“She needs to see it.”
Mai unlocks her phone and opens a picture before sliding her phone across the desk to me, and I nearly lose the protein bar Marcus made me force down on the walk over. It’s a photo of Trinity, scribe to her throat, just as I’d seen in my vision.
“Where did you get that?”
“They were left all over campus last night with the Soldiers’ demands,” Dr. Spencer says gravely. “The safe release of Trinity if Fairhaven expels all of its omega students. Their demands were quite clear.”
“Fairhaven isn’t going to capitulate,” Ian says quickly, brushing the tips of his fingers against my clenched fist between our two chairs.
Dr. Spencer studies me for a moment. “And we certainly can’t now. If we have a student blessed—or perhaps cursed—with an affinity, I’m afraid we have to prioritize that student’s life over that of another omega.”
“Wh-what? You can’t do that to her!”
“I’m afraid, Miss Rose, that we have no choice. Fairhaven will not bend to their demands. You must be protected, even at the expense of Trinity’s life.”
“Juniper,” Ian says, his expression fraught when he meets my eyes. “If Fairhaven expels its omega students, your father will mate you off in a heartbeat. We can’t protect you if that happens.”
Panic rises in my gut and my hands shake. My words come in a desperate rush. “You can’t protect me when I’m not here, though. No one can protect me over breaks. I’ll be with my family all summer and saints only know what they’re capable of. My father said—he said they’d deal with me if they had to. And Rad said he’d rather mate me than do what he did to Heather Lindstrom.”
“I’ll speak with Hawthorn,” Mai says softly. “Juniper’s right. We can only protect her while she’s on campus. But, Sienna, you’re correct too. Trinity doesn’t have an affinity that we know of. It’s very possible that Juniper does.”
Dr. Spencer narrows her eyes at me. “Can you prove it to us?”
Is what I’ve told them, every horrible thing I’ve heard and seen, not proof enough? Is it not enough that I saw a scribe at Trinity’s neck, months before the picture showed up? Saints, is it even possible for me to call the affinity the way I call my magic?
“Don’t push her, Sienna,” Ian says, a hard edge to his voice.
“Don’t coddle her, Ian.”
Ian once swore never to coddle me, yet here he is, trying to protect me from Dr. Spencer’s scrutiny.
“I’ve never done it at will before. I didn’t even know what to call it until now—if it is, in fact, an affinity.”
“I don’t see what else it could be,” Mai muses. “Sienna, any history of similar affinities that you know of?”
The historian frowns, considering Mai’s question. “I’ll have to do some more research. Finding even the barest mention of omegas with special magic has always been a challenge, and if an omega’s had an affinity like Juniper’s before, we don’t know what they may have called it.”
“It’s more than pre-cognition and more than telepathy. It’s more like… like extra-cognition,” Mai decides.
“I wish we had more than whispers and myths. A place to start in training you with your abilities,” Dr. Spencer sighs. “Of course, your abilities are of an extremely sensitive nature. If you truly can read minds, few will want to risk having their own minds read.”
“I’ll do it,” Ian says quietly.
My heart squeezes in my chest. Saints, this man, the professor I was once so sure hated me, would trust me with his greatest secrets?
“Miss Rose and I already have a standing Monday evening lesson where we’ve been working on research and more advanced casting. We’ll begin prioritizing affinity work—at least to determine if this is something she can control. It could be a passive ability.”
“We shall see,” Dr. Spencer says.
“Sienna, while I have your attention. Would you speak with Martin on my behalf? Miss Rose has made me aware of her desire to learn how to escape from omega traps, a requisite of which would be casting said traps.”
“No omega’s ever escaped from an omega trap on their own,” Dr. Spencer protests. “It would be a painful and ultimately fruitless endeavor.”
“If anyone could cast such magic, I believe it would be Juniper.”
My heart soars at the praise, at his belief in me. Saints, he believes in me more than I believe in myself. “I would still like to try, with the headmaster’s approval.”
“And my participation,” Mai cuts in. “You’re not trying such harmful magic without a healer present.”
