredible disadvantage if they were sent home.

Not a single other university will admit them.

Vesperwood provides them not only an education, but safety.

Many of them have no clan, no pack, no community to welcome them back.

How many would we endanger by sending them away? ”

I sighed. Isaac had a point. Maybe several points. But I wasn’t happy about it.

“Fine,” I said. “We’ll do it your way. Which is…what, exactly?”

“I’m glad you asked.” Isaac smiled as though I’d acquiesced from the start. “Here’s what you’re going to do.”

***

“Noah!”