Page 30 of Bonds of Magic (Vesperwood Academy: Incubus #3)

“Were they using one of your…weapons?” She said the word like it dirtied her mouth. “I would think you would have better sense than to leave them lying around for the taking. Especially after that incident with the arrow in Sheridan’s window.”

So that story had gotten around. I ignored the barb. “Are you sure you didn’t see them? Did anyone pass by you just now?”

“I have seen no one but you.” She wrinkled her nose. “And if I had seen unruly freshmen running amok, I would certainly have controlled them better than you seem able to do.”

I tilted my head to the side. “What are you doing in freshman quarters?”

“I hardly think that’s any of your concern.”

I was expecting that, and I wasn’t going to give in that easily. “I’ve heard some rumors that you’re interested in some of our newest crop of students.”

“You may hear whatever you like,” she replied tartly. “It’s no business of mine.” Her hands tightened around the box. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have better things to do with my time than to—”

“Is that why you were meeting with Rekha Bakshi?” I asked, reaching out to place a hand on her arm. “Did you give her a necklace like the ones in the box?”

I knew she wasn’t going to tell me anything. But since she seemed to have decided against killing me, I thought I should ask. At the very least, what she refused to tell me might be its own kind of answer.

Teresa drew herself up to her full height. She was only five-foot-two, but she gave the impression of looking down her nose at me anyway.

“My actions do not concern you and I am under no obligation to tell you about them. You’re not even a real professor.”

“I think it concerns everyone if you’re putting our students in danger. Did you give Erika Martinez one of those necklaces?”

“If you’re implying I had anything to do with that poor girl’s death—”

“I’m not implying anything. I’m coming right out and telling you that something is wrong at this school, and I’m trying to figure out what it is. Erika was my student. So is Rekha. So are all freshmen. I don’t want any harm to come to them.”

“And I do?” Teresa asked, affronted.

“Honestly, I didn’t think you cared about any student until they’d reached their junior year. Which is why I’m asking you to explain what you’re doing here tonight.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I do not take kindly to the suggestion that I might harm a student, much less one as defenseless as a freshman. Neither do I appreciate your high-handed manner and questions. I don’t recall anyone appointing you High Inquisitor.”

She straightened her shoulders, then shifted the box to one hand so she could use the other to pull her blouse and blazer down more tightly.

“As far as I’m concerned, Erika’s death was the accident Isaac said it was.

But if you’re interested in people acting suspiciously, then you’d do better to investigate why valuable items have been disappearing from faculty members’ rooms ever since the semester started.

Better still, ask young Hans why he insists on skulking about the grounds at all hours of the night.

Ask Sheridan why he’s jumping at shadows, or Autumn why she’s not allowed to work in the Hearth laboratories alone anymore.

You’re clearly going after the wardkeepers, but you’re interested in the wrong one. ”

“Hans is doing what?” I asked. “And what do you mean, Sheridan’s jumping at shadows?”

“You’ll have to ask them. I really don’t have time to entertain your little games anymore.”

With a final toss of her head, she stalked off down the hall.

***

I wasn’t sure if Teresa’s claims were truthful or baseless insinuations, but either way, I needed to look more closely at Sheridan.

So three nights later, I knocked on his door.

I carried a bottle of Lustau Pedro Ximénez sherry—though a cheaper bottle than the ones I’d seen in his rooms a few weeks earlier.

When Sheridan opened his door a crack and looked at me suspiciously, I hefted the bottle and attempted an easy grin.

“Want a drink?”

He blinked at me. “Why?”

“I realized I never followed up with you after that arrow landed in your apartment. Just wanted to check in. As for the drink, well, it’s better than drinking alone.”

Sheridan huffed a little laugh. “I suppose it is.” He opened his door wider. “Well, don’t just stand there. Come in before someone else sees that bottle and wants to join. I don’t intend to split it three ways.”

I raised an eyebrow, but he’d already turned away. Did he really intend for us to finish the bottle tonight? I didn’t dislike sherry, but I had no intention of drinking enough to let my guard down.

