“Of course,” she says, as the other students exit the classroom.I can hear their scoffs, see them rolling their eyes.There is no hiding it with us but, even so, I can’t be reprimanded by the sisters for wanting to talk to a student after class.It’s one of my rights as a professor.They may have told me to stop fucking Kat, but they can’t expect me to let her flounder in her studies, can they?
Kat comes over to me and stands by the desk, staring down at me expectantly as she clutches her books to her chest.I feel the need to pinch myself, to remind me this stunning, special young witch is mine.
“How are you?”I ask in a low voice after I’m sure the last student has gone out the door.“I’ve been thinking about you all morning.It’s been torture not to talk to you.”
“I’m fine,” she says quietly, giving her shoulder a shrug.“Alittle tired, a little out of sorts.I slept hard and didn’t want to wake up this morning.”
“And your wounds?”I ask, my heart pinching slightly as I remember Brom and me rubbing the poultice down her front and back before we left the circle.I applied a bit of my healing magic but not enough, since I was already in a state of exhaustion.
“They hurt a little,” she says, and that pinch increases.
“If you close the door and lock it I can help heal you more,” I tell her, handing her the key to the classroom.“I can do a lot of things to make you feel better.”
She plucks the key from my hand.“I have to be honest with you, Crane, I’m a little worn out from last night.”Then she grimaces.“And I just, uh…”
“Uh what?”I coax.
She wiggles her lips.“I am experiencing that woman’s time of the month.”
“You’re menstruating?”I ask bluntly.
She nods shyly, averting her eyes.“Yes.”
“But that’s good news, Kat.It means, well…” It means she’s not pregnant with my child, but she’s certainly not pregnant with Brom’s.“It means you’re in the clear, for now.”
“Which is a relief.It’s just a hindrance when it comes to…”
I grin at her.“If you think I’ll find a little blood a hindrance, clearly you weren’t paying attention last night.”I nod at the key.“Now, be a good girl and go lock that door.”
Kat gives me a quiet smile and turns, walking toward the door in time for loud footsteps to ring out from the hall.She freezes just as Brom appears in the doorway, then she sighs with relief.
“I need to talk to you,” Brom says, looking at me, then at Kat.He walks over to her first, puts his arm around her and kisses the top of her head, and then comes over to my desk.“I learned something in class today.”
“You mean to tell me you’ve been learning in everyone else’s class except mine?”I ask, leaning back in my chair and folding my hands across my chest.
He fixes me with his glare.God, I love my moody boy.
“What is it?”Kat asks him.
He breaks his stare to look at her.“In history, my teacher was talking about the Salem witch trials.She had said that there were two covens that had escaped and might have settled in Sleepy Hollow, the…Devotus?And the…I can’t remember the other one.Starts with anE.She said they were enemies, but they had made a bargain with a demon to get them out,ifthey gave the demon one of their heirs.Meaning, the child of the two covens.That demon would bring about the end of the world while the covens would be granted immortality.”
I stare at him grimly, a sinking feeling in my chest.It’s not that what he’s saying doesn’t make sense.It’s that it makes perfect sense.And I wasn’t able to figure it out.A damn history teacher at the school did instead.
“Who is your teacher?”I ask.
How does she know more than I do?
“I don’t know her name, I never pay attention,” Brom says.
“I need to speak to her,” I tell him, getting to my feet.“I need to find out where she’s heard this, where she’s read this.”
“Do you think it’s true?”Kat asks, wringing her hands together.
“It could be,” I tell her.
“She kept saying it was a rumor,” Brom says.“She didn’t seem to believe it herself.Said it was…”
“Was what?”Kat asks.
