Page 47 of The Witches of Cambridge

Sharpe had a bottle of scotch with him. He’d added a potion that made it impossible for Lauren to resist him. “Let’s have a drink,” he suggested. He walked closer, so close she could hear his heart. It was off-kilter, the rhythm too fast.

Lauren knew that anything he offered would lead to a dark enchantment. “I’ve stopped drinking,” she told him.

“I’m serious about you coming with me this summer.” Of course her name wouldn’t be on the paper he would write, and only the male students would be listed as assistants, but she would be the one who would sleep in his tent.

“I should have told you. I have a boyfriend.” It was a lie, though it was Carrick she had in mind. She remembered his promise to go after whoever threatened her with a baseball bat, and frankly she wished he was nearby.

Sharpe cocked an eyebrow, amused. “Women like you don’t have boyfriends.”

“Well, I do,” Lauren said.

“Something tells me he’s worthless. Why else have you been spending nights with me? I’m the one,” he said. “You know it.”

When Sharpe seized her arm without warning, Lauren felt as if she could be broken, and she winced as she pulled away. “Would you like me to report you to the dean?” she said.

“Maybe I should report you. Between the two of us, I’m the one they’ll believe.”

Lauren was incredulous. Bad men always wanted to be perceived as the wronged party, and here he was, playing the victim. “Report me for what?”

“I could say cheating. Your exam answers were so perfect it was clear they were taken from my files. I caught you in my office, that’s why you would try to discredit me.” He was holding her as close as he did when she was in his bed. She felt like a fool, she felt like a woman who’d walked into a trap.

That’s what Ava saw as she returned from the library. Lauren was always fearless, but she was tiny, and she didn’t seem fearless now. Jack growled low in his throat, then took off running toward the two figures on the lawn, with Ava chasing after him. Jack leapt on Sharpe, and once he’d sent him sprawling on the ground, he remained poised over the professor, growling. Ava ran over to grab Jack, and Sharpe scrambled to his feet.

“How dare you?” he shouted at Ava. “That dog should be put down!”

“You should go,” Ava said. “I won’t be able to hold him back much longer.”

“I think it’s best if you drop my class if this is the way you plan to behave,” Sharpe told Lauren.

“Fine,” Lauren responded with a catch in her voice.

“It’s not fine,” Ava said to her friend, before turning to Sharpe. “She’ll get an A even though she won’t be attending class. Otherwise, she’ll go to the dean.”

Sharpe’s eyes narrowed. “The question is, will they believe what she tells them?”

“My boyfriend’s father is an attorney. Maybe you’ve heard of him? Paul Mather?” Going to Mr. Mather was the last thing Ava would ever want to do, but she hoped dropping his name would cause the professor to back off.

“Mather?” Sharpe nodded, well aware of the family’s power. “Then you’re the one who’d better beware.” He turned to Lauren, not ready to give her up. “Let me know if you change your mind. We said things we didn’t mean. We can forget this night.”

He took off across the lawn and as he disappeared into the shadows the darkness around them lifted. Ava held out a hand and pulled Lauren to her feet. There were grass stains on Lauren’s skirt, and her arms looked bruised. Ava followed Lauren into her room and watched Lauren throw herself on her bed, distraught.

Ava lay down beside her. She forgot all the wretched things Lauren had said and done and remembered only their first night on the Common, when they saved one another. “I didn’t think you could cry,” Ava said.

“I didn’t think you would rescue me.”

“Someday you’ll have to pay me back,” Ava told her, just to keep it businesslike, but it wasn’t, and they felt how close they were once again.

“All right. I will.” Lauren’s voice was thick with emotion, and she turned away, embarrassed.

The world outside seemed to have disappeared. The birds were already settled in the trees, and the crows were silent. Everyone in the house was asleep and dreaming as Ava took Lauren’s hand in hers. We fly together, she said. The lines in your palm told the story of your life. Hand, head, heart. There was the love you lost and the mistakes you had made and the paths you had yet to take. All four elements were in your grasp: air, fire, water, earth. Underneath it all was the mark that would never disappear, the one they’d created on the night they’d first saved each other, the one that would never go away.