Page 11 of Bonds of Magic (Vesperwood Academy: Incubus #3)

Seb’s voice was surprised, but he was smiling when I entered his rooms later that day.

He lay stretched out on his couch, covered by a rich maroon and gold plaid blanket.

He was wearing one of his signature cardigans again, this one a dark forest green with thick cables running up the arms. For once, he had a T-shirt on underneath it, though, and not his standard button-up shirt.

That was his equivalent of dressing down.

“How are you doing?” he asked as I walked further into his living room and sat in an armchair across from the couch.

“I’m okay,” I said, because I couldn’t think of anything else to say.

How would I even summarize what was going on, if I could say it out loud?

Isaac and I are pretty sure one of the faculty members is in league with Argus and working to destroy Vesperwood and enslave humanity. Oh, and kidnap and control Cory Dawson. Who I can’t stop fantasizing about fucking. You know, the usual.

I was pretty sure that Seb, at least, was on the up and up. He’d taken a bullet to the abdomen. That would be a hell of a sacrifice to make, just to convince us he was on the right side. Plus, he’d killed Jude. Argus wouldn’t be happy about that.

“I should be asking you that question, though,” I said, giving Seb a once over. “That’s what actually matters. How are you?”

“Oh, doing about as well as one can do, under the circumstances. Orlando took care of the worst of the damage before they even brought me inside. Now I have to lie here for the next few weeks and keep still.”

“He and Cinda couldn’t heal you all the way?” I asked. I knew there were limits to healing, but they were both supposed to be powerful witches.

“Doing that would have sapped most of their energy and mine,” Seb said with a shrug, after which he winced. Maybe he really wasn’t supposed to move. “The wound would have been healed, but I’d be so depleted from the process that the rest of my body might have fallen apart.”

“Yikes.”

“It’s not all bad.” He patted a stack of books on the coffee table.

“No teaching for the next few weeks means I can finally catch up on some reading. There’s an article or two I’ve been thinking about writing up.

” He made a face. “But I wish I didn’t need to sleep quite so much.

I’ve barely been able to get through two chapters today, in between naps. ”

“If your body needs rest, listen to it.”

“Probably a good idea,” he agreed. “So.”

I frowned. “So?”

“So why don’t you tell me why you’re really here?”

“I’m… checking on you?”

“Yeah, sure. That’s the ostensible reason. And I appreciate it. But I know you. You’re not exactly the mothering type. If you’re coming to see me this soon, you want something.”

I grimaced.

“It’s not a bad thing,” he continued. “My guess is that you’re trying to find out more about what happened two nights ago.

I’ve told Isaac everything I know, but I bet you’re hoping I’ve remembered more in the interim.

” He smiled gently. “It means you care about the safety of Vesperwood’s students. It’s fine.”

“And faculty,” I protested. “I care about the faculty too. Or you, at least.”

“As I said, I appreciate it.”

Seb folded his hands on his lap and waited for me to say more. I sighed. There was no point in trying to be subtle, given what he’d already figured out.

“Would you mind telling me what you told Isaac?” I asked. “And anything else you remember?”

I doubted I’d get much more information than Cory had already provided. But still, it was worth talking to Seb. On the off chance that he’d seen Sheridan or Teresa out that night, I wanted to know.

Seb nodded. “Sure. Though there’s not much you don’t already know.

Cory didn’t show up for his lesson, which was odd.

We’d talked about the importance of consistency, and he didn’t—doesn’t—seem like the kind of kid to blow off something important.

So I started looking for him and ran into you. Then we heard those shots and—”

He broke off and shook himself slightly, like he was trying to get rid of a bad memory. Then he grimaced at the pain the shake had brought him.

“Well, we split up and I went off looking for Cory. I honestly can’t remember how long it took me to find him. Cinda says it’s normal for memory to glitch around a traumatic event, but it’s uncomfortable, having hazy spots where you should have details.”

“I bet.”

“Eventually I located where the shots had come from, and stumbled into that clearing and saw Cory, fighting with a dark figure I couldn’t quite make out. The only reason I could tell it was Cory was because I know his face so well. It was too dark to really make out details.”

I grunted. I knew it was reasonable for Seb to know Cory’s face. He’d spent more time with the kid than I had. But I didn’t like it.

“I didn’t see Erika at first.” Seb’s voice was sad. “I thought she was a pile of clothes or debris on the snow. As if that made any sense. But even after I realized it was a person, I couldn’t make out who it was.”

