Max shrugged. “What? Ask him some questions? Seems like that’s the whole reason we’re here.”
“We’re not Arbiters. We’re just trying to gather information, not accuse him of anything.”
“You heard what he said. Dani spent hours up here. Six of her eight classes were in that building, she was with him all the time. If anyone had noticed something was wrong with Dani, it would’ve been him. It’s obvious he knows something he’s not telling us.”
I scoffed. “Like what, her favorite ice cream flavor?”
Max sucked his teeth, waves of annoyance rolling off him that I knew he was trying to hold back. That was the tricky part of being a dimidium. You never could quite hide how you were feeling. “You always do this. He doesn’t need you to protect him, Cella.”
My eyes narrowed. “I don’t think I am the one doing anything.”
“You let people manipulate you. If he did nothing wrong, I see no reason for him to be in the least bit fazed.”
“I don’t let people manipulate me—”
He started walking away, long strides lengthening until he was out the door.
“Oh no, you do not!” I said, having to run just to catch up with him. “You don’t get to just accuse me of things and then walk away.”
A vein bulged in his neck. He finally stopped and lifted his shirt to mop his forehead, eyes dropping to my lips before cutting away. “He’s hiding something, Cella. They all are. Tell me—why didn’t the council call the Arbiters? Why would they have two inexperienced alumni ‘investigate’ and have us report all our findings to them, when several of them want to squash the whole thing?”
“Because we’re experts in objects, and we’re already on the council. It makes sense that they don’t want Britton hearing about this and using it against us. Robetresse doesn’t need any more criticism of the Three Arts. We have enough to deal with already.”
“Maybe … but I don’t think I’ve met a single person here who isn’t holding onto some kind of secret. And if you care at all about these students, or about Danica Stewart, then you’ll help me find out why that is.”
I stopped, letting his words sink in. There were no cattle anymore on the ranch, hadn’t been for years, but every now and then when the wind blew, I could’ve sworn I heard their low braying on the wind. I thought back to what the girls had said on the hall.He’s a sexual deviant. Why else was he removed from the school’s Advisory Council?
The empty seat at the council meeting must have been Strauss’s. “If he was on the council, and they removed him just after the murder …” My head spun. “They could be covering for him.”
Since we’d left Grace’s room, I had a sense there was more to all of this, but I couldn’t get my head clear enough to see it. Like the way forward was muffled somehow, covered by thousands of feet of water, and I was just grasping at bits of sand and sediment that slipped deftly through my fingers.
Max tucked his hands in his pockets, looking at the hills in the distance. “Could be.”
“Look, I’m sorry,” Max said, eyes softening to a clear, liquid blue. He grabbed my hand. “Really. The last thing I want to do is fight with you, but the council’s been acting fishy ever since they invited us on. Something’s not adding up.”
For a moment, he rubbed his thumb in the center of my palm, just like he used to. His scent drifted under my nose: worn leather and baked earth and tobacco leaves. A jolt went through me, and I blushed furiously.
He seemed to realize his mistake and let go quickly. It all happened so fast I couldn’t tell if the butterflies that went through me were my own, his, or simply our Magic burgeoning at the connection. His eyes shot straight to the ground.
There was so much tension in the lines of his face. Crow’s feet around his eyes that hadn’t been there the last time I’d seen him, stubble lining his jaw, a deep crease running across his forehead. This was all clearly bothering him.
I rocked on my feet. “Well, we have one of her objects,” I said, thinking of the telescope. “I could see her spells—we could, I mean. If you want.”
“You’re right, you know,” he said, “I should trust your instincts, too. The only way we’re going to get through this is if we work together.”
He looked hesitantly up at me, and I smiled. There was a lot of pain between us. A rift had split down the middle of us until it was as wide as a canyon. That wasn’t going to sew itself back together anytime soon. But maybe I could throw him a rope. Just this once.
“Let’s do it,” I said.
FROM THE JOURNAL OF DANICA STEWART
FEBRUARY 16TH[A MONTH AND A HALF BEFORE THE MURDER]
Autumnúsque gravis, Libitinae quaestus acerbae.*
—Horace
CHAPTER SEVEN
