Page 73 of House of Ruin
“You’re so arrogant, you’ve got problem seeing straight,” Octavia snapped.
That got Alatar’s attention, and finally he looked back at the rest of the group.
“You’re just—” Alatar started, but Octavia cut him off.
“Tell me that I’m paranoid and see what happens.”
Rufus huffed a laugh.
“Let’s be honest here. You all know Octavia is right,” Galliermo said, turning away from the window. “He has Fanhy Coven witches attacking the campus, leaving a trail of corpses in their wake. What’s worse is that he’s letting the police do whatever they want. He hasn’t done a thing to stop them from investigating the Snakes as their prime suspects. His personal dislike of the Snakes is interfering with his ability to lead the academy. We need to look for a new Dean. One who’s not biased against our House and who is capable of maintaining the prestige of the institution.”
“We spoke with Miss Bellthrove, his secretary,” Octavia said. “Apparently, Gondalez has been hiding declining student performance in certain subjects.”
“That’s absolutely unacceptable.” Rufus rubbed his chin. “Venefica is the best higher education institution in Inathis. This cannot be true.”
“He’s frightened,” Alatar countered. “But he’s not against us, Galliermo. And have you seen that secretary? She’s lost as a baby deer in the forest. Can we really trust her gossip?”
“Alatar, you know there has been talk in certain circles about Gondalez recently,” Reverie said. She and Lyra sat in the armchairs in the corner of the room, farther away from the others. “You might say it’s just gossip, but either way, it’s not a good look for the academy.”
“Doesn’t it look suspicious—?” Lyra chimed in, but went quiet. All eyes turned on her. “The murders? You don’t mean to tell me that none of you remember?”
There was silence for a moment. Then Auburn said, “I remember.”
“We all do. We’re not that old.” Alatar smirked. “I doubt it means anything, Lyra. There have been multiple Fanhy Coven attacks since our years at the academy. I wouldn’t worry too much about it.”
“I would if Detective Vin decides to look into the House of Snakes’ past,” Lyra said.
“Let’s stick with what’s more important now,” Octavia chimed in. “I spoke with the Riverbloods. Their House is weakened. They’re ready to do whatever it takes to keep their power. Both of them are ready to cast their vote to our benefit. If you, Alatar, can speak with Larian Soress and get his vote, we’d have a good starting point.”
“Do you really think that the Soresses will agree to remove the current Dean and put a Snake in his place instead?” Alatar laughed. “I can’t believe you talked the Riverbloods into it. Besides, we’d still need to persuade the Foxes and Rathones. And those two families are the hardest to deal with.”
Blaze frowned.
Their parents were planning to get the Dean fired to put someone from the Snakes in his place instead?
A sudden movement on the side caught Blaze’s eye then.
Jolene was waving her hands in the air silently, her eyes wide.
She pointed at the watch in her hand and then ducked back into the wall.
Shit.
Blaze whirled and strode into the wall just in time before the spell broke and he snapped back into his body, fully visible.
“What the fuck was that?” Andro asked. “They’re trying to replace the Dean? With who?”
“My guess? Madame Raquel, as she was the one you saw with Galliermo and Octavia.” Val smirked. “There’s more work for us to do. We need to find out what our lovely alumni are hiding in their past.”
28
The auditorium was quiet when Alecto walked in. Darkness hid the chairs, only a single light orb floating over the stage. Norse sat at the edge of it, his legs swinging lightly as he read the script lying in his lap.
“You’re—”
“If you going to say ‘late,’ don’t bother,” Alecto interrupted. Norse’s attention shifted to her, amusement dancing in his eyes. “I bet you’re always early purely for the satisfaction of telling everyone else that they’re late even when they’re not.”
Norse smirked.
