“Ms. Lynch,” she interjected. “Headmaster.”
He said nothing for several moments, simply stared at her. Finally, he motioned to his door. “Come in for a moment.”
“I’m not here for tha—”
“Obviously.” Sondre dragged the word out as he made a gesture, and his door clicked open behind her. It was as effortless as swatting a bug, and she wondered what he—whatanyof them—would do if they were suddenly without magic. Would it be as awkward as it was to discover that magic was real?
A guilty voice in her mind whispered, “It wasn’t awkward. It was exciting.” But she shoved that detail down deep into wherever unpleasant truths went.
“I also need to tell you about class…” She felt her cheeks warm. “I had an incident.”
“Are you injured?”
Maggie swallowed awkwardly. “Not at all. It was the medical class and—”
“Plenty of students find that arousing,” he murmured, looking at her with an assessing stare that made her thighs clench. “Let’s discuss this. It’s safe here.”
“Safe?” she echoed.
“They can’t hear us in there,” he whispered, nodding toward his door.
Maggie flinched. “Who?”
He shrugged, but in that way that was dismissive more than not knowing the answer. “Any of them.”
She stepped over the threshold, pointedly not looking at the open door that led to the bed where she’d enjoyed him. Unlike her room,Sondre’s included a sitting area and what she would call a kitchenette. It was like a tiny apartment inside the castle.
Sondre tripped on the threshold as he followed her.
He turned, frowned, and said, “Why is my doorway spongy?”
“I was uncomfortable, and I didn’t mean to and… it doesn’t matter. I’m here to yell at you, not apologize for spongifying—”
“Spongifying?” he echoed, a small smile twisting his lips.
“You lied to me, you oaf.” She crossed her arms to keep from smacking him. “Islept with you,and you lied to me.”
“Maggie—”
“Ms. Lynch,” she corrected again with a scowl. “You will not call me something so personal.”
He sighed and gestured at an extremely battered L-shaped sofa. It was covered in cowhide of all things, white and black splotches. “Please. Have a seat,Ms. Lynch. I gather you are not here to address the consequences of volunteering in Mae’s class.”
“I wasn’t her volunteer. Another student was.” Maggie sat on the edge of the sofa, perched to stand and attack as needs be.
“Did something happen?” His voice was gentle, but there was an underlying core of steel. She could almost see it, and her logical mind argued such things were impossible even as her recent experiences reminded her that magic wasn’t logical.
“I had a lot more magic in the medical magic assessment lesson than anyone expected,” she murmured. “The result was that someone was… satisfied.”
“Ah. And you?”
Maggie looked away. “It wasn’t my choice.”
“So you’re here to say that you’re going to join Mae’s house?” Sondre surmised. “Are you sure? That’s a respected choice.”
“Actually, it wasn’t my magic. Something—someone—else interfered.” She filled him in on Dan’s boosting ability and omitted the detail about the doctor’s involvement when the magic went sideways.
“So you think you were altered by Monahan’s involvement,” Sondre deduced.
