“Can you refuse?”
“Let them try to stop me,” he grumbled. “I am the headmaster. They gave me this damn job, so it’s where I’ll be.”
“No more hunting escapees?” Maggie asked.
Sondre didn’t answer that one at first, and if he eventually did, she didn’t know because she had drifted off to sleep nuzzled against his side.
27Prospero
Prospero sat on the edge of Scylla’s bed in the infirmary and looked over at her friend.She’s fine. Sondre’s fine. I’m fine.Scylla’s eyes were drawn tight, and her lips were cracked as if she had been too long in the sun. Magic usually healed such things, so it was unusual to see any witch looking like the basic stages of unwellness were plaguing them.
Absently, Prospero touched the back of her hand to Scylla’s forehead again.
Scylla swatted her away. “Not your patient. Bad enough that Mae and her crew are patting and potioning me.”
“I was just checking your temperature.” Prospero handed her a glass of fresh clean water. The town had reserves for the infirmary. If a person’s magic was struggling to heal them, it didn’t need to counter the bad water, too.
“We’re lucky people aren’t considering injuring themselves to get the good stuff anymore.” Scylla drank several sips. Her hand was shaking again. “Your woman’s patch seems to be working. The water the other day was almost tasteless again.”
“Ellie’s magic is remarkable.” Prospero had been cautiously optimistic a week ago. Ellie was back in Crenshaw. The rift was steadily getting repaired. Things had looked promising, and then Aggie shot Scylla and ripped down the barrier. “Now we just need to thoroughly hide Crenshaw again.”
“We will.” Scylla sounded calm. That was, perhaps, the heart of their friendship. They weren’t the sort of women to go hat shopping or sip tea at the town center, but they were both implacable. Plus, Scylla had a wry sense of humor, and her courage made Prospero wish that she’d joined them in the Barbarian Lands.
Unfortunately, Scylla had been too busy being tucked into a bed in the infirmary, healing from the bullet that had fragmented inside her.
Aggie should’ve died for the pain that she caused.
“I failed you,” Prospero said.
Scylla had the uncanny ability to boil the matter to the bone. “How?”
“She pulled upon my memories of the day I became a witch,” Prospero confessed, trying to push her own shame away. At some point she’d need to talk to Sondre about what he now knew. “She made me think then was now and—”
“No. Not how did you fail me—because honestly, you didn’t—but how is not stopping heryeta failure? So you were outsmarted by Agnes in her madness and affinity for violence. It happens. I was being a smart-ass because I thought you knew better.” Scylla gave her a thoughtful look. “You are smarter than this, P.”
“I should have—”
“As I may have mentioned a few times over the years, you are stillhumanno matter how much that detail upsets you.” Scylla closed her eyes and leaned her head back on the cot. “I’m exhausted since she shot me, but am I blaming myself?”
“No.”
“Exactly. So stop it.” Scylla stretched, as if there were a way to make the infirmary cot more comfortable. “You’re being tedious. It’s badenough that I can’t do my job or hunt Agnes, but I don’t want to listen to you try to lie to yourself, too.”
“I feel like I’m going to let everyone down,” Prospero whispered. “That damn prophecy…”
“Well, I’m not dead or planning on dying so get on with the rest.” Scylla gave her a look. “Talk to Cass if you need, or just keep that wife of yours near. She’s what keeps you alive, according to Cass.”
“I can’t take Ellie to—”
Scylla laughed. “Woman, shebestedyou when she escaped Crenshaw. She can go toe to toe with you. Only other witch I know who can do that is temporarily in the infirmary.”
“Sondre?” Prospero teased.
“As if. That man is nicer than either of us.” Scylla swatted at her. “And I can’t help you, so that leaves Sondre who is in the infirmary, or your wife, or Walt, who is ancient. Take the woman with you.”
“You sleep. I’ll sort it out,” Prospero promised. As much as she understood Scylla’s perspective, the upshot of today’s events was that Agnes was still in the world spreading violence.
And she’s not the only escapee.
