Page 56 of Strength of Desire

“Do you know any reason why students would want to shoot arrows at your rooms?” I asked, not giving him a chance to gain control of the conversation. I needed to keep him on the defensive.

“What?” Sheridan’s face blanched.

Good. He was scared. That would make him less likely to question me closely.

“I saw a group of students in the woods,” I said. “They’d stolen a crossbow from the armory, and were shooting up at the manor from the grounds.”

He looked outraged. “Students? Which ones?”

“Didn’t see. I called out to them to stop, and they scattered. They’re probably back inside by now, mingling with everyone else at the celebrations.” I let myself growl wordlessly, evincing frustration.

“Well, why didn’t you chase them?” Sheridan asked, looking at me as if I were delinquent.

“I was more concerned about what they were aiming at, and if they’d hit any of their targets,” I snapped back, which shut his mouth satisfyingly. “I heard glass shatter on the last shot they got off. Given everything that’s happened lately, I was more worried about whether someone had been shot than about who had done the shooting.”

I gestured to the shattered window behind me, the glass sparkling in the dim light of Sheridan’s rooms. His mouth dropped open, noticing it for the first time. He stepped further into the room, placing his feet carefully as he inspected the damage.

“Quite right, quite right,” he murmured, and I wasn’t sure if he was talking to himself or to me.

“When I realized it was your window they’d hit, I ran up here,” I told him. “There was no answer when I knocked or called your name. I know you usually spend Thursday nights off campus, but I was worried you might have changed your schedule. You could have been lying in here bleeding, for all I knew. So I forced your door. I’m sorry.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Sheridan said, barely looking up from his survey of the glass blanketing the floor. “I ward my rooms and felt the door give. Drove back here to…” he trailed off, looking around the room as though one of the ‘students’ might jump out at him.

“Do you know why anyone would be shooting at you?” I repeated.

“No,” he said, finally looking at me. “No, I don’t.”

“Well, I’m going to talk to Isaac,” I said, hefting the crossbow bolt. “Something like this is too out of the ordinary. He needs to know about it. Then I’m going to figure out which students did this, if it’s the last thing I do.”

Iwasgoing to talk to Isaac, but not about my fake students. There would be plenty of time to ‘find’ the beer cans and other bolts on the ramparts tomorrow, to reassure Sheridan that no one had been trying to shoot at him. Not that he deserved the reassurance, if he was holding onto that coin. But Isaac needed to know about the coin right now—that took precedence.

“Glad you’re okay,” I said as I headed for the door, though I was nothing of the sort. I had no pity for anyone who put themself in Sheridan’s position. Hell, I’d have been happy to shoot him with the crossbow myself right now, if I’d had it in hand. But I couldn’t say that.

I’d just reached the doorway when he called out, “Do you think they really were students?”

“What do you mean?” I asked, tensing. I didn’t turn around until I was sure my face was still.

“Well, the school’s already been attacked once,” he said. “What if they came back?”

“Moraghin aren’t known for their crossbow skills,” I said drily.

“Maybe it’s not moraghin this time,” he said. “Maybe it’s something else. Something worse.”

I blinked. “Like what?”

Obviously, I knew it wasn’t, but I wondered where his mind was going.

“Assassins,” he whispered.

My eyebrows shot up, and for once, I didn’t mind my surprise showing on my face. “Assassins?”

“Coming back to take me out,” Sheridan said. He twisted his hands together, the picture of worry. Finally, he exhaled and said, “I was in the woods when the moraghin attacked. I wasn’t that far from the gym. So the moraghin could have been looking for me.”

I frowned. “I thought you said you were in your rooms.”

He looked like his stomach hurt. “I was on my way to Harmony Haven. Ihadbeen in my rooms, before that. Absolutely ridiculous that I don’t have quarters in Harmony already. I may be a newer faculty member, but I’m over twenty years older than Connor, and five years older than Ayah. I ought to have seniority.”

I looked at him blankly.

---