Page 2 of With the Key in the Office
“No bother,” she whispered. “Are you ready to do this?” Even as she asked, she smoothed her black skirt down against her legs, then fidgeted with the collar of her white shirt covered in tiny birds. Just when I thought she was done, she patted her hair in every which direction, even though it did nothing to tame her messy bun.
Unable to help myself in the face of her nervousness, I ran my hands over my blue shirt and dark grey slacks, even though I already knew they were wrinkle-free, just to ensure they didn’t have too much cat fur on them, then took a deep breath and answered, “As I’ll ever be.”
She grabbed my shoulders. We nodded at each other. It was now or never.
We stepped inside. Mr. Vanderflit stood behind his desk, sleeves rolled up, tie crooked, the temperamental lights in his office flickering like a bad mood. The two hunters turned. The man was tall with square shoulders and an assessing gaze. The woman’s eyes were the kind that memorized exits before introductions.
“Cendolyn Ault?” the man asked, his black hair never moving an inch, just glinting with the pound of gel he’d used to slick it to the side.
“Cendi’s fine.”
“I’m Drew,” he said, his face expressionless. “This is Ava.”
Ava. The name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it. She nodded. “We’re here to understand last night’s event.”
“You mean the ghost,” I said, because dancing around it wouldn’t help. “It looked like me. It took the key from Mr. Vanderflit’s desk. Then the castle shuddered like it wanted to pitch us all outside, and that was about it.”
Vanderflit’s jaw worked as he addressed the hunters, but I got the sense he wasn’t angry at them, just the situation. “The key is unique. It can open any lock, and we were going to use it to open a chamber beneath the castle. We’ve found no other key that can touch the chamber’s lock. And the key is connected to Cendi, as she’s the one who rescued it from Zorand.”
Drew folded his arms. “Walk us through everything again. Slowly. Starting with…” He exchanged a glance with Ava. “Zorand?”
So I did. I told them about the desert. The Lizard Wizard’s lair tucked under a huge rock with cricketmen on patrol and how Luna’s warning had been dead on. I told them how Jessie had blurred us into the heat, so we blended with the dunes, then handed over little enchantments that kept ice from melting against our necks as we crossed the sand. I took a breath and Jessie told them the chamber of crystals was only the prelude to a trap door and a hidden room of contraband, precious, stolen things, and the velvet cushion holding an ancient key that bit my fingertip before it accepted me, the same key I slid into my pocket and brought home. I told them how Vanderflit saw it on his desk later and said, in a hush, that it belonged to our academy. And I told them about the courtyard. The sliver of portal we closed, and the statues sliced so clean they toppled like dominoes when it first opened.
Where was Robbie right now, anyway? He should’ve been here helping us explain all this mess. Jaylynn too. It made me worried that they were nowhere to be found. I just hoped they were safe.
We described the blue light, the tremor, the way the air turned razor cold as the apparition reached for the key.
Ava’s questions were neat and precise. “Did it speak? Did anyone touch it? Did you see marks on the floor afterward?”
“No, no, and no,” I said. “It was quick.”
Her gaze slid to Vanderflit. “You said the key is connected to Cendi. Bound how?”
“Blood.” Vanderflit rubbed at the bridge of his nose. “She rescued it, and it desperately wanted to be rescued. Now only people she gives the key to can touch it. She handed it to me, so I can touch it.”
Huh. He could’ve toldmethat little tidbit of information. “So since I hadn’t handed it to anyone else, only you or I can touch it?”
He nodded. “I suspect that’s why the ghost took on your form. To be able to grab the key.”
“Since when do ghosts need keys?” I muttered.
Drew scribbled a few notes. “We have two working theories,” he said. “A ghost would have to be manipulated by an outside caster.”
Ava nodded, thoughtful. “We’ll need statements. You, Ms. Ault. Your friends. Anyone who was in the corridors.”
I resisted the urge to salute. “Happy to cooperate.”
“Good,” Drew said. “Because if the key opens more than a storage closet, we’re not the only people who’ll come knocking. We don’t want this to escalate.”
There it was, that hint of something larger than our little crisis. My stomach didn’t like it.
They split us up for questions. Nothing scary, just a thousand clarifications that made me relive every shiver and bump and clatter I’d experienced since coming upon that strange key. I kept drifting toward the window where the gray morning had finally decided to be a beautiful day.
After a few minutes, Jaylyn appeared. Her big brown eyes looked even bigger in her narrow face. She’d put her long black hair up, pulling it tight, and making herself appear strangely fragile, while I knew for a fact that she was incredibly tough.
When they were done with me, I hovered by Jessie while Jaylyn answered her questions. Jaylyn’s hands trembled a little, and I wanted to squeeze them, so I loaned her my best “we’re okay, we’re together” smile until she cut me a grateful glance.
Ava gathered all our statements, then spoke quietly with John and Beth in the hall. John, our headmaster, maintained that calm helm-of-the-ship look even when tempests pitched the rest of us around. Headmistress Beth was all steel with a warm center, less inclined to coddle and more inclined to expect us to rise. They’d both welcomed me on my very first day, right there in the castle entry, and the memory steadied me now.