On the sidewalk, the humans murmured.
“It is odd that there’s been so manyincidenceslately that they’ve ‘fixed.’”
“Yeah, and it’s pretty strange that there was onlyonebridge with black ice on it.”
“—knew they couldn’t be that nice. They always were jerks about trash days!”
“We’re protecting you!” The Adept yelled. “You need us—you’ll break without us!”
“Now he sounds like a cult leader!” an indignant human shouted.
“No!” The Adept spat, spittle flying from his mouth as his eyes burned with hatred. “If we hadn’t melted the ice, more cars would have been damaged!” As the humans buzzed like a beehive, the Adept’s panting grew heavier and a sheen of sweat covered his forehead despite the cool night air. “We controlled the flames so they wouldn’t get to the library, despite the difficulties it posed to us!”
For a moment, the street was unnaturally silent.
“You controlled the flames?” Captain Reese repeated, her voice a growl. “So, youwereresponsible for the library fire.”
The Adept realized his mistake and his skin took on a green hue.
“Just because we controlled the flames doesn’t mean we’re responsible!” Gideon declared. “You can’t prove we started it—or that we caused any of the other issues!”
“Maybe not.” Sarge’s voice was as smooth and frosty as a frozen lake. “But we have enough suspicions that we can enter House Tellier andlookfor proof.”
I didn’t think it was that great of a threat. The Tellier wizards had undoubtedly used their magic to create these incidences. There were no tools for us to find.
Although maybe we’d find notes. That would be enough.
“Blood,” Captain Reese drew her shoulders back.
“Yes, Ma’am?” I stood at attention, waiting for the next order.
“No!” Mrs. Tellier finally let go of her nose. “We do not give you permission!”
Captain Reese ignored her and pointed to the House. “Go—”
“Fine! We did it.” Adept Tellier exploded. “We built the statue for the library to be hollow so we could start a fire in it, unseen, and use it to engulf the gardens. We created the ice on the bridge and caused the fireworks malfunction. We did it!”
The Tellier wizards—either fried by fire or by lightning depending on whether Juggernaut or April had gotten them—stopped trying to stand, and meekly sat on the lawn as if hoping the House would suck them back inside.
“I knew it—they wanted to hurt us all along!” A human shouted.
“No—no!” The Adept chopped his hand down, refuting the sentence. “Never! We didn’t seek to injure any humans! We just wanted to reestablish our reputation.” He still reeked of desperation, but at least he was smart enough to minimize the damage with humans—the more he upset them, the harder the Curia Cloisters would come down on him.
The Adept turned to Captain Reese and spoke through gritted teeth. “After our previous…encounterswith House Medeis, our reputation and power as a Wizard House has been terrible. All we were seeking was to use the humans to reestablish a positive reputation. We made sure no one was hurt!”
“There was almost a stampede at the fireworks,” Sarge flatly said. “And carscrashedbecause of the ice. You were lucky: the damage could have been huge.”
Captain Reese shook her head at Sarge, then loudly announced. “Wizards of House Tellier. You are under arrest and charged with the crime of using magic to harm humans. We will be taking the Adepts, Heir, and all wizards present into custody, and calling in emergency troops to watch the House. You will stand before the Regional Committee of Magic—tonight—to answer for your crimes.”
The Adept cursed under his breath and a couple of the Tellier wizards groaned, but they seemed to accept the charge shockingly well considering how frantic they’d been moments ago.
The House didn’t beat us up when it logically should have given that we are a threat to its wizards. And most obviously, Adept Tellier doesn’t want us going inside. What is going on? Is the House rejecting them, and they don’t want other wizards to know?
I watched as Adept Tellier held his arms out in front of him, and waited until Tetiana secured a pair of cuffs on him before putting my dagger away.
Binx and Brody stepped onto the lawn, each of them taking a set of cuffs from Medium-Sized Robert before peeling the burnt wizards off the lawn and slapping cuffs on them.
In less than five minutes, we had the Adepts, Gideon, and the other top wizards of the House cuffed and stashed in our cars.
