“Both Zoe Baxter and Wayne Lurcher knew about it, so you could say it was cleared,” Eva said with a dismissive wave of her hand.
“But,” Max said a little louder than he normally spoke. He shuffled his feet nervously as all eyes, including Eva’s, turned to him. “But do your new eyes do anything special?” The first sly grin appeared on his face since the start of their conversation. He put both hands on his hips and puffed out his chest. “Can they see through things?”
Irene let out a small groan as he wiggled his hips.
“No, Max,” Eva said with a very visible roll of her eyes, “I can’t see your dick.”
He immediately started sputtering, prompting raucous laughter from Shelby. Why the boy went through all the effort for the lewd joke
“As far as I can tell so far,” Eva continued, “these eyes aren’t much different from human eyes. A little sharper under certain circumstances and a little blurrier under others. Colors are off a little as well. Blacks are, well, blacker. Whites are slightly grayer. The colors in between suffer at varying degrees. Nothing that affects everyday living.”
Eva shook her head. “I can’t stay for much longer. Shalise, Juliana’s father and Juliana are still back at my other house and I don’t really want them exploring too much while I’m not there.”
“Other house?” Jordan asked.
“There was an incident last night–the reason we’re not in class right now. I’m sure you’ll hear about it. But I was entertaining Juliana’s father at a place I own in town. They decided it would be safer to spend the night there.”
“Safer? Is there anything we need to do?”
“Probably not. I’d avoid going into town. If you see anything suspicious like,” Eva let out a very forced cough, “strange creatures, then notify either myself, Zoe Baxter, Wayne Lurcher, Zagan, Martina Turner, or Catherine.”
“Strange creatures?”
Eva let out a sigh. “Two things attacked Zoe last night. My mentor is trying to find out where they came from or why. She’s mostly fine, don’t worry. Arachne, Wayne Lurcher, and I killed them, so don’t worry about rampant creatures. Wayne was injured. I think we will be having a substitute in his class for a while.”
Max’s momentary smile vanished from his face. “First zombies then ‘strange creatures?’ What is it with this place?”
“Don’t forget Eva’s bull,” Shelby said with a half-forced grin.
“Hey. It wasn’t
Max just shook his head. “Are all magical schools like this?”
“Good question. Look up the answer or ask around. I’d be interested in knowing the answer when I get back.”
“When is that going to be?”
“Tonight if I have anything to say about it.” Eva shook her head. She walked to the study room door mumbling under her breath. “People having free reign of my prison while I’m not around is a recipe for disaster. I just hope everyone is in the same number of pieces they were in when I left.”
She stopped with one hand on the handle and spun, pointing a single finger in the other hand directly towards Irene.
Her heart skipped a beat before Eva smiled. “I’ll grab that book for you. And,” she swept her finger towards the rest of the group, “try to keep this a secret. If you must talk to someone other than me, please go to Wayne Lurcher or Zoe Baxter. Use discretion and no rash decisions. Please.”
With one last, almost pleading look, Eva left the room.
“Prison?” Jordan said.
Max glanced at him. “Same number of pieces?”
“I told you she was creepy.”
— — —
“That didn’t turn out near as well as I’d hoped. An utter failure, in fact. Despite their fearsome reputation, that display was lacking.”
“I thought we were supposed to make friends.”
Her father turned his overwide grin down on Des. “You are to make friends.
Des frowned. That wasn’t what he told her before school started.
“Now don’t sulk. Come, give Daddy a hand.”
With only the most superficial of sighs–Des did like helping her father work–she stepped up to the slab. She couldn’t help but feel a tingle inside as their latest acquisition wriggled beneath the bindings.
Streaks of water ran down his temples and pooled in the bowl beneath his skull. Tears of Despair. They’d fetch a good price. Des sealed off the bowl–contaminating it would lower the potency.
The man’s watery eyes looked into her own, pleading for release.
Des was happy to oblige.
The snapping of gloves onto her hands was always a satisfying sound. She started her incision at the shoulder and brought it down to the base of the sternum. A second cut from the opposite shoulder drew past the sternum to the man’s navel.
“So,” her father said as he helped pin back the flaps of skin, “how is school going?”
“It’s like the old school, daddy. Hugo helps scare away the worst of them.” Des had to raise her voice to be heard over the whir of the bone saw digging into the man’s ribcage. “Using magic hurts too.”
“Hurts? What do you mean, hurts? You’re not supposed to feel pain.”
