Page 15 of House of Malice
“Keep your friends close,” Val said, her dark eyes flickering with mischief, “and your enemies closer.”
The tension between the two High Priestesses was shooting sparks into the air, and Blaze was very grateful when the double doors opened, Alecto and Jolene entering the room.
Jolene held their Book in her hands, and Galia’s eyes widened when she recognized it.
“Don’t even think about it, or I’ll slit your throat myself,” Alecto snapped, surprising everyone.
Val blinked and then barked a laugh. Blaze smiled to himself.
Galia pursed her lips and lifted her palms in the air. “Gods, I wasn’t thinking anything. I was just once again surprised by your stupidity. Parading your Book around like this is careless.”
“It’s protected,” Val said with a smile. “Wanna test the performance of the spell?”
Galia considered Val’s words for a moment but didn’t take her up on her offer.
“Okay, we have the spell that should work,” Jolene said. “Alessandro is just grabbing a few things for the spell.”
“Should?” Galia said. “And what if doesn’t?”
“Well, then I guess you’ll be Dean’s puppet,” Val said in a singsong voice.
“And you’ll be dead then,” Galia returned in the same cadence.
“You greatly underestimatemyHouse if you think Dean Gondalez can ruin us,” Val said.
Blaze admired Val’s confidence in their ability to protect their House. He sure as Hel wasn’t certain of that.
Jolene looked between Val and Galia with a frown. “No spell is ever guaranteed to work one hundred percent—we’re taught that in elementary school. That’s a gamble we’re all willing to take each time we cast a spell. This is an advanced spell, and it will require blood magic to fuel.”
“Blood magic?” Galia asked. “What about the wards on campus? You know they’ll alert the Dean if we use the blood magic.”
Blaze tilted his head to the side. “Are you serious? The wards are there, but they get triggered only if a certain threshold is reached.”
Galia stared at Blaze in silence.
“Don’t tell me you never use blood magic,” Jolene said, her eyes wide.
“The House of Rats doesn’t use blood magic, as it is forbidden by Venefica’s Laws,” Galia said, her voice steady.
Blaze exchanged a look with Val and Alecto, who both looked equally surprised to hear that. The Snakes couldn’t be the only ones disregarding the rules.
“Interesting,” Val said. “Well, don’t worry. We know what we’re doing here. The Dean won’t know a thing because we know how to monitor the output of the magic.”
“Also, the bigger concern is not whether the spell will work, but how you can persuade the Dean that you’re under oath,” Jolene said. She placed the Book down on the table next to Val. “It will be very easy for him to figure out that you’re not carrying out his orders if you’re not careful.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Galia said. “I can pretend well enough for him to believe me. But this is where I’ll need you guys to do some work.”
Alecto crossed her arms. “What work?”
Galia tilted her chin. “You’ll have to figure out a way to get rid of the Dean as soon as possible so he doesn’t have too much time to figure out we’re working against him together.”
“Can we report him to the board?” Blaze asked.
Val shook her head. “Wouldn’t work. We’d need evidence, and plus, we don’t know who’s on his side. It might only make things worse.”
“Do we bring him to the police with the evidence we have about the murders?” Jolene asked.
Val considered the words and shook her head once more. “There isn’t enough, and he might have the chief in his pocket as well.”
