Page 38 of Foresyth Conservatory
Whatever chance there had been of me leaving Foresyth was now gone.
You’re right. You’re too far gone,I could almost hear my father’s voice, resigned.
I was too deeply entangled in this case. Leaving before I solved Julian’s death was no longer an option. It wasn’t what my father would have done, and it wasn’t what I would do either.
I glanced back at the tree I had been examining before Aspen interrupted me. Two triangles stacked to form a jagged “B.” I sketched the symbol into my notebook, resolving to find it in my rune dictionary. I wanted to peel away more bark to see if there were other symbols hidden beneath, but I couldn’t risk drawing attention by damaging the tree.
Besides, this wasn’t the tree I was after.
*
With thoughts of Julian and tangled motives weighing on my mind, I decided to spend the following week catching up on my academics. This meant researching runes, preparing for my meeting with the Council, and, when I had time and was sure no one was around, translating Julian’s journal. The Meister was away on business for the week, leaving Leone—the only third-year in residence—to lead Circle every night. That meant my mentorship meetings were postponed, and I wouldn’t have the chance to confront the Meister aboutThe Book of Skornuntil his return.
Despite everything, I managed well in Circle and even found myself enjoying the intellectual sparring with theother students. Maybe the Meister hadn’t been entirely wrong when he said I could have belonged here under different circumstances.
Midweek, I received a letter from Gabriel—another long-winded plea for me to come home—and a curt message from my mother. She informed me she was alive, listed the books she was re-reading, and complained that Angelise was overfeeding her. I wrote back to both in between my hours at the library and the lab. I was in my dormitory finishing the letters when Nina strode in as if it wereherroom and I was the intruder.
“Are you busy?” she asked, collapsing onto my bed and dropping her satchel beside it. “You weren’t in the lab.”
I rolled my eyes and turned away from my desk. “Not anymore, I guess. To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?” I asked, dripping mocking sweetness. Aspen’s accusation still echoed raw in my mind as I considered her. If therewasa poison master at this school, Nina would be my first suspect. But if I wanted to understand her motives, I had to tread carefully.
“I’m looking for something. I need it for my Spring Symposium project. I’ve been researching local folklore, and there’s this one legend about a satyr . . .”
I furrowed my brows, readying a response, when the door creaked open again. Sequoia entered, a wide smile on her face.
“I didn’t know Dahlia was throwing a party in here,” she mused, coming to sit beside Nina. She made a shooing motion with her hand. Nina scrunched her features but, after an awkward pause, begrudgingly moved over.
“Why don’t I call for Aspen and Leone while we’re at it?” I said dryly.
“No!” they said in unison.
“Fine. No boys. I’ll hang a sign on my door.”
“I didn’t mean to intrude. I can come back another time,” Sequoia offered, though she was already leaning back on my bed, legs crossed. “I was working on my outline for my Druid paper and wanted a second opinion.”
The light in her eyes made me pause. If the students were coming to me for help, then perhaps they were starting to see me as an equal. And despite their questionable personal boundaries, the ease between us warmed my chest.
“So, you decided to go through with it, huh?” Nina asked.
“It’s a work in progress,” Sequoia said, smoothing the wrinkles from her skirt.
I caught the tension between them and a thought took root. Was Nina’s animosity toward Sequoia tied to her proximity to Aspen? If so, she needed to see Sequoia in a different light—separate from him. As I was starting to.
“Why don’t we all help each other?” I suggested. “Sequoia and I can help you find whatever it is you’re looking for, and then we can workshop your paper together.”
Nina had granted me access to her lab—I owed her a favor. And I still felt guilty for devastating Sequoia with my previous reading. Maybe this would even the score. Maybe it would also bring me closer to understanding the students’ potential motives regarding Julian’s death.
“I’d be delighted. The girls should stick together,” Sequoia chirped.
“Nina, what do you say?”
Nina sighed. “Fine. The more, the merrier.” She pulled her bag onto my bed, unrolling several scrolls of parchment.
“Are those maps?” Sequoia asked.
“Yes—of Foresyth and the twenty or so miles surrounding it. Leone helped me dig them out from the library.”
My eyes widened. Those could be useful to me, too. I approached the bed, careful to mask my eagerness. One was an interior blueprint of the House, the other a detailed sketch of the surrounding grounds. I hadn’t realized how much land belonged to Foresyth.
