Alex let out a relieved groan when he was finally permitted to drop his shield. I felt bad for him, but didn’t move to comfort or help him. Instead my eyes stayed locked on Jagger, who I half expected to try and make a break for it. But the wolf surprised me when he simply stared at the crowd, his amber eyes stopping on Mother the longest.
“Don’t try anything you’ll regret wolf. You’re outnumbered and outskilled,” Mother said, her tone hard as flint. “Shift back and answer for your crimes.”
Acquiescing, Jagger shifted to human aspect. A scowl firmly planted on his face, he allowed the sheriff to cuff him and lead him to sit upon the dirty couch.
In any normal, human town, the interrogation would have been done at the police station but not in Wandstown. Miss Iris was a beloved member of society andeveryonewanted to know why Jagger had kidnapped her. That witches who weren’t on the police force but were gifted in mind-magic were present was another motivating factor to perform the interrogation right then and there. If the sheriff needed their skills to get to the bottom of things, he figured that Butcher cottage was as good a place as any.
“So,” the sheriff, a wizened old witch with a grizzled gray beard, pulled the chair from by the fireplace over to sit in front of Jagger. “Care to tell everyone why you kidnapped our sweet Miss Iris and drugged her?”
Jagger snarled, and Professor de Spina, who stood just behind the captive, shocked him with a surge of metallic gray magic.
“Ow!” The shifter whipped around to face de Spina. His eyes narrowed. “You gonna let him do that to a prisoner?”
The sheriff shrugged. “Seen worse. I suppose he just doesn’t like how you treated his ex. There are a few of them present and they all hold Miss Iris in very high regard. A few skilled mind witches are here too.” Jagger stiffened, which elicited a grim chuckle from the sheriff. “If you don’t want anyone prying, I suggest you start talking.”
“This isn’t right. I demand a lawyer. It’s my right as a U.S. citizen.”
Jagger’s demand sounded like a last-ditch effort to save his butt and everyone knew it. The sheriff most of all. He shook his head, staring the shifter down.
“Son, you know as well as I do that you aren’t getting a lawyer or any sort of human trial here. This is magical territory. We abide by ourownlaws.” The sheriff’s wrinkled face grew hard. “Besides, if we brought in the PIA, what do you think they’d say when they heard what you did to the daughter of a celebrated ex-spymaster?”
The shifter’s eyes narrowed and shifted to each citizen, like he was trying to stare down everyone in the room. It was only when he got to my mother, who gave him the glare of death, that his shoulders slumped in defeat.
“I needed information about her father.”
Others gasped, but I just waited. I’d suspected that Miss Iris’ father had some sort of role to play in all this, although I still didn’t know exactly what it was yet.
“Care to expand on that?” the sheriff prodded.
Jagger loosed a frustrated sigh. “Her father did shitty things when he was a spymaster.” The shifter’s eyes lifted and although he was surrounded by people who were inclined to dislike him, he looked justified. “He was a murder. He killed people likemyfather.”
I bit my lip, and some in the crowd began to murmur. I had no doubt that what Jagger said was true. Spies had to kill people, and Miss Iris’ father would have had been no exception.
Alex stepped forward. “Was your father a part of that terrorist shifter ring?”
Jagger spit on the floor. “Damn the PIA for spreading heinous stories about my old man and our pack. My pa was a leader and a patriot! Agoddampatriot! He recognized the corruption at the PIA for what it was and deserves to be avenged!”
Even though Jagger sounded like a lunatic, my lips parted in understanding. Judging by Jagger’s size as a wolf, he carried alpha blood in his veins. Jagger’s father had to have been the alpha who’d attacked Headmaster Bulspot.
The very same alpha the ex-headmaster had hunted and killed in return. My stomach sank. What Jagger did was still wrong, but a tiny part of me understood his motive. If I came across the black witch who’d attacked my father, I’d want to end her too.
No, I wouldn’t justwantto end her. I’d do my best to make it a reality.
“So you wanted revenge on the father by kidnapping the daughter?” the sheriff asked.
Jagger snorted. “I didn’t care about Iris. I mean, she’s nice enough andclearlyno spy. No one in their right might would let her in on state secrets. But I didn’t need anything like that from her. I only wanted to get to her father. Once I learned he used to be a headmaster at Spellcasters, I knew where to start looking. I mean, any magical who knows about the spy schools knows that each one has a supernatural town in it’s proximity where most of the staff lives. It was just a matter of discovering if anyone here knew anything about his current whereabouts.” Jagger shrugged. “I hit gold when Iris was the first person to talk to me. She told me her entire life story the day we met. Everythingexceptwhere her father lived. I thought I’d be out of here within a week, but she never cracked on anything related to her dear old dad. So I had to stick around longer than I’d intended to even the score.”
I sucked in a breath as another puzzle piece fell into place. He’d drugged Miss Iris not to physically do something terrible to her, but in hopes that her tongue would slip.
Mother stepped forward. In response, people in the crowd moved back and even the sheriff leaned away from the shifter, deferring to her. She barely noticed; her gaze was like a laser searing into the shifter’s eyes.
“Did you attempt to force your way into my office?” Mother’s tone was commanding. “And dig under the fence of my school to break in?”
My mouth fell open. Before tonight, I’d brushed off those scenarios, believing them to be the result of unrelated, mundane actions. I could blame it on being preoccupied with the exams and Alex, but now that Mother had put them into context the truth was plain as day. Each time I hadn’t questioned those irregularities I’d shown my naïveté and how far I had to go to be on her level.
I should have paid more attention to her suspicions. The mottoexpect the unexpectedran in her blood, followed closely by the wordsquestion everything. As a result of extensive training, she’d latched on to what I’d missed. The shifter had dug the hole so that he could attempt to break into Mother’s office again.
Or . . .
