“I meant romantically, Alex,” I said, trying to keep the exasperation from my tone.
He shook his head. “I swear, we only kissed once, and right after I told her I wanted to be just friends. I’m not sure if she believed me, but I really meant it.”
His tone was genuine and he looked me straight in the eye when he spoke. I believed him. Thank goodness, because now was so not the time to be getting into my boyfriend’s past with Diana Wake. “In that case, let’s keep moving.” I gestured to where Hunter and Eva stood waiting, their eyes wide with question.
I caught Eva’s gaze and gave her a look that said I’d tell her everything later. I had no doubt that Diana had known what she was doing, and while I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of knowing she’d caused even a blip of strife in my relationship, that didn’t mean Eva wouldn’t help me get out my frustrations. After that, I’d forget all about it. Diana would never know that she’d ruffled my feathers, which would probably kill her.
We made it the rest of the way to the murder site without issue. I couldn’t hear the other professors, which meant that they were likely deep in the woods, searching for the killer. The only evidence that something had happened at the scene of the crime were a few magical lights set up by Headmistress Wake. The tension in my shoulders loosened a bit. Those would make searching for the wand without our own light a little easier.
“Spread out,” Eva, who had transitioned to an amateur sleuth in the last hour, commanded.
We did as she instructed, each of us taking a quadrant and working outward. After fifteen minutes of fruitless searching, I concluded that whoever killed Efraim had taken his wand. There was only so far the thing could fly in a skirmish, and Efraim would have to be an idiot to intentionally toss aside something that would be helpful in an attack.
“No wand,” Eva said as we converged on the murder site. The greater demon scars that no healer had the skill to remove from her beautiful face glinted in the pale moonlight, making me shudder. “I wonder what that means? Do you guys think it’s related to the prophecy?”
“I’m not sure about the prophecy. No one has gone after Odie, but I might have another theory,” Alex whispered, stealing everyone’s attention. “It’s very tenuous, but during testing to get into Spellcasters, I overheard Tabitha bragging about her family line.”
I arched an eyebrow, not seeing where this was going.
“It seemed that the Goodes believe they’re descendants of Merlin.”
My mouth fell open. “Are they serious?”
Alex shrugged. “Who knows?” He turned to Eva. “Does your family claim descent from Merlin?”
Eva snorted. “My parents might be proud as hell sometimes, but they’d never say something like that. It’s too grandiose, even for them.”
Alex nodded, and even though Eva had been dismissive, I understood why he’d asked her. Eva had been attacked by a greater demon, which had not been the planned portion of her Samhain Trial. That meant someone was gunning for her too. If Alex tied the events together, it might help unearth more information.
“Well, even if you weren’t, Efraim bonded with Merlin’s wand. And if Tabitha’s family thought they were related . . .” I shrugged. “There might be a thread there.”
A twig snapped in the woods, and the hairs on my arms sprang up.
“We should get back inside,” Alex said, his eyes wary.
He grabbed me by the hand, and the four of us rushed back to the academy.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Amonth passed, and still no one could pinpoint Efraim’s murderer or their motive. Just like Tabitha’s.
I couldn’t get either case out of my mind. Efraim’s attack was the third demonic attack outside of our trials. If you added in the fae fiasco, five initiates had been attacked in less than a year.
“What’s the connection? Is it me? But how?” I murmured out loud, and set my pen down.
I was supposed to be working on an essay for Faeology, but nothing stuck. No matter how many times I read the material and synthesized my hypothesis to answer the question Ms. Seeley had posed, I just couldn’t put it into words. My mind was elsewhere—trying to piece together the attacks on my classmates with the prophecy, and now the new information about Merlin.
Was there a connection? Were my parents just wrong, and it was a curse? Were all Spellcaster initiates actually the targets?
None of the pieces seemed to fit.
I wasn’t the only one stumped. Alex had been in the library every free minute since Efraim’s death, researching everything he could about Merlin. He was convinced that the attacks must have something to do with the enigmatic and mysterious wizard. Even after Mina, Amethyst, and Eva had all insisted that they didn’t have a single personal tie to Merlin.
A knock came at my door.
“Come in,” I said, already knowing who to expect, from the tempo of the knock.
Eva appeared a second later, with Hunter right behind her.
