Page 37 of Suspicions on the Stage
Puckboy: Aw, Li, you’ll make me blush.
PrettyPrince: Indeed I will.
LadyM: No sexting! Eli made our devices as safe as possible, but we still don’t know who our enemies are and what capabilities they have. We have to be cautious.
Asshat: Agreed.
The name that comes up for the dragon makes me burst out laughing, and I lean back against my door as I howl. I really don’t know who set these, but it’s hysterical and seems to affect everyone. The very thought of Kaspar’s face when that came up is worth whatever tantrum he’s probably throwing right now. I mean, it’s not inaccurate, nor is it cruel, so…c’est la vie, right?
Asshat: Someone will be punished for this.
LadyM: I doubt it. You’re too busy shoving your head up your ass—much like a hat—to see anyone to accomplish that.
“Now I definitely know who set them,” I mutter with a broad grin. My mate is sassy as fuck and her ability to get under that dragon’s skin is unparalleled. I didn’t expect her to be this playful about their rivalry, but perhaps she’s still got facets for me to explore. “I could get into a prank war with this douche until he admits he wants her as much as the rest of us. I wonder if the others would play along.”
Sitting my phone down on the table by the door, I consider that while I head for my bedroom. I’m only going to throw together my school and hockey shit, plus a few personal things I want to transport myself. The movers I hire can bring along whatever else in here is mine—I honestly don’t know what all is since Nana sent them to stock this place before I arrived—and maybe we can use some of it to replace her dickhead ex’s shit.
As I walk to my nightstand, an odd sensation coasts over me. I sniff the air, tilting my head as I let the bear’s receptors scan the scents as well. My eyes narrow as they register a foreign presence, and I feel my animal pushing to get out. I don’t want that yet, so I give him enough space for claws to form on my fingers and my eyes to go icy blue. It won’t hurt to use his strengths to protect myself if need be, but a rampage isn’t on the docket for the moment.
“Who’s here?” I demand as I slowly turn in a circle so I can examine the entire space. “How did you get into my fucking dorm? Do you know what I can do to you if I find you?”
No answer.
Snarling low, I inhale again as I stalk towards the corner of the room, then slowly turn to follow the trail until I hit the vast window that looks out on a different view of campus. Something went on with this damn thing, and it’s where the scent is coming from, but there’s nothing here. All that’s left is a vague foreign scent I can’t place, and the silence in the room. I shake my head, not satisfied with the results of my search, but also certain I won’t find anything else. Whoever or whatever was here is too skilled to have left any other clues—especially if they got inside without accessing the biometrics and key card on the damn door.
“Time to get your shit and peace out,” I murmur as I go back to my nightstand. “This is definitely not a safe fucking space anymore and you need the magic users to figure out who the fuck was here and what they took—or left behind.”
That’s the worst part of this violation—I don’t know why it happened, because not a goddamn thing is out of place.
margaritaville
MORGANA
The rest of my meetings didn’t go nearly as well as the education department, which is the pattern most likely to continue as I work my way through the university. I’ll find hidden gems and true believers in education, but Magnus’ corruption was so pervasive that I’ll run into hostile and undeserving folks more often than not. It’s probably what the Society found when Magnus died and the accreditation was yanked simultaneously—and why my punishment was to fix the damn place. They’d believed his nonsense for so long that State U lost its luster in the supe communityandthe university ranks, so they needed someone who was absolutely anti-Magnus Corona to clean up the dregs.
Lucky me, I guess.
Despite the inherent shittiness of dealing with his sycophants, I hate to admit that I’m actually enjoying being part of a campus with this much potential. You’d have to torture me to get me to say it out loud, but State U is a beautiful, well-funded school, much like my former employer. Sure, it has weird quirks because Americans focus on entirely the wrong fucking things,but I never would have gotten a position like this at home. I’m not really qualified in the specific educational background, and though I’ve spent my entire life around schools, that matters to boards in the leaders of their institutions.
I work hard as fuck here because I might want to stay when I’m done, and they won’t let me if I haven’t done a superior job at completing my sentence. That’s so far in the future that I can barely contemplate it, though, and I don’t know what it would mean for my family. Li has proper duties at home someday, but Slade and Iggy would be fine here. Lucas might get on a team in the area, which would help immensely, so I guess it’s not entirely too much to hope for.
I have to convince myself that asking for what I want is not selfish sometimes, still, because of that jackwad I was engaged to—don’t tell anyone or I’d be mortified.
Sighing as I look down at the paperwork on my desk, I push back from the large surface and lean back in my chair. Long days are part and parcel with this kind of large-scale change on a tight timeline, but it’s exhausting. Knowing that the guys are out there either in class or investigating things we also need to worry about isn’t far from my mind, either. When you add Jackson and his team working on Lucas’ legal shit, my mind is racing with things I have to do every second. That makes me need copious amounts of caffeine and a shit ton of mental coaxing to not explode on those who richly deserve it.
“Maybe it’s time to go home,” I murmur to myself.
As if summoned, Channing pops her head in the doorway. “Morgana, it’s late. You’ve been working as if you’re on fire all day. You should go home and relax—or whatever the version of it is when you and the guys sit in the new safe space to go overthe shit for the day. That’s not really relaxing, but I imagine you’re more comfortable there than here in suits and fancy office attire.”
“You read my mind.” I give her a rueful smile as I scoot back in and gather up papers, distributing them to her well-labeled stacks for the next day. “I’m tired and hungry, but I shouldn’t load up on more caffeine to jolt me into another hour or so of work.”
Once I get the stacks ready, I pull out my phone, looking at the group chat. My brow arches at the missed conversation, and Channing tilts her head curiously.
“What’s going on? Your guys ready for you to fly home for someresearch?”
Her smile is cheeky, and I chuckle. “They would be if they weren’t converging on Lucas’ old dorm. Not all of them, but he had something weird happen when he went back to get more of his stuff so he could move in full time at my place. He actually texted them for help, it seems, rather than trying to handle whatever it is himself. That bear is learning faster than me, and I can’t decide if I’m happy about it or pouty.”
“By the looks of it, I’d say pouty,” she cracks. I roll my eyes at my friend, huffing a bit, and she laughs harder. “It’s okay to need people, Morgana. I know you’ve had to be very ‘do it yourself’ for the past couple of decades, butmostof those guys want to help and won’t be assholes about it. Let yourself breathe.”
