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Afew days passed without incident, and normality somehow resumed. Atlas found a new home in the glass enclosure that had been Gren’s—a bittersweet replacement for a monster I’d never forget. We’d covered his appearance by telling Victoria I’d had a huge Purge while I was visiting the Repository and he was the result, though I still needed to come up with a name for his shiny new species. We’d decided to keep my ability to Purge brand new beings between the three of us—me, Genie, and Nathan—so I really did need to label the species sharpish, so Nathan could create a backstory for their kind and stop any potential freak outs. As a placeholder, we were going with a ‘Colossus.’ And we’d covered Gren’s disappearance by saying he’d succumbed to a mystery illness. It wasn’t entirely untrue. He had died because of a bunch of people who weren’t unlike a deadly virus.

I visited Atlas and the pixies as often as I could, but the daily workload of classes and homework and personal study time took priority in my everyday life, made all the more difficult by the lingering effects of Purging such a powerful monster. Every so often, Genie would nudge me awake in the middle of a lecture or slip me one of her famed Atlantean energy brews to get me through the day. I knew the fatigue and the muscle aches would wear off soon; in the meantime, all I could do was endure.

The Institute’s normality might’ve resumed, but mine hadn’t. Being here, walking these familiar halls, pretending everything was peachy, just felt… wrong. I’d tried to be discreet during my private sessions with Victoria, hoping to surreptitiously crowbar some intel about the Anghenfil curse from her, but she was an expert in evasion and deflection. The not-knowing continued to weigh heavy on my mind, particularly because Reid hadn’t texted me back. Total radio silence.

What happened to clear-cut good and evil, huh? It was my biggest takeaway from everything I’d been through. Reid should’ve been the obvious villain, but he’d acted out of concern for his people and the wider world, and continued to suffer under a curse that had been forced on him. He’d taken that as his weight to bear, for the sake of everyone else. The antidote had gotten twisted in the same way the curse had, curing the side-effect of the contagion instead of Reid. I knew it was still working, too, because he hadn’t made contact to tell me otherwise and ask for a different antidote. Plus, I’d spoken with Leviathan, who’d confirmed it. The contagion had ceased. How could I call Reid a truly bad person after that? The rest of the witch hunters sucked, and I had no love for them whatsoever, but I could sort of understand their perspective—a lie as big as that of the magical world couldn’t help but ruffle feathers of those who knew they were being lied to. Ignorance could be bliss, after all. But then there was Victoria, the woman I had looked up to for the last six months, who muddied those black and white waters into so many more shades of gray. She’d clearly been up to something bad, but she must’ve had her reasons, and maybe they were good reasons. I just didn’t know what they were. Maybe she’d thought she was doing the right thing for a good cause.

I guessed, when it boiled down to it, everyone had shades of good and bad in them. One good act or one bad act did not cancel out the other, but it also didn’t make anyone wholly one or the other. Just like Chaos had Dark and Light, people did, too. I wasn’t an exception. I’d known the possible implications when I’d given Reid the antidote. By helping him and containing the contagious effect of the curse, I’d essentially freed the witch hunters to run amok again. And who knew what mayhem and hurt they would inflict on my people with that freedom. Trying to do the right thing inevitably left room for some bad to slip through the cracks, it was just about limiting the worst evil in each situation. Victoria, Reid, the witch hunters, Nathan, me… we were all guilty of it.

Leaving the arena after what could only be described as a car crash of a session with Johannes Noah, I walked through the corridors toward Victoria’s office. I had another half-hour of mentorship with her before Monster Biology, but my thoughts were elsewhere. We’d gotten away with taking our massive risks, sure, and there’d been zero fallout over the graffiti on Victoria’s door—in fact, that had weirdly been swept under the rug. Thank goodness, since we wouldn’t be able to explain why Genie had done it.

You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore. William Faulkner comforted me on my walk, my nerves eerily calm considering what I planned to do. There was every chance that this walk through the Institute would be my last, and yet, I wasn’t about to turn back. My metaphorical shore was the security of this place, but everything had been thrown into disarray after Nathan’s revelation. How could I toe the party line for someone who didn’t play by magical rules? I had to know what kind of person I’d chosen as my mentor. I had to know if she was the one who’d cursed Reid, so I could un-muddy the waters a touch. After that, well… we’d just have to see. I hoped I was wrong about her.

Reaching Victoria’s office, I knocked and waited for her usual reply.

“Come in,” she said.

I drew a long breath and entered. She sat in her armchair, sipping from a fancy cup and saucer, looking especially regal in a bottle-green suit with her cropped hair swept back. Two emeralds dangled from her ears, matching the necklace around her throat. I rarely saw her this dressed up, and wondered if she knew, subconsciously, that this would be a rare conversation.

Taking the seat opposite, I wasted no time on small talk. I knew I was putting Genie and Nathan in the firing line, as well as my pixie privileges, but… the truth had to come out. I’d promised to be honest with her, and I intended to keep that promise. In return, I needed her to keep up her side of the bargain, no matter how nasty things might get.

“I helped the cursed guy who kidnapped me,” I said in a rush. Then, I regaled her with as much of the story as I dared to tell. I told her about the second meeting in the market trailer, Reid’s desperation, our agreement. I left out the part about the Grimoire and Genie’s involvement in the vandalism; I’d never tell her about the latter, and I was holding onto the former for later in the conversation. I even told her about the antidote, the fight with the witch hunters, Gren’s death and Atlas’s birth, and how the witch hunters had fled in fright, cured.

