Page 14 of With the Key in the Office

“She also feeds students and whispers to shelves,” I said. “She panicked in a way that read as honest. She didn’t hide the charm. She told Drew and Ava about the bathroom.”

Robbie added to the second column. “Unknown entity used your face. Maple couldn’t pinpoint it, but something seemed off about you. A true ghost would need a partner. We haven’t found that partner.”

“Pranksters,” Jessie said. “Students run illusions every term. The timing that night doesn’t fit a prank. The castle lurched, and the key was left on the safest desk on campus. A prank crew would need access, motive and the ability.”

“Outside caster,” Jaylyn said. “The wards bucked. Someone who knows the Academy could run a distraction while a ghost moved inside. We don’t have a name for that someone.”

We stared at the four names until the pencil lines started to blur. Tilly jumped onto the bed and claimed the middle while Simon chose Robbie’s lap. Robbie took the cat trap with good humor and didn’t try to move.

I set the kettle on my hot plate. Robbie gathered cups from the shelf without asking and lined them up beside the tin of tea. He knew where everything was located, having spent enough time in my room. He poured a cup of tea, handed me the first mug and brushed my knuckles with his free hand, sending a spark ofelectricity between us. I had to take a deep breath and focus on the others, even while I was tempted to see if he felt it too.

“Maple sits at the top simply because she has the most fingers pointing at her,” Jessie said.

Robbie set his mug within Simon’s tail radius. “The hunters will talk to her again,” he said. “They won’t leave obvious clues alone.”

We reviewed the day until the room grew warm and the cats puddled in content heaps. Jessie added times to her cards and wrote a clean timeline from the courtyard glow to Maple’s stacks and back to Vanderflit’s office. Jaylyn tracked every mention of the staff corridor and the second-floor bathroom. Robbie listed the small group of people who knew my gait well enough to mimic it. We didn't read the names out loud. The list sat there anyway.

The kettle hissed again, and I topped off everyone’s cups. The small, domestic rhythm helped. Jessie finally closed her notebook and rubbed the bridge of her nose with ink-stained fingers.

“I’m calling it,” she said, yawning. “I need food and my bed.” Jessie packed her cards and kissed Tilly’s head with a promise of future treats. Jaylyn hugged me and tucked a curl behind my ear with a care that made me want to bake her a cake.

They slipped into the hall and their footsteps quickly faded. Quiet settled without strain. Robbie stayed. He gathered stray napkins and tossed them in the bin. He rinsed the mugs and set them to dry in a neat row. He checked the room with the ease of a person who already understood how I lived. He didn’t crowd.He didn’t hover. He just kept moving until the space looked ready to hold a good night.

“You run a tight ship,” he said. “I’ll accept payment in cat stories.”

“Payment goes both ways,” I said. “Your turn.”

He leaned against the dresser and thought for a second. “My brother used to say grief moves into houses that have empty rooms. He brought me a plant the week after I retired and called it a tenant. I nearly killed it twice. I learned to pay better attention because a stubborn fern refused to quit. Today at the park felt like that. A small life asked a man to live again.”

He brushed a lock of hair from my cheek with the back of his fingers. The touch sent a warm line through a part of me that had spent years braced for impact.

“Watson,” he said. “That can be me. You get the better hat.”

“I want the hat,” I said. “You can have a magnifying glass that doesn’t magnify anything. It just makes people behave when they see it.”

“We’d terrify no one,” he said.

“Speak for yourself,” I said. “Tilly’s intimidation rating sits at nine out of ten.”

Tilly chirped at the sound of her name. Simon shifted, flopping into the narrow space between us on the bed. Robbie scratched under Simon’s chin until his purr filled the room.

He stood and kissed my forehead without pushing for anything else. He said goodnight in that new warmth we were both learning to trust. He grinned and left.

I scooped the cats and ferried them to the bed. They pretended outrage, then forgave me when I found the perfect spot under each ear.

Sleep arrived without a fight. Tomorrow would bring more questions.

8

CENDI

By midmorning,the Godmother wing buzzed with excitement. Jessie had the second-floor workshop again and had thrown open the windows just enough to let the air move and the chalk dust escape. Rows of stools faced a wide table where she’d laid out sample dossiers and a few innocuous charms that gleamed when the sun nicked them. The sign on the door read Job Shadowing Practicum, and someone had drawn a tiny crown over the J.

Students filed in. Robbie took the seat beside mine, and Jaylyn slid in on my other side and set her notebook down with crisp purpose. Across the room, Mr. Clarke stood with a sheaf of papers pressed flat to his side. He didn’t take a seat. He watched the room with an expression on his face that could only be described as stink-eye, which was just the kind of energy I planned to ignore.

Jessie waited until the scrape of stools quieted and the whisper of conversation dropped to a hum before standing from her seat and coming to stand in front of the class. She wore plain blacktoday, hair pinned up in a way that made her look taller. The faculty pin caught a blade of light and flashed once.

“Welcome to the practicum,” she said, in a confident voice that made me smile. “Today we will walk through case intake and triage. We’ll also practice how to read a room without announcing yourself as the most magical creature in it.” A few chuckles rolled across the front row. She smiled, then sobered. “Remember, kindness without permission can quickly turn into intrusion. Our work starts with listening.”