“To keep control of the realm.”
“Yes, because once the light is allowed to reawaken – reawaken fully – it will spread.”
“What do you mean, Cornelius?” Fox asks.
“There will be other lumomancers whose light magic has lain dormant in their veins and now it will awaken.”
“Others?” I say, amazed.
“Your sister had the power, did she not?” the old man asks me. “I think you once told me she was killed here at the academy.”
“She could weave shadows not light,” I say, my heart dropping. Maybe the professor is confused as always.
“Are you sure?” Fox asks me. I frown. “You were young, Briony. Maybe what you thought you saw was a flicker of shadow – but maybe it was light.”
“I don’t know,” I say, trying to force the memory of that time back before my eyes, trying to see it again with a new perspective.
“But these are just the musings of an old man,” Professor Cornelius says, slumping back a little in his chair. “All this could be wrong.”
I go to ask more but then Fox is forcing me behind him, his gaze darting to the door.
“Sterling,” he whispers.
Chapter Thirteen
Fox
Cornelius rises from his chair with a sudden swiftness befitting a man half his age.
“The wardrobe,” he murmurs and points to the door that leads to his bedroom.
I take hold of Briony’s arm and pull her there immediately, through into the old man’s bedroom containing his neatly made single bed covered in an old blanket and an even older-looking wardrobe. I open the doors and Briony and I step inside, closing them behind us just as there’s a fierce knock on the old man’s door.
Briony’s eyes find mine in the darkness.
“Coming!” I hear Cornelius call out. But that swiftness he’d found earlier has obviously vanished because there’s more impatient knocking before we finally hear the door open.
“Silas,” Cornelius says, “to what do I owe this unexpected visit? I’m unused to visitors at my private chambers, particularly at this late hour. You’re lucky you caught me awake.”
Sterling is obviously unimpressed by the old man’s wittering.
“There have been reports,” he barks, “that the traitors are hiding somewhere in the academy.”
“Traitors?” Cornelius says, sounding far more bewildered and befuddled than he did only moments earlier – and I realize what a helpful disguise old age can be.
“The girl, Briony Storm, and her companions – Beaufort Lincoln, Dray Eros, Thorne Cadieux.”
“Really?” Cornelius says. “They’re such excellent students. Are you sure you’re not confused?—”
“No,” the other man says in obvious frustration. “They are working with the demons. They’ve destroyed the wall that keeps us safe. Even now our troops are battling to hold back demon forces.”
“Oh, my, destroyed the wall that has stood for hundreds of years?! What a feat! Sounds almost like the stuff of fairy tales,” the professor says.
Sterling ignores the old man this time.
“Have you seen any of the traitors, Cornelius?”
“What did you say their names were again?” Cornelius asks.
