Page 184 of Plug and Drain

Susie did not seem surprised. “I overheard you and Nathaniel talking when he was here,” she admitted. “What did it do?”

“It was connected to the new throne room of Wintermaw Keep. It allowed Henrikk to pass through and visit me.”

Susie tensed at the mention of Henrikk’s name.

“He appeared in my office one night a few weeks ago. It was the night before Oscar’s execution. His visits always make for a nasty surprise. There’s never any warning when he shows up. He simply steps through. It’s extremely unsettling, as you can imagine. It’s why I do most of my work in my bedroom. I can relax knowing he cannot find me there.”

He refrained from mentioning that he’d gotten more work done in the past few weeks than he had at all last year. Doing paperwork was more than just an excuse to be near Susie. It was a chance to take his responsibility as headmaster more seriously and stop neglecting his duties towards his students.

Or so he told himself.

It was absolutely a reason to be near Susie.

But as much as he gravitated towards her, he suspected his presence still made her uncomfortable, and he’d made an effort to patrol the grounds every day to give her some space.

He always returned within a few hours. He was uneasy leaving her unprotected, and placing a guard outside his office would have raised questions.

Susie peered inside the empty wardrobe curiously. It was bare, without shelves or a clothes rod. The shimmering, rectangular-shaped portal was gone. Its glassy surface had revealed a tapestry lined wall beyond, but now there was only the wardrobe’s plain back panel.

“How did you break it?” Susie asked.

“The pike. I’ve tried removing it before without much success, always with the intention of destroying it. It never budged from the stone. Once, it flung me down the steps. It was not particularly pleasant. But I’d never thought to offer the pike what it wanted before: violence.”

It had been strange to think of the weapon as capable of thought and emotion. But it had worked: the pike had slid from its mounting easily, and it had hummed in eager anticipation as Arken carried it up to his office. He’d already destroyed the wooden doors in a violent rage as he grieved for Susie, broken and unconscious in the adjoining room. As for the portal, he’d flung the pike at it, and the glassy surface had shattered on the first strike. The pike had eagerly absorbed the magic, and then Arken had begrudgingly returned it to the front of the school. He’d attempted to bargain with it to lift the curse Henrikk had placed on him, but the dark magic inhabiting the pike had not been interested.

It was malicious and sentient—but not an idiot.

“Did you ever visit Henrikk?” Susie asked tentatively, reaching into the wardrobe cautiously as if she expected her hand to vanish.

“Not if I could help it. But sometimes it was necessary to go to court, and it was preferable to go to Wintermaw than to have Henrikk come to the academy. It helped pre-empt his visits. I had already gone before the start of school term, so I really hadn’t expected him to appear again so soon.”

Susie turned discerning eyes at him, her expression reminding him of a professor. “You’re protective of us—the students.”

He gave a thin smile. “Always. But I have failed you all in countless other ways.

Susie’s gaze was penetrating, and it gave him goosebumps. He had the impression she was trying to figure him out. “If your intentions are good…”

“Intentions are worthless in the absence of action.”

Like his failure to act when Henrikk had hurt her.

She blinked and looked away, her hand slipping from his.

“My inaction the other day is inexcusable,” he said. “But there are reasons. If you would give me that opportunity to tell you what they are, I would be grateful.”

Susie gave a faint nod. “And it has something to do with this portal?”

“Not quite. There’s actually a second portal.”

“Really?” Susie scanned the room, her gaze lingering on a full-length mirror before shifting to a burgundy wall mosaic. “Where?”

Arken’s lips twitched. “Hidden where Henrikk would least expect it.”

He stepped past her, his arm brushing hers as he indicated the wardrobe’s back panel. “This was precisely where the portal to Wintermaw was,” he explained, dragging his finger from one corner to another until he’d drawn a rectangle.

He beckoned Susie into the wardrobe, and gently guided her by the shoulder to turn to her right and face the side wall. It took her a moment to realise what she was seeing.

“Is that a false wall?”