Page 90 of Foresyth Conservatory
“If he’s been doing it for so long, it must not be working. Why does the Meister keep trying?”
Aspen looked back at me, scanning his eyes around my room. “Look at this place, Dahlia. It’s crumbling. The class size has been shrinking every year. The House has beendwindling in magick for years. He says he wants to save it, restore it back to the way it was when the Founding Five were here. But I suspect he wants to supersede the Al-Ahmar on the Council. With that kind of magick, he’d be the most powerful Advisor in history.”
I searched his eyes, but all I saw was desperation and pain—all of it.
“He’s been sacrificing a student every year for it,” I said. That explained the string of missing students that Gabriel found. Maybe my father came to Foresyth as a detective first to investigate and was convinced into staying as a student. Just like the Meister had intended for me. Or maybe he just came here for the education, like I wished I could have.
“They don’t always die. Sometimes they go missing, or go insane,” Aspen said. “Butthatnight, something went wrong. Julian wasn’t supposed to die. I suspected someone must have intervened, either Leone or Nina. Julian wasn’t the weakest of us; he was thestrongest.”
I let the words settle over me before I spoke. “And the person who was supposed to die . . . it was Sequoia, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” he said with a hollowness that uneased me. “She’s always struggled . . . channeling her magick. That’s why I’m so harsh with her. Because here at Foresyth, academics are a life-or-death matter, and we’re bound to this place because of our parents’ debts. I’ve strived to be her mentor, her protector, but some women seem to have a death wish, no matter what I do.” His eyes locked onto mine and I detected a glimmer of a smirk before his face returned to stone.
“I suspect that’s why she attempted soul flight on her own that night we found her in the tub. She wants to proveherself—wants to make sure she’ll live through the next ceremony,” he continued.
“The next ceremony?” I asked.
But when Aspen didn’t answer, I said: “That’s why you and Sequoia were fighting about Julian. You suspected he sacrificed himself for her?”
God, what if he had sacrificed himself to saveallof them.
“No, that’s not why we’ve been fighting.”
“Then why?”
“I don’t agree with the ceremony, or the intent of it. I think there are other ways to restore the magick of the House without sacrificing its students. Even if it meant my father would disown me, cut me off from his fortune, I wanted Koi and I to leave that night. But she begged me to stay, to prove herself. Julian evensidedwith her despite the fact he’d been vocal about his disapproval of the Meister’s methods. But now I understand why. He stacked the cards that night, metaphorically speaking, and forced the outcome. He knew Sequoia would be safe, that he was the one that was going to die.” His words drifted.
He reached into his pocket and uncrumpled a piece of paper, the words written in burgundy ink.
My eyes widened. “What’s this?”
“He left me this that night,” Aspen began, his voice low. “It was written in a scrawl, like he knew he was dying as he wrote it. It said,Tuta sit, sed ne illi obstes. Let her be safe, but do not hinder her.”
“Her?” I asked, a coldness prickling along my skin.
Aspen’s gaze softened. “He knew you’d come.”
I tried to process everything Aspen was saying, to untangle the puzzle Julian had laid out. Julian had somehow known I’d come here. He’d addressed me specifically in his journal, weaving a trail for me to follow, one he must have known would draw me in like a moth to a flame.
“Why are you telling me this now?” I finally asked, my voice quiet.
Aspen’s expression softened. “When you first arrived here, I just wanted to make sure you were the person Julian had written about. That’s why I took such an interest in you, asked you so many questions. But when you started suspecting me, I decided to do what Julian said, to let you figure out what happened on your own. I was still suspicious of the others, I couldn’t rule out that something had gone awry, and I tried to help you. But it only pushed you further away.” He hesitated, then reached for my hand.
“But now . . . I know it’s selfish, and I know others could get hurt, but I almost lost Sequoia last year, and I don’t want to lose you, too. Say the word, and I’ll take you and Sequoia away from here.” He raised my hand to his lips, pressing a gentle kiss against my knuckles. My traitorous heart fluttered before I could argue with reason.
“But you and Sequoia—” I said, unable to hide the confusion in my voice. He was with her, and yet he was here, confessing his feelings to me. “I’d only be . . . interfering.”
Aspen let out a soft breath, warm against the place he’d kissed. “Koi and I . . . we’re like a tree wrapped in poison ivy—we consume each other. We’ve known each other since childhood; it’s hard to untangle that kind of bond. In this world and the next, we are bound.”
“She mentioned something similar,” I said.
“But our hearts are open. Koi falls in love with anyone, to be honest. I’m a bit more selective,” he added, and a flush crept up my cheeks. His words hung between us, blazing like embers, leaving me with only stone and ash—and the truth. Isn’t that what I’d come here for?
“Julian still needs me. This place and the students need me.” I drew a deep breath, words spilling from the depths I rarely touched. “Before Foresyth, I felt like I was living in other people’s stories, reading too many books, reading too many people who didn’t care to even know me, the true me. This is the first time I feel like I have my own story, a purpose.” I sighed deeply.
Even if Julian had written the story before he died, I was determined to rewrite it, to make it my own.
Part of me wanted to run away with him and Sequoia, or in the least, have him stand by my side as I unraveled the mystery Julian had left behind. But I couldn’t afford to put any other student in danger, not when Julian had entrusted this to me.