“I didn’t want innocent people dying because of an infectious curse,” I said firmly, keeping my chin up. “I know we agreed to trust one another, and I’m sorry I didn’t involve you in this, but I wasn’t sure what your course of action would be. I couldn’t risk another code red, not with human targets. Anyway, the Veritas people were cured and it’s not contagious anymore, but Reid—my kidnapper—still has it. The antidote didn’t work on him.”

Victoria stayed very still and very silent for what felt like an eternity. I watched for signs of an imminent explosion. Instead, every shred of color drained from her face, leaving her a ghostly white. Her mouth had straightened into a very thin line.

“You foolish child.” Her voice came out low and threatening. “After everything we’ve already been through, you do this again? You have no right to decide which course of action is best. You are a novice. You lack worldly experience. Do you think you know better than those who are older and wiser than you? Do you understand what you could have unleashed if you had not gotten lucky with that Purge?” She braced her hands against the desk, her knuckles bone white. “Do you understand what you might still have unleashed because you Purged? Now that they’ve seen monsters of that magnitude, they will take up arms against us. You silly, stupid little girl. I told you to leave it with me, yet you defy me once again! And worse, you tangled Genie and Nathan into your web of deceit. Genie, who was unwell at the time. And Nathan, who is a valued member of our staff. They could have died, Persie! You could have died! When will it sink in, that you are not the center of this universe? You do not get to make choices that are above you!” Her words ratcheted up to a chilling shriek that made me realize why she rarely lost her temper. In a sentence, it was utterly withering.

Even so, I held my ground. “I did what I thought was right, Ms. Jules. Had you told me about the witch hunters when I’d asked, maybe I would’ve felt more comfortable coming to you with this. I deserved to know what sort of people were behind my kidnapping, but you kept it from me. That’s why I had to hide this from you.”

“You realize that I can’t continue to make one rule for you, and another rule for all the other students?” she hissed, a vein throbbing in her temple. “This is beyond the pale, Persie. I had my reasons for not telling you about the witch hunters and I will not apologize for those, for the same reason that you should not have done this: it is not your place to know. You do not have the clearance! This is being dealt with by experts who are equipped for this sort of thing—instead of someone like you, fumbling blindly and making heinous errors in judgment! This will not stand, Persie. I cannot allow it.”

Time for that trump card. I had expected her to put expulsion on the table, or at least the threat of it. But I was armed with a counter, something that just might keep me in the Institute.

“Aren’t you curious where Reid Darcy got that curse?” I said, my voice even. I made sure to add the ‘Darcy,’ watching for a flicker of recognition. And I got it, in the subtle flinch of her eyelids. “He kept accusing me of putting it on him, until I convinced him that I didn’t have powers other than Purging. But he seemed pretty sure it came from someone in this Institute. Shouldn’t that be where your primary concern lies? That someone in this Institute is out there running rogue, cursing non-magicals? I’ve come clean, and I’m giving you information. I’m not asking to avoid punishment for my actions, but I’m asking you to consider the bigger picture. Someone is meddling with non-magicals. As you know, that’s a much bigger crime than curing a bunch of infected people who were only infected because someone meddled.”

The switch in her demeanor nearly left me with whiplash. One moment, she was gripping the desk, fury in her eyes. The next, she pulled her hands away from the desk and sank back in her chair, taking a few deep breaths. She didn’t need to say anything; I could see it all in that rapid transformation. She knew who’d done this, just as I did: she had cursed Reid. It was written all over her. And that meant she knew a lot more about the witch hunters, and Reid Darcy, than she’d admitted.

But she continued to play the part she’d cast herself in. “You are quite right. If someone here has enacted this terrible crime, you may rest assured that I will get to the bottom of it.” The jagged note in her voice had turned calm and steady. “But I will get to the bottom of it. Not you, or your friends, or any unapproved member of staff.”

I feigned sheepishness. “Of course.”

“In the meantime, you will swear to me, here and now, that this is the last time. If I hear of you doing such madness again, you will be expelled.”

I nodded slowly. “I swear.”

Does she know that I’m onto her? She didn’t give a lot away. She never did. But the swift 180 she’d just done on expulsion suggested she had more than a small suspicion that I understood more than I was letting on. I didn’t know if that put me at an advantage or a disadvantage. One thing was sure, she’d be watching me closer than ever after this. But I’d be watching her, too.

“As for your punishment, you are forbidden from leaving the Institute for a fortnight, and that includes entering the gardens and going to the Repository to visit your monsters. You will have guards posted outside your classrooms and your quarters, and you will be escorted to your first lesson and from your last lesson.” She straightened and pushed back a strand of hair that had come loose in her fury. “The same will go for Genie. With regards to Nathan, I will have to take more time to come up with a suitable punishment, but you must all pay penance for this transgression. Disobedience will not be tolerated. There is little truth behind the saying, ‘It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.’ Not here. Do I make myself clear?”

I bowed my head, playing up to the chastened ingenue role. “Perfectly, Ms. Jules. It’s a more-than-fair punishment.” I should’ve stopped there, but I couldn’t help myself. “I only hope the culprit gets worse, when you find them.”

“Oh, they will. You may count on it,” she lied, brazen to the end.

I stood, knowingthings would never be the same again, knowing I’d just waved goodbye to the safety of the shore. Now I had to pray that the truth, and Victoria’s knowledge of it, didn’t drown me before I reached those promised new horizons, whatever they might be.