A few minutes later, we were comfortably ensconced in a pair of gold velvet wingback chairs in front of the marble fireplace in his living room. The place was still a pigsty, but I’d only had to peel two socks and one shirt off the back of the chair before sitting down. Could have been worse.

I brought the glass of sherry to my mouth, allowed it to touch my lips, but didn’t swallow. Sheridan downed his first glass like a shot of tequila and poured himself a second.

“So you got your window fixed,” I said, waving my glass in the direction of the window in question. The leaded glass was crystal clear and smooth, with no sign that it had ever been otherwise.

“I did.” Sheridan’s eyes narrowed over the rim of his glass. “But come now, Noah. That can’t truly be the reason why you’re here. Fixing a window is the work of a moment, even if you’re not a Hand. You know that.”

I wondered if I were really that transparent. Then again, if Teresa were to be believed, Sheridan was already on edge. Maybe he was suspicious of everyone right now.

“Alright, you got me.” I took an infinitesimal sip of sherry, then sighed and rested my glass on my leg. I shifted towards him in my chair and said in a serious voice, “I never did find the students who were responsible.”

“I figured as much,” he said, “since I heard nothing else from you. A pity, of course, but I suppose it’s not fair to expect too much from the mundane among us.”

Apparently, he shared Teresa’s healthy self-esteem when it came to comparing himself to his non-magical peers. Well, if his arrogance made him dismiss my competence, I could use that.

“The thing is,” I continued, “I’m beginning to wonder if it really was students behind it.”

“Oh?” His voice was casual, but his shoulders tensed, and the foot he’d been tapping in midair stilled.

“What if those arrows weren’t an accident? What if the beer cans were a decoy and this really was an attack on you, like you feared? What if it was connected to Erika Martinez’s death?”

Sheridan said nothing, but I watched his eyes as he considered my questions. I wanted to see how he would react to my supposed suspicions. He was the one who’d raised the possibility that someone might want to harm him. But would he enjoy being linked to Erika?

“An interesting theory,” he said finally. “But no, I’m afraid you’re barking up the wrong tree.”

“How do you know? The two events happened on the same night.”

“True, but I wasn’t in my rooms when that arrow broke the window. I wasn’t even on campus. If someone wanted to attack me, there are more direct ways to do it. And I was told that poor girl fell to her death. A tragic accident.”

He shook his head, but he didn’t seem too broken up about Erika’s death. He was making the face you make when you see a dead deer on the side of the road. Not a person.

“What if it wasn’t an accident?” I said. This was a dangerous line of inquiry, but I wanted to push him. “You were pretty convinced that night that someone was after you. What if they tried to use Erika to get to you?”

“Why would they?” Sheridan snapped. He tossed the contents of his glass back in a single swallow, then reached for the bottle again. “I didn’t know the girl.”

It was a fair point. But he was uneasy about my suggestion, so I pressed further.

“Sheridan, I’m going to be frank with you. You seem like you’re afraid of something. Can you tell me what it is?

“What? Afraid of something? No, my dear boy, you’re imagining things.”

“Am I? Because that night when I found you, when I showed you the arrow, you implied that the moraghin attack might have been meant for you.”

“You were mistaken,” he said grimly.

“I wasn’t, and you know it.” I made a show of sipping more sherry and moderated my tone. “Look, if someone is after you, then we’ve seen how dangerous they are. If you know anything that could help us find out who was behind the moraghin attack, or even Erika’s death, you have to tell someone.”

There. I’d said it. If Sheridan were working for Argus, he likely wouldn’t let anything slip. But if he weren’t… If he weren’t, then I might get some useful information out of him. Either way, I’d done a good job of painting myself as clueless and harmless. Isaac would be proud.

Sheridan’s knuckles were white around his glass, and a faint tremor ran through his body. He opened his mouth to speak, swallowed, then closed it. He shot me an aggrieved look.

