INTEGRATION (Bonfire Academy Book Two) (Bonfire Chronicles) (29 page)

“Can we submit that to this court?” Sally asked. “I’d like a recess while we examine the recording and have it admitted into evidence.”

“Dr. Marks, please send the recording to me. But first, describe briefly what it shows,” Asmen directed.

I cringed while Dr. Marks described the whole tickle incident.

“Cordelia!” Jagger whispered in surprise.

“I was sick of her laying and watching the ceiling,” I mumbled.

King Sebastian frowned at me.

“Thank you, Dr. Marks. You are excused, but send me the recording today,” Asmen instructed. “I don’t want to drag out these proceedings any longer than absolutely necessary. Mr. and Mrs. Russo, the council may have enough evidence to begin our deliberations. We’re going to look over Dr. Marks’s recording and review all the testimony. We’ll reassemble once we’ve come to some conclusions. It won’t be today. In fact, it may take a while. As you know, the school year is out soon. I will remain as president for the next year, but am going away on a training course for a few months. I will call you to let you know when we reconvene.”

As soon as Asmen banged his gavel, Octavia strode up to me and grabbed my elbow. She ushered me outside and practically pushed me into one of the conference rooms. “What were you thinking?” she yelled.

I waited for the rest of them to pile in—Jagger, Faustine, and King Sebastian.

“I just wanted to help Faustine out of her darkness.”

“Well, you sure did that!” Octavia slumped down in a chair. “I guess the good news is that the blame now moves to you. My client is clearly not responsible. You’ll need a lawyer. I suggest McKenzie.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Jagger intervened. “One step at a time. Let’s wait and see what the council comes back with. I know Asmen pretty well. He’s a stickler for detail and evidence, but he’s got a very short attention span. They already questioned me privately, so they have all the history from last year at their disposal. Really, the only new thing they heard today was Cordelia’s part in this. There was no evidence to prove premeditation, and Faustine’s actions were not foreseeable, certainly not to Cordelia! So, I can’t see them holding you responsible, much as Sally would like to see you pay after what happened last year… The council will need to appease the Russos, though.”

“I don’t even remember Cordelia tickling me,” Faustine said quietly. “But I remember eating the panther. I feel so bad for his mom and dad. They looked so sad. I should go and talk to them. Where are they?”

“Faustine, I don’t know if that’s a good idea. Not at the moment anyway,” Octavia replied.

“Maybe not, but I want to,” she said, her tone surprisingly adamant.

“Faustine, Octavia is right,” King Sebastian said. “I don’t recognize the parents. I need to get some more information about them before letting you approach them, if at all.”

“Dad! I want to. If the opposite had happened, wouldn’t you have wanted the same?”

“Probably not, Faustine. I’d kill anyone who’d done that to you. So, no. I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Cordelia, what do you think?” Faustine asked.

“I’m with Octavia and your father. At least wait until after the verdict. Remember that they aren’t humans. None of us are. Talking to them isn’t going to make a squat of difference to their opinion of you. You can’t appeal to them on a human level. All they are going to want to do now is kill you, no matter what. You killed their son. It’s just their natural response.”

She looked unhappy but nodded.

“They left, anyway,” Jagger said.

King Sebastian put his hand on his daughter’s shoulder. “Faustine, let’s go. I’ll take you into town for something to eat before I head back to London. Cordelia, Jagger, Octavia, would you like to join us?”

“Not me, but thanks. I have to get to a meeting soon,” Octavia replied.

“And Cordelia and I have got some catching up to do,” Jagger said. “But thank you.”

“Very well, I’ll see you soon. Cordelia, I need to talk to you. I’ll try to find you when I return with Faustine. We’ll be a couple of hours.”

“Great, see you then. Faustine, try to put this behind you for now and have some fun.” I waved as they headed out the door.

“Jagger, I meant to try to catch up with you earlier, after our meeting with the council,” Octavia purred, sidling up to him. “I missed you, but I’m glad things worked out with Spencer. He can be hard to get through to, and I didn’t fancy your chances with your tenuous pedigree.”

I felt myself tense up.

Jagger nodded. “He needed a lot of convincing, but with Ryker and Sebastian in my corner, he caved.”

“I heard you got to train with his grandson—what’s his name… Harry? I hear he’s cute.”

“Yes, something was going on with the family, and both Harry and his friend Kellan were going through an urgent induction, so I joined their group. They completed the program in no time. I took a bit longer because of, like you put it, my ‘tenuous pedigree.’ And, yes, I guess most girls would find the grandson cute.”

I was seething at all the happy banter between them. He’d told Octavia about his plan, but not me? I turned and left the room, slamming the door behind me.

I ran down to the dOME lab where Jagger wouldn’t be able to find me. The last thing I wanted was to fight with him, but I was so annoyed, I couldn’t think of another outcome. I decided to avoid him until I could punish him without letting my emotions get the better of me.

Colton looked up in surprise when I ran into the lab. “Cordelia! I wasn’t expecting you. King Sebastian said he’d come get me for the meeting.”

I looked at him blankly.

“You’re welcome to help me run Mason’s next session if you want. I’m running him through standard stimuli and recording vitals. I don’t have to do anything while that’s going on, just watch to make sure nothing unexpected happens. Henri got called away, so I’d love the company.”

“Mason?” I looked over at the test chamber and saw Mason sitting in the armchair. “I thought we were doing him tomorrow. I asked Henri to reschedule because I had to be at Faustine’s hearing.”

