“I am aware.” Walt sighed, hating the lack of a good answer.
He didn’t ask if she used her gift over there. Hers was rare enough that it left no trace, no mark, no proof. It made her a bit terrifying to most citizens—and invaluable to the safety of Crenshaw.
“Did youhidethat remedial witch when she arrived?”
“Don’t ask me,” Prospero begged.
Walt stared at her. That was as good as an admission.
“And she made a snake at the rift because of what you said?”
“My spine and my belly both say it’s unsafe for our people to go there,” Prospero said defensively. “So we need to fix our home.”
“Do you still contend that the creation of the rift was intentional?” Walt asked. That was the part that twisted him up. It was one thing to argue they needed to move from here; it was a wholly different thing to tear a hole in the earth and poison their own people.
“I am going to find proof,” Prospero said. “I now have spies in place.”
Walter stopped mid-step and stared at Prospero. Around them was the hum and mill of the village, but the flow of Crenshaw’s citizens just shifted around them. Bakeries to visit. Milliners to patronize. Grocers to see. Walter lifted a veil around them, blurring their appearances and babel-izing their words.
“A spy in the New Economists?” he asked.
She gave a small singular nod.
“Not her?”
“Correct,” Prospero said.
“Did you…influenceher awakening?” Walter’s stomach twisted at the thought of tormenting a potentially unmagical person to see if they were latent.
“I was going to stop her heart… but I couldn’t go through with it.”
“Say no more. I am duty bound to report you if I even hear this.” Walter scrubbed his hand over his face. “Erase that memory, lass. I cannot know this.”
“One last thing, this one not a secret. Her aunt is Hestia.” Prospero whispered the words.
“MyHestia?”
Prospero gave another single nod.
“Well, that is something to bring up with the Congress, isn’t it? Has Miss Brandeau spoken of Hestia here? Can someone witness that detail? Not you.” Walter, for all that he tried to stay objective, wasn’t eager to prosecute the nominal leaders of either faction, but proof that magic could run in a family was something they had to address. “This could change things. If we prove magic is familial, perhaps the rule against children—”
“Still no space for them,” Prospero said sharply.
Nodding and smiling at people as they passed the last few buildings, Walt thought about all the complications this new knowledge created.What are we to do?If magic was familial, should they bring whole families? Where would they live? How would they be fed? Would they need schools?
By the time they reached the austere halls of the Congress building, Walt was no more settled than before.
He gave her an inquiring look but said nothing as he walked to the main hall and, with a word, lowered the entry restrictions on the building.
“I… like her.” Prospero squirmed like she’d confessed to a crime—a reaction, he noted, she rarely had when shedidcommit a crime.
“Hestia’s niece?”
“Yes. Her name is Ellie.” Prospero looked poised to say more, but the rest of the invited members of Congress started filing into the building now that he’d unlocked it. She joined the throng in taking a seat, and in less time than it took to exhale, Prospero looked as cold and calculating as everyone thought she was.
“Headmaster…” Prospero began, respectful to a degree that grated on many of the new arrivals. History was different if you’d lived it.
“Devil.” Sondre flashed her a look of pure loathing. “How preemptive of you to notify the Congress of my student’s—”