“Did you ever—” I interrupted Seb, then broke off. How could I ask this delicately? “Did you have any concerns that Cory might have been the one who—”

“No.” Seb gave me a flat look. “And I’m kind of shocked you would ask that, Noah.”

Relief washed through me. Then defensiveness. I hadn’t really thought Cory could have been involved. Not my—well, not Cory. But I hadn’t seen the fight myself.

“I didn’t think so,” I told him. “But I needed to ask.”

“I suppose you did.” Seb rubbed a hand over his face. “In any case, it was obvious that the other man was trying to hurt Cory, maybe to kill him. So I did my best to stop that.”

“You killed him.”

Seb grimaced, like hearing those words hurt.

“That’s a good thing,” I said. “He’d already killed one student. He might have killed another. He had it coming.”

“I suppose I find taking someone’s life a little more complicated than ‘ he had it coming .’”

“You don’t need to feel bad about this.”

Seb shook his head. “You don’t get it. I was aiming to wound, not kill. I wanted to know what was going on. But he shot me, and my aim was off. I didn’t have as much control as I wanted. And now, whoever he is, he’s dead, and we have no information about what he was doing here.”

“Let Isaac worry about that. If anyone can figure it out, he can.”

I didn’t like lying to Seb. But if Isaac wanted to keep things under wraps for now, I had to do it too.

“There was a rectangle,” Seb said slowly. “My memory’s not clear, but I swear it was there. Shimmering in midair. It disappeared when I killed that man, and now there’s no way to know what it was there for.”

“Like I said—” I began, but Seb kept talking.

“It looked like a doorway.” He gave me a sharp look, not so tired now.

“Someone broke through the wards, or let them down, to let those moraghin in. But this time, there was a door. If they were able to bypass the wards with that door, why didn’t they use that spell the first time, with the moraghin? ”

It was a good question, and one I didn’t have an answer for.

I tried for nonchalance. “We don’t know if that’s what it was. We don’t even really know what you saw.”

Seb’s eyes wouldn’t let me go. “Are you sure about that? I told Isaac what I saw, but I haven’t told anyone else. I wouldn’t. But knowing what Cory is, if that door opened to the—”

“Leave it to Isaac. I’m serious.”

“Do you know something I don’t?”

I had to tell him something. He wasn’t going to let this go. But Isaac’s call for caution still rang in my ears.

“I wish I knew more,” I said finally. “But if the same person was behind the moraghin and this recent attack, then I’m worried they might be targeting freshmen.

They’re the most defenseless of all our students.

Most of them can barely hold a light spell for two minutes.

And our paranormal students are just coming into their powers too. ”

“Is that what you think they’re doing?” Seb arched an eyebrow. “Targeting freshmen? Or are they targeting the paranormal students specifically?”

I didn’t like his line of questioning. It was too close to the truth.

“I don’t think so,” I said. “After all, Erika was a witch, not paranormal. And she was attacked twice.”

“So was Cory,” Seb said softly. “I hate to say it, but Erika might simply have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Or Cory might have,” I countered.

“Noah, I’m worried. Ashley Matthews and Leon Zi came to visit me today. They were pressing me for more details about what happened to Erika. I don’t think they believe Isaac’s story.”

I grimaced. I knew Isaac was trying to keep everyone calm by lying about what had happened in the woods, but there were too many people involved in the cover-up. Someone was bound to slip and say more than they should.

“Leon said our paranormal students weren’t all that different from the moraghin. ‘ They both want to kill witches .’ His actual words.” Seb gave me a long look. “I don’t want our paranormal students blamed for these attacks.”

I didn’t either. But I didn’t know what else we could do, as long as Isaac was trying to keep things quiet.

“And then there’s Cory,” Seb said.

My chest tightened. I scanned Seb’s face for any signs that he knew something he shouldn’t. That he could see under my skin, feel inside my chest, know the illicit thoughts that roamed my mind.

“What about him?” I asked, striving to keep my voice neutral.

“People already know he was near Erika when she died. And at some point, someone is going to realize that he’s not behind in his classes—he can’t do magic at all. Sooner or later, they’re going to realize he’s not a witch.”

“I’ll keep him—” I broke off and tried again. “ We’ll keep him safe.”

“Why is Isaac so sure you can teach Cory?” Seb asked. “Is there something I should know about—”

“No,” I said curtly, and stood up. I felt rude, but I’d rather be rude than let the conversation go any further. “I should get out of your hair. Let you rest.”