Montgomery piped up. “I’ll arrange for the room wards to give you access.” The headmaster had sealed off the room when it became an active crime scene, with a ward preventing anyone from entering without permission.
I nodded. “On it.”
My father and Montgomery walked away while I pulled my phone from my pocket. Arron was going to be pissed. And I still had the paintings to get rid of. I’d dumped them in a bush outside the building, which meant I’d have to collect them after checking the shifters’ room and the forest.
Fuck my life. This was going to be a long night.
The lengthening shadows in the forest lent a creepy vibe to the crime scene, which investigators had protected with a ward. Since Montgomery had given me permission, I crossed the threshold with no ill-effects.
I didn’t need magic to spot the bloodstains on the ground. Leaves rustled and birds cawed as I used my senses to search for magical traces. It took no time at all to detect the signatures of the three wolf shifters. The stench of musk clinging to the undergrowth helped.
The bear shifter had been here too. But I already knew that.
I moved into the center of the clearing and closed my eyes. The wind picked up as my magic spread out, causing the surrounding trees to sway gently.
Other magicals had been here. Some more recently than others. I detected a witch.Raven. She’d crossed the clearing recently. I focused on her signature and almost immediately, my magic went crazy.
My gift told me she’d been here with the wolf shifters. But why? Had she killed them? It made no sense. Nothing about the little witch suggested she was a violent murderer. She barely had control of her magic, and besides, two of the shifters had died in their beds. No way could the witch have broken through the wards protecting their room.
I frowned and widened my magical net. A few seconds later, I felt it. A faint echo. Not a witch this time, but the incubus.
Zane Vanyx had been here with the witch, which meant my father’s suspicions were likely correct about his role in the murders. I’d find out for sure when I checked the bedroom crime scene.
But even if he was the culprit, it didn’t explain why my witch was involved. I spent another ten minutes scanning the area and found nothing but small animal traces. Satisfied there was nothing left to find, I left the forest and headed for the shifter dorms.
If I found traces of Zane in the bedroom, it would be all the evidence my father needed to arrest the incubus. But even if I did, I had no plans to tell my father.
While everyone believed it was only a matter of time before Zane went postal, just like his father did all those years ago, I preferred to use my own judgment.
31
Raven
The text blurred before my eyes. Once I’d read the same paragraph five times, absorbing nothing new, I slammed the ancient tome shut. Kenji looked up mid-snooze from where he lay sprawled on my bed.
“Waste of time reading that.”
“Since you refuse to answer my questions, what choice do I have?” We’d reached an impasse in the witch-familiar relationship. Despite my many questions, he remained annoyingly silent on all things important. Such as explaining the origins of the valuables he routinely deposited in my room.
I’d suspected the kitsune had criminal leanings, and his casual talk of Dog the Bounty Hunter’s imminent arrival was less of a joke and more of a clear and present danger. Unfortunately, the book Professor Oakman lent me contained nothing useful.
The author apparently knew very little about kitsunes and had resorted to making a ton of stuff up. It was the mage equivalent of word salad.
“I need a break,” I huffed. Glynda had gone to read a book she’d downloaded. Some romance featuring morally gray men. I hadn’t asked for details. It sounded smutty.
The sight of my canvas herb bag reminded me I still needed some orange trumpet flowers. Now was a good time to collect some. Since the murders, the campus had been quiet. Everyone was too afraid to venture out after dark, even though the wolves had been killed in their supposedly secure room.
Knowing someone had breached a ward to get to them had freaked me out, but Maverick assured me I was safe. He refused to say how Zane got to them in case anyone ever questioned me. I already knew Zane had access to my bedroom, so it wasn’t a stretch to guess he’d done something similar to the wolves.
Those two hadn’t seemed that bright. If Zane had shapeshifted into a pretty female, they would have invited him in for sure.
I pulled a sweater over my tee and grabbed my bag. “Back soon,” I told Kenji, but he just grunted and started snoring.
A light drizzle dusted my face as I trotted across the quad toward the sports field. As I ducked around the corner of the gymnasium, I heard loud laughter, followed by an angry yell.
“Hold him down,” said a voice I recognized. A prickle of anxiety shot through me at the thought of some other poor student being attacked by the wolf shifter who’d tried – and failed – to get the better of my bear.
A sensible witch would have run off to get help from a member of the faculty, but it was late and I doubted any of them were around.If I’d remembered to pick up the phone Maverick gave me, I could have called him. Unfortunately, I’d left it back in my room. Unlike the other witches, who seemed to have their phones permanently glued to their hands, I wasn’t used to carrying a phone. More often than not, it stayed forgotten in my room.
