Page 28 of Bizarre Bonds
The nurse won’t let me leave either, even though I can stand and walk around without any lingering weakness. I’m starting to think this is a confinement room after all, just with more beds so it’s a little comfier. Very sneaky.
Rollick tips his head to the nurse, who vanishes into the shadows. I set down the book and swivel on the bed to face him. “Can I go back to classes now? I promise my emotions are all settled down. I won’t explode or anything even if I see Gloss.”
The demon gives me a crooked smile. “You don’t need to worry about seeing Gloss for a long time if ever. A purposeful, premeditated assault of this level on a fellow student—rather than the accidental ones you’ve perpetrated—is undeniable cause for banishment. She won’t be returning to the mortal realm for a decade or so.”
I stare at him. “Because she attacked me? It was only one time—and she had reasons to be angry…”
“Pretty poor reasons, I’d say, over delusions and circumstances that aren’t exactly your fault.” Rollick considers me. “Would you have any hesitation about her fate if it’d been your friend Fen she’d attacked and left close to death?”
Was I really in that bad a state?
I picture Fen lying crumpled, bleeding essence in clouds, and shiver. “No, I guess I wouldn’t.”
“Then you should have the same devotion to your own well-being. We can’t have someone who’d behave so spitefully representing shadowkind among mortals.” Rollick pauses. “Which in a roundabout way is what I need to talk to you about.”
Does he think I’m spiteful too? I thought he liked me.
Please tell me I haven’t gotten on an uber-powerful demon’s bad side.
I knit my brow, tamping down my instinctive anxiety. “I don’t understand.”
Rollick props himself against the end of the cot. “With the current state of affairs, I’m not sure it’s safe for you to remain at the academy. Gloss isn’t the only student who’s unsettled by the reports they’ve heard about the marking. And she had a lot of friends among her peers, I gather. I don’t want to risk you facing additional hostility from Hail’s various paramours or whoever else.”
My stomach sinks. “Then…”
“I’m not suggestingyouleave the mortal realm,” he says quickly. “I have a much better idea. You’ve proven useful in evaluating the strange shadowkind who’ve emerged from these unusual rifts. I’d like you to come work with me until we can determine how to remove the bonds you accidentally forged, or at least until tempers settle down.”
I find myself staring at him again. “You want me to take an official job working for you? Like Jonah does? But I haven’t even made it out of the reform building?—”
Rollick waves off my concern. “I’ve seen with my own eyes how quickly your control has developed with the right guidance. At the moment, what’s most important to me is ensuring these new rifts don’t end up revealing shadowkind existence to the entire human population. I need all the assistance I can get.”
And he wants me to help him. He thinks I’d contribute enough that my mess-ups don’t matter.
A smile springs to my face. “Of course. I’ll do whatever I can. I want all of us to stay as safe as possible—the mortals too.”
Rollick smiles back. “That’s exactly why I knew this would be a good decision—one that works in everyone’s favor. I’ll see about making arrangements right away.”
His mention of “everyone” makes my stomach dip. My happiness deflates. “Oh. If I go with you… then the men I marked have to come too, don’t they?”
They won’t get a choice. Just one more way I’ve disrupted their lives.
Rollick gazes at me evenly. “I’d imagine their skills will all come in handy one way or another. It’ll simply be another team effort like the first one I sent you on.”
I don’t think any of the men, even Hail, will refuse a direct request from the school’s headmaster. But he wouldn’t be making the request if it wasn’t for me.
What’s the alternative? Should I camp out in the infirmary for the rest of my student career?
Maybe if we spend more time together, we’ll finally work out how to turn off the tap between us. How to snuff out the glow.
Avoiding each other seems like a terrible way of finding answers.
There’s one other question that’s been niggling at me since Rollick mentioned the sorcerer’s notes when we were inspecting his confined shadowkind. I hesitate and then ask, “When you looked through all those papers we got from the bunker… did you see anything that told you why and how David Blaver came up north?”
How did he end up so far from his home turf? I’m guessing it wasn’t for the fresh air and delightful scenery.
And did he drag his daughter, the girl who saved me from his clutches, with him?
The demon cocks his head. “His ramblings are disjointed, but I gather that he caught wind of an odd occurrence or two in the area and came in the hopes of gathering a ‘better army’ for the petty destruction you’ve mentioned he was prone to. He talked about wanting more vicious shadowkind than before, studying them and figuring out how to best work with their warpednature. Not that he got any farther than using brute sorcerous force.”
