And I could lose all of it if we’re not careful.
I stop in the ladies’ room and dry my tears, wiping away my smudged makeup with a paper towel.
“You overheard Reinhardt and Cadigan talking,” Marcus says in a low voice when I step out of the ladies’ room.
I nod. “Talking about a resistance. Do you know anything about it?”
“Just whispers. Is Ian part of it?”
“Him and Cadigan both. But Marcus, in Casting, I caught a flicker from Cadigan. A flicker of a septagram.”
“Have you told Reinhardt about it?”
I shake my head. “Ian respects him so much. I know Cadigan loathes me, but if there’s more… I have to be sure. I can’t turn Ian against him until I know it’s something more than just his hatred of me.”
“And his clear favoritism of his alpha students. Juniper, what did you hear?”
“He called me a witch,” I whisper.
Marcus’ fists clench at his sides. “It’s a shame I’d be stripped of my duties if I punched that son of a bitch in the face.”
“Marcus, if you punched everyone who called me a ‘witch’ in the face, you’d break your hand.”
“Or a lot of faces,” he grumbles. “Promise me you’ll tell Reinhardt about this?”
“I need to know more. I’ll use my affinity in class. Let me make sure I’m not accusing an innocent man,” I plead, though I know in the deepest part of my heart that Cadiganisn’tinnocent. My affinity is practically shouting it, but if Cadiganisup to something, the more I can find out, the better.
* * *
I meetIan in his office, and he snaps the door shut behind me and instantly pulls me into his arms. “I’m so sorry you had to overhear that, Juniper.”
“I wasn’t trying to, I swear. I wish… sometimes I wish I could turn my affinity off.”
“I have a theory on that,” Ian says, drawing me over toward his desk where a steaming white chocolate mocha is waiting for me. “We know you can see flashes of the future with your affinity, but what if it’s prescient about what you hear and see? What if it shows you what you need to know? You weren’t actively focusing on using it when you were coming to see me, were you?”
“No, I wasn’t thinking of it at all.”
“And yet you heard a conversation your mind wanted you to hear.”
“I don’t know why,” I grumble. “I already knew that Cadigan hates me.”
To his credit, Ian doesn’t try to convince me otherwise. “But you heard more, didn’t you, my darling?”
I take a deep breath and let it out on a sigh. “I heard you talking to him about the resistance. You want me to join? Even though I’m so closely connected to its enemies?”
“Cadigan doesn’t see what a unique perspective you have.”
“You haven’t told him about my affinity.”
“Only your pack, Mai, Dr. Spencer, and the headmaster know.”
“Rad and Willow know.”
Ian grimaces. “How did your sister find out?”
“I don’t know, but Rad let something slip during one of our courting dates.”
Ian mindlessly digs around in his desk and pulls out a book wrapped in brown paper.
