Page 34 of Suspicions on the Stage
I look up, pushing my glasses up at the voice I’m coming to know so well. “Hello,” I murmur as I look at her shyly. I’m careful not to use overly familiar terms or seem too interested; I know we’re keeping mating under wraps as much as possible on campus, until we feel like it’s less likely to cause a splash we don’t need. “Can I refill your espresso?”
Her lips press together as she looks around, then says, “I’m sorry there was a scene at your work. I needed to get out of the office for a while, and I ended up here after Phaedra tossed me out on my ass.”
Laughing softly, I arch a brow. “What on earth did you do to make her throw you out? She’s one of the good ones, you know.”
Morgana wrinkles her nose and shrugs. “If it helps, she threw Kaspar out before me.Notbecause we were fighting, but because she wanted to talk with me.”
“And then she kicked you out?” I ask suspiciously. “That seems… like it’s not the entire story.”
“It’s not, but I assure you, I did nothing to get on her bad side. She just… was done with me, I think?” My mate shrugs, looking unsure, which is odd for her. “People with her gifts are hard to read; I could be mistaken, but I doubt it.”
I continue cleaning the mugs, pretending not to be engrossed in her tale. “What was the dragon doing there?”
“I have no fucking clue. Probably nosing around like Li told him to. He takes orders seriously unless it’s related to me.” her lips twist into a rueful smirk, and I bite back a laugh. Their insane push-pull is going to lead to something pretty spectacular eventually, but for now, we just have to keep them from killing one another.
Well, the Prince does. I’m not taking responsibility for his cranky ass.
“What else do you have on your plate today?”
She sighs, looking at her phone. “Meetings. I have to meet with the four department heads of the education department. Anything I should know about them? Do you know them at all?”
Grinning, I nod. “They meet here once a week to coordinate and discuss the various things that touch all their focus areas. I’ve been listening to them chat for years.”
Her eyes light up, and my stomach flutters with happiness that I get to be useful to her. “Well, fuck, tell me!”
“The head of primary education is a tanuki shifter named Shiori Akaihime. She’s really cheery and happy, but she’ll fight fiercely for her people. The doctoral spots in the program are highly coveted and all the heads decide who gets them for every level together.” I wait as she thinks that over, loving how she listens closely and digests the information for later. Morgana is sharp as fuck, and the jerks here who think they’re going to outsmart her are woefully misinformed.
“Go on.”
I take her cup to make her another double while I continue. “Beatriz Farbrand runs the secondary ed department. She’s a panther shifter and you need to be careful with her. She’s not bad, justverysmooth, and she will trip you up with her intellect. Bea speaks eight modern languages and aslewof ancient ones, but she demanded the secondary position rather than a college or graduate head position. She actuallylikesstudents in that age range.”
My mate snorts, shaking her head. “How, I can’t imagine. Middle and high schoolers are the bane of everyone’s existence. Why anyone would demand to work with them is beyond me, especially with that credentialing. She could have had her pick of damn near anything at any school.”
“I’m afraid I don’t have the scoop on that. But her two final colleagues are just as bizarre.” I finish her espresso, pushing it to her with a rueful grin. “Post-secondary is run by a basilisk named Vasielios Sanune who is insufferably attached to human mythology, and Graduate/Doctoral is run by a hippogriff named Maxime Mistcrest. Max is pretty cool, though he can rub people the wrong way because of his snootiness. But he’s extremely good at wrangling all of them, especially when they disagree.”
“I guess I’ll have to see if he can do that when they’re trying to get me to keep all their funding,” she murmurs. “Honestly, I believe in teachers—my adoptive parents raised me like that—so I want to increase my support for them, eventually. But I can’t do that until I locate all the fat and bloat in Magnus’s stupid labyrinth of corruption and excise it. I hate that I’m not giving people what I know they deserve, you know?”
Morgana’s heart isn’t made of stone—not that she wants anyone to know that.
“I do, and you’ll reallocate everything the way it should be once you finish. The Society sent you here to punish you, but look at the good you’re trying to do. It’s slower than you want, but that doesn’t mean getting rid of the shitty workers and the bad professors isn’t helping State U.”
She grins at me, tossing back her espresso quickly. “Thanks, babe. It’s hard to remember that shit when you spend the morning getting your tail stepped on by lawyers and other malcontents. I needed the pick-me-up to help put it into perspective.”
“Anytime.” I look at the clock and sigh. “And now you have to go, right?”
“I do, but I’ll be home for dinner. When do you get off?”
“Five,” I reply. She walks over to gather her things, then comes back. “But don’t forget, I have to do auditions until seven tonight. We had day and night-time slots.”
“Slade Finn, overachiever, strikes again,” she says as she winks. “Behave and don’t be late afterward, okay? We’ve got stuff to debrief on.”
As if I’d miss the opportunity to be in our new bubble for the musical theater geeks—no fucking way.
team
MORGANA
Ileave the shop feeling both irritated and better concurrently. The showdown with that Leilani woman—yes, I pretended not to know her because it amused me—reminded me I forgot to put her on the chopping block after Lucas was healed. It also underlined the need to get through more of these infernal meetings with department heads. I have to review the personnel files thoroughly in preparation so I can force exit ramps for Magnus’ blindly devoted followers. I’m not saying I’ll deny people a chance to reform themselves, but allowing continual outbursts like this is bad for morale across the entire staff.
