I look up and down the street, but no one else is around. The cat hisses when it sees me, and blocks my path.
“Sorry, friend, I need to get in there.”
But still it doesn’t move and tries to keep me from going further.
I keep trying to walk around it, and it keeps trying to stop me from entering the building. Finally, in frustration I pick it up and move it out of the way.
The black cat gives me one last baleful look before taking off at a sprint and disappearing into the night. Mansart Hall stands before me, dark and dreary. Warden Stone be damned. I trudge up the stairs and walk inside to see it one last time. But no one is here. The office is empty. There’s the sound of movement from the back room.
“Hello!” I call.
A head pops out from behind an open door, dark gray hair and a pencil sticking out of the bun. Professor White. “Oh, Atticus, just in time!” she says. “I’m so glad you came.”
I rush toward her as she emerges, closing the door behind her, clutching a leather-bound book. Her clothes are unkempt; there are bags beneath her eyes. I must look worse, though, because she grows concerned when she sees me.
“You look…Well, you look awful,” Professor White says.
“I don’t know who else to tell,” I say, looking at the office for the last time. Then I pull Adelina’s journal from my bag. I’m done with Sibylline. I’ve abandoned my dream. This is all I have left of it, and I just want to rid myself of it. I realize now why I came here toMansart Hall. For this to be truly ended, I need to give the journal to someone I trust. I hold it out for her to take, and her pencil-thin eyebrows rise.
“What is it?” she asks.
“Me and my friends, we found this in the tunnels, under Arches. It belonged to a wizard who did something terrible a hundred years ago. She created something she called a malum, a thing that needed magic to survive. It killed students, feeding off their life force…” I’m rambling. I must sound insane. “The malum is still alive. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to tell all of this to you. I just wanted to give this to someone. I thought it might somehow be better in your care.”
Professor White stares at me for what feels like an eternity. Her aura is a jumbled mess, like a tornado—it swirls.
“Okay,” she says. “I’m glad you came to me. I know what we should do now.” She beckons me to follow her, taking me deeper into the office, toward a back room.
I follow, expecting to find others, but the room is empty. I thought she was taking me to meet someone.
Professor White locks the door behind us.
I swallow a lump in my throat. Why is my heart pounding so hard?
“You came here to give me the journal, so hand it over,” she says, insisting.
I hesitate. Her eyes sparkle with something I’ve never seen in her before, something not right. She’s always been passionate—maybe some would call it obsessed—when it comes to her work, but the look in her eyes now has a sharpened edge to it. Before I obey her, I take a breath and extend my power, reaching into her thoughts. I don’t expect to have easy access to a seasonedmagician’s mind, but as she stares at me, everything comes into focus. It’s as if I’ve wiped a dirty lens clean, and finally I can see what’s been standing in front of me all this time.
I listen and hear her thoughts:I can finish everything.
My breath catches in my throat. “What did you say?” I ask.
Professor White looks startled, but she recovers, frowning. “I said, give me the journal.”
“I never told you it was a journal.”
Professor White stands frozen, her hand extended toward me. The look of urgency on her face disappears, and a frown takes its place. “Ah.”
My heart pounds with growing panic, but I try to keep calm. “I just remembered, I have to go. My mom is waiting for me, she’s picking me up,” I say, reaching for the door. I turn the knob, but it’s locked, not with a bolt, but with magic. The keyhole glows when I try to twist it. “Can you let me out, Professor White?”
I spin around, throwing my back against the door, holding the journal tight to my chest as her thoughts wash over me:Atticus doesn’t suspect me. He knows nothing.They are as loud as if she’s spoken them.He doesn’t suspect a thing. There’s no evidence I tore down Arches. Calm him down. Get that journal.
I’m still trying to turn the knob, but she’s shaking her head. “Come now, Atticus. Let’s be done with this.”
But I know the truth. I know what happened.
“It was you. You were the one who sabotaged the project. You tore down Arches. You set the malum free. Why would you do that?”
Professor White smiles, though she looks somewhat surprised.