Colton shrugged. “Professor Kunz insisted that we keep to the schedule. Anyhow, I knew you wouldn’t want to miss any of the interesting stuff, so I’m just running the basic stuff again. The test is practically running itself, so why don’t you sit down and tell me about the trial?”

“Uh, yes. What were you saying about a meeting?”

“The one with King Sebastian.”

I frowned. “Colton, I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. What meeting?”

“Oh.” He narrowed his eyes. “Aren’t we due to see King Sebastian in an hour or so? I’m sure he said today.” He checked his calendar and nodded.

“He did say that he wanted to talk to me before he went back, but it sounded casual, not like a meeting-meeting, and he didn’t mention you. Not that I mind, of course. I just feel a bit stupid for not knowing.”

He tapped his pen on the desk. “So he didn’t tell you why he wanted to see you?”

“Nope. Care to enlighten me?”

“Hmm. I don’t think it’s my place.”

“Can you at least tell me if it’s good or bad?”

He remained silent.

“Colton?” We’d formed a bond during the last few months; he was my bridge to the shifter population in the school, which had obviously become wary of me. But I still had to interact with them in my apprentice role. “Don’t go all quiet on me.”

“I’m going with good. That’s all I’m saying. Now tell me about the trial. I’m guessing all went well for Faustine? Did you find out who the victim was?”

“Yes, Nari Russo.”

He nodded.

“You knew?”

“Yes, of course, I knew. All the shifters at the school knew. We’re a close group.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean—”

“I know. He was the son of the sister of the sovereign shifter of Rome. Nice boy, an Initiate. How were his parents?”

“Hard to tell. They wore deadpan expressions throughout and left without speaking to anyone.”

Colton sighed. “What happened at the trial?”

I gave him a blow-by-blow description.

When I described my part in getting Faustine out of bed, he laughed out loud, nearly knocking back his chair. “Cordelia! What the hell?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Everyone is horrified with me.” I finished telling him the rest just in time for King Sebastian to walk in with Professor Bern.

“I’ll finish Mason’s session,” Professor Bern said. “His Highness would like to talk to the two of you. You can use my office.”

“Cordelia,” King Sebastian started once we were settled in Professor Bern’s office. “I wasn’t expecting to see you at the lab. Did you two talk?”

“Just about the trial,” Colton reassured him.

“Good. I don’t have a lot of time. There’s a situation in London that requires my immediate attention. Colton has been working with me to identify the shifter who killed Martha.”

“And did you find out who did it?” I blurted.

“We have a suspect, but no proof.”

“Who?”

“We suspect it was Mason.”

I shook my head. “I’m not getting this at all. Are you telling me that Mason can transform into a vulture? And even if he could, why would he? He’s always been happy throwing his demon hating in our faces.”

“The analysis of Martha’s remains didn’t contain any trace evidence of vulture remnants,” Colton said. “But the lab did identify barbs from eagle feathers.”

“That’s strange. I don’t think Martha has ever been in contact with Mason.”

King Sebastian’s phone buzzed. “I have a hypothesis,” he murmured, tapping on his phone. “But I have to go. My theory is that it was Mason all along, in his eagle form.”

“But I saw a vulture!” I protested. “I even got some pictures of it.”

“As did I. Now, had we seen an eagle approach the planes, we’d have shot it down. So, there was no way Mason could have done what he did in his eagle form. I am fairly sure Mason must have been masked to look like a vulture.”

“Masked? Like he wore a Big Bird Halloween costume?”

Colton chuckled.

“No,” King Sebastian said, cracking a smile. “It’s more likely that a masking spell disguised him.”

“That would mean a witch is involved.”

“Yes. I wanted to reassure you that I am working on it. I have another matter I’d like to run past both of you before I go.”

“Quinn?”

“Ah, again, I am on that as well, but that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Okay. What’s up?”

“I’ve already discussed this with your parents and have their permission. Once your apprenticeship here is over, I’d like you both to come and work for me.”

F
austine twirled in the silver-blue Dior gown she’d adopted from my closet. She positively glowed.

“Excited?” I asked.

“Yes! Totally. I can’t wait. Thanks for asking Pascal to go the dance with me. Although I was fine going on my own, I’m kinda glad I don’t have to.”

“It’s not like it was Pascal or no one.” I laughed. “How many boys asked you to go?”

“I don’t know. I stopped counting at twenty. The one I wanted to ask didn’t, though,” she said, scrunching up her nose. “I didn’t really expect him to, but I’m worried about him. I haven’t seen him at all since Martha’s murder.” She teared up again, though it had been months since the incident.

“Are we the only ones who’ve had our powers suspended?” she asked. “I mean, that’ll really suck tonight when everyone will be there.”

In an unprecedented move, Frau Schmelder had announced to the staff that Professor Bern would curtail all student demon and shifter paranormal powers outside supervised test sessions until further notice.

“No, all the shifters have lost their powers, as have the demons. But remember, I can still transform. So, don’t worry. This is temporary, just to keep peace between the students. It’s a great idea. I’m glad she did it.”

“Yeah, I guess. It’s just that now the annoying trolls seem to think they own the school.”

I chuckled. That had been the amusing consequence. The trolls were able to keep their paranormal powers, which they normally kept in check out of fear of the demons. With that deterrent gone, they were giggling their naughty selves all over the school, with the Stapple twins, Rