Page 93 of House of Ruin
“Professor Namiad would fit the bill,” Blaze said.
Now Alecto was the one rolling her eyes at him. “Don’t you think it would be too easy? Too obvious?”
Blaze smirked.
She always had to challenge him. Always had to disagree.
It was as if she was doing it on purpose.
“Just think about it,” Blaze said. “She was here at the academy when it happened last time. And she’s still here now. Maybe every seventy years or so, she needs to kill people to, I don’t know, feed her immortality or some shit.”
“That’s much more common than you’d think,” Jolene murmured darkly. “Nobody’s as greedy as witches are. For youth, beauty, and riches.”
“That doesn’t explain why she would try to pin it on us,” Val said. “Let’s not forget the warning the killer sent us through Fallon. This shit is personal. What else we got? Alecto?”
Alecto shuffled through her stack of papers. “I have transcripts of conversations the detectives had with Venefica students. There are only transcripts from the House of Dragons, House of Rats, and House of Tigers.”
Val turned to her. “Nothing from the Snakes.”
Alecto shook her head.
“Were the victims from the academy?” Val asked Blaze.
He scanned the pages in his lap. “Yeah. All three students at Venefica. One from the House of Oxen, another from the House of Goats, and the last one was from the House of Dogs.”
“Anything from you two?” Val jerked her chin at Jolene and Andro.
Andro shook his head. “I just have a bunch of interviews with Darly’s people, if they saw anything, heard anything… Which they did not, of course.”
“And mine is just a bunch of information on all the Fanhy Covens that ever resided in Avalon State,” Jolene said. “There has been one active coven in the past two centuries, but they mostly just worship the Gods and sell herbal tea for the past hundred years, it seems.”
“Good for them, I suppose.” Val snorted. “I’ve got nothing here either, just information on where the victims went before death, who they saw, and what they did. There doesn’t seem to be any pattern the police found helpful.”
“But this is just half the file,” Alecto said. “There could be something we’re missing still.”
“I know who could know about it,” Jolene said, tossing her papers aside.
Val arched an eyebrow.
“Our families.”
“Do you really think they’ll tell you anything?” Val sneered. “They have been scheming the Gods know what behind everyone’s back. Our alumni treat us like kids and nothing more. They will definitely not tell you what happened back in 1952.”
“Val’s right,” Blaze said. He lit a cigarette. “I tried asking my father about the case, and he gave nothing away.”
“Well, no offence, but your dad is an asshole,” Jolene said.
Blaze shrugged. “You don’t have to tell me that, Frone.”
“My aunties might be willing to help,” Jolene said. She then fell silent. “No, never mind.”
“I doubt Reverie or even Lyra would be open to talking about the past,” Val said. “But I know who would, though.”
“Who?” Andro asked.
Val looked at Blaze, and he knew immediately who she had in mind.
Blaze hoped his gaze conveyed how he felt about this idea.
