“Interesting,” I said.
“What?” Veronica asked, sidling up next to me, following my gaze down.
“This,” I said, pointing at the glass on the floor. “There’s not enough.”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
I gestured to the window. “If whoever took Wendy came from outside, then this window would have been shatteredinward, and ninety percent of the glass would be here on the floor. It’s not.”
“So…whoever took her was alreadyinsidethe academy?”
I nodded. “Most likely. At least from the looks of this.” I stepped closer to the window, and a faint spray of water from the ice hissed across my boots. Lifting a hand, I touched a section of broken glass. “This is strange,” I muttered.
“What is?”
Pointing to the glass, I said, “See the bottom of this windowpane? It’s cracked badly, but still mostly whole. The top portion? It’s almost completely busted out. What does that tell you?”
“That…” Her eyebrows pinched together as she looked at the window. “Whoever came out went…up?”
“Exactly,” I said. “Whoever leapt through this window with Wendy in tow went straight for the sky rather than down to the roof or ground below. That cuts outseveralpossibilities. Most shifters other than dragons? Out. Human? Out. Any flightless creature or being? Out. Though, it doesn’t narrow it down as much as I’d like. Dragons, succubi and incubi, most witches, sorcerers, and warlocks, certain poltergeists, and more. Too many to really get a lead on who it might have been, but at least we know who we can mark off the list.”
After checking the window, I searched under the bed, in the bathroom, and through the closet. Again, like the classroom, nothing appeared to be amiss or stuck out to me.
“Do you see anything weird?” I asked Veronica.
The woman stood by the bed, staring down at the sheets and blankets where they lay on the floor. I could almost picture what she was seeing in her mind’s eye. The young girl screaming as a stranger dragged her from her bed, small hands clawing at the sheets and mattress, desperately trying to grab something,terror flashing in her eyes as she was taken. Veronica shouldn’t have felt guilty—there was no way she could have known what was coming—yet the look on her face showed exactly that.
“Veronica?” I said softly, putting my hand on her back. “Are you good?”
She flinched at my touch as if I’d startled her awake from some dark dream.
“Yeah. Sorry.” Her eyes darkened, mouth twisting with worry. “We need to find her.”
“We will,” I said, hoping I sounded more confident than I felt. The first forty-eight hours after a kidnapping were the most important. Every minute after that? The odds of finding the victim alive decreased exponentially.
“Can we try Balthazar’s office now?” I said.
She sighed. “Okay.”
Halfway back to the opposite side of the building, Veronica threw her hand out against my chest, pinning me back against the wall.
“What the?—”
She pressed her hand to her mouth, giving me a warning look. That was when I heard it. Voices. In the hall ahead of us.
“...do you think we’ll have to close down?” a male voice asked, his tone deep and rumbly.
“No idea,” said a female with a high-pitched British accent. “We’ll have to wait and see if they catch the little bitch who killed Balthazar. Then we can figure out whether it was a crimeof passion or something more sinister. If the school itself was the target, and not just Balthazar, then yes, we may have to close.”
I pressed myself back against the wall, readying myself to run or fight if they rounded the corner, but they veered right, their backs to us as they walked down the hall. Veronica grabbed my shirt and tugged at me.
Moving as stealthily as possible, we turned the corner and hurried away from the two patrolling teachers, reaching Balthazar’s office. This door was also unlocked, and we slipped in, locking it behind us.
Veronica held her hand palm out and muttered something. This time, her magic worked well on the first try, and a tiny ball of light appeared, hovering an inch or two above her outstretched hand, casting a pale milky light around the room. Taking a steadying breath, I walked to the center of the room, standing above the bloodstain on the ground in front of the desk.
“You people don’t do a very good job of cleaning,” I growled. “You’ve got all this magic, but you leave broken glass and blood…”
I trailed off when I saw Veronica’s face. She looked even worse than she had in Wendy’s room. She stared down at the dark brown stain on the carpet. Her lower lip trembled, and the shimmer of unshed tears laced her lower lashes.