“Why do you care so much?” he asked. There was a faint quaver in his voice.

“You’ll forgive me for saying this, but you’ve never struck me as someone who’s cared much for making friends among the faculty.

Not that I blame you. It must be difficult, surrounded by so much magical talent, unable to do anything like that yourself.

So why are you throwing yourself into this investigation?

Surely you’re the least qualified person on campus to do so. ”

I bristled, but kept my temper in check. “Because Erika was my student, and she was first attacked by moraghin in my classroom. Even if her death was an accident, if I had known more about what was happening at this school, maybe I could have kept her alive.”

I hope Sheridan mistook my anger at him for anger at myself.

“Students should be safe at Vesperwood. I don’t want another attack. So if you can help, if you can think of anything that might be useful, please tell me.”

It rankled, having to beg this man, but I did it.

And finally, finally , a crack appeared in Sheridan’s armor. His lower lip wobbled. He pressed his lips together, but I saw the moment he gave in. He closed his eyes tightly and spoke.

“It’s…possible…that there might be some…

people…who are interested in my whereabouts.

But they have nothing to do with Erika Martinez or any of your students.

And no matter what they want from me, they wouldn’t be so reckless as to introduce moraghin into an environment with so many untrained witches around. I’m certain of that.”

That was more certain than he’d sounded the last time we’d talked.

“Why are they after you?” I made an effort to keep my voice pleasant.

“Professional jealousy,” he said promptly. A little too promptly for my taste.

He swallowed the remains of his sherry and poured himself another glass. Only after he’d taken a sip of that did he continue.

“I taught at Univerzita Starobylych Umění in Prague, before coming to Vesperwood. While I was there, I discovered someone was stealing my work. I exposed them, but they had powerful friends. I was forced to leave my post after confronting them.”

I didn’t know what to make of his confession. My instinct was to mistrust everything he said. That coin I’d found…

But I supposed it was possible he really was in some kind of trouble that had followed him here from Prague. Then again, maybe that trouble was what had led him to work with Argus in the first place. Maybe Argus had promised retribution, once he was free.

“So you think someone from the Univerzita is after you?” I couldn’t quite hide the skepticism in my voice. “You’ve been here for two years, Sheridan. Why would they wait until now to do something?”

“Perhaps they were waiting for me to let my guard down,” he said stiffly.

“Over an academic tiff?”

He scoffed. “You asked, and I answered. That’s the best I can do. I wouldn’t expect you to understand, anyway.”

Right. Because I was just a lump of muscle with a single brain cell.

“Have you told Isaac about your concerns?” I asked.

“No. No.” Sheridan gripped the arm of his chair and looked at me with wide eyes. “I don’t want to involve anyone else. Don’t want to endanger anyone.”

“Keeping this to yourself could be just as dangerous.”

“Out of the question.” He swallowed half the contents of his glass, then waggled a finger at me. “And I expect you to promise me your silence as well.”

“If you insist,” I said, knowing I promised nothing of the sort.

He hiccuped, then waved a hand in my direction. “Good. Now be off with you. I have work to do this evening, and no more time for this conversation.”

If anything, it was an even ruder dismissal than Teresa’s. If all the faculty were this high-handed, I would never have been able to stomach working at Vesperwood. I couldn’t imagine Sheridan was going to get any work done tonight that didn’t involve draining that bottle, but I didn’t really care.

What mattered was that I’d gotten a new lead, and I intended to see where it took me. All I needed now was time.

First, though, I had to get through another lesson with Cory.

I wasn’t particularly looking forward to it. Understatement of the century. I wasn’t looking forward to it at all, because my body was looking forward to it way too much.

I’d have to be on my guard tonight. Not let him anywhere close.

The kid was silent on our walk through the manor. I assumed he felt as awkward as I did, and was trying to pretend that nothing had happened between us last time. I was fine with that. Hell, I was trying to do that too.

So I was surprised when we stepped outside the manor and Cory spoke.

“Could you teach me how to use a sword?”