I deflated and put my head on the desk. Yet another roadblock. “They did warn us, I guess.”
He tapped his finger on the card. “It’s not just some local guy, either. That’s a private firm in Boston. The kind that doesn’t come cheap.”
“Could we get the council to intervene?” I sat up, an idea sparking. “Make him talk to us?”
“Not unless you’d like this lawyer to slap the school with a lawsuit. But we can ask Dr. Robetresse.”
I propped my hand on my chin. “Blargh,” I murmured, thinking back on our last meeting with Basile and Grant. “So embarrassing.”
Max opened his phone to send a text, then frowned. “Did you see this? They want us to come to a council meeting. Sent three texts already. Shit, we’d better go.”
When we got to the meeting, Dr. Robetresse was pacing in front of the room. We sat down, and she dove straight in.
“Thank you for all coming on such short notice. Given the nature of the situation, I thought it best you all know immediately.” She took a deep breath and gritted her teeth.
“Another person has been afflicted in the same manner as Danica Stewart. A member of our very own council, Luce Montgomery.”
My chest turned to ice. Everything around me felt like it was moving in slow motion. Before my brain could catch up, Dr. Robetresse was already fielding questions from the rest of the council.
“No, she was found convulsing outside of Maritza’s cottage. As I understand it, she had been ill for some time. An infection of some type. It is possible she was going to Maritza’s for help when it happened.”
“And where is Maritza?” The question was from Dr. Nguyen.
“We’ve set Luce up in the old Biology building. Maritza is splitting her time between the two of them, trying to treat them both. Though, obviously, it’s a lot of pressure on Maritza. We’re contacting medical at Britton Arcane and Maritza’s colleagues in the Marble County medical community, those she trusts to be discreet, to help contain the situation.”
“There’s something else,” she said, looking around at everyone in turn and pausing. “A strange thing that Maritza is reporting. After Luce was discovered, the effects on Dani’s body seem to have changed.”
“My God,” Dr. Perez said quietly, “how much more can the girl take?” From the sympathetic looks going around the table, it was clear many of them were thinking the same thing.
“Curiously, it seems to have had some stabilizing effect on her. She’s got more energy herself, she’s even able to sit up, from what Maritza tells me. Though something warns me this is not good news.” Dr. Robetresse turned to me. “Have you any idea of how to stop this? Or who did it? Anything at all? I don’t think I have to stress how short our timetables are. Not if we’re to save them.”
I stumbled. And now the moment when my failure was on full display for everyone to see, how absolutely out of my depth I was. I got to look all of them in the face and tell them that I had absolutely nothing to show for the three weeks I’d been here investigating. No culprit, no specific hex to point to, and no counterspell to undo the damage. Graduation was mere days away, and then everyone would break for the summer. Whoever did this would get away. And Dani would … I didn’t even want to think what would happen to Dani. “I … We’re looking … that is, we hope to have something soon.”
I had to face the facts. We had no clue what we were dealing with, and every day we didn’t was putting the entire campus in danger.
Dr. Robetresse’s shoulders deflated, and I saw the faith she once had in me drain out of her. She turned to the rest of the room. “Does anyone else have any ideas? Any at all? Luce was working with Maritza on a salve to aid in the healing of Dani’s skin, but I don’t know if it has been effective.”
I felt so useless, so utterly hopeless, all I could whisper out was that we were doing the best we could. We’re trying, we’re trying—it was all I’d been saying. But now it was quite clear: my best wasn’t good enough.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Another person possessed with whatever was taking over Dani. The students were in danger; the staff was in danger. The thing I’d been called here to prevent had happened, and I couldn’t do a damn thing. I felt worse than useless. What was I even doing here? Why had Max brought us here?
A light hand landed on my shoulder. “You can do this,” Vern said, sliding a cup of tea toward me. “I know you can.”
“Vern, I don’t know what I’m doing—”
He put up a hand to stop me. “Now you listen here. You’re here every day, killing yourself to save that girl. You’re doing as well as anyone could. And now what? A little bend in the road, and you’re just going to stop? A little stumble has never stopped you before. At least, it didn’t stop the old Cella.”
The “old” Cella. I huff ed. The old Cella got her heart broken and smashed into a tiny million pieces. The old Cella flew into a rage and nearly killed someone. I didn’t want to be the old Cella.
“Look, now, I understand,” he said, in his gravelly voice. “You’ve been carrying around a whole lot of hurt. I know being here is hard, and it’s bringing up a lot of painful memories. It’s only natural to put as much distance between yourself and what’s hurting you as you can.” He put up his hands. “But what happened with Aaron was not your fault. Forgive yourself. Forgive Max. Take it from me—I’ve been around the block once or twice—if you don’t let go of all that hurt you’re carrying around, sooner or later it’s gonna bury you.”
I held my head in my hands. “I’m trying. It just feels like, no matter what I do, I keep sliding backward. I take one step forward and two steps back.”
“Honey, that’s what healing is. You’re just starting to trust again, and that’s hard. But you came back here, didn’t you? That’s a giant leap forward in my book.”
He landed a kiss on my head. “You can do this.” His gaze was fixed in such a determined stare that I nearly believed him. “You just need a cup of tea and a clear head. I’ll leave you to it.”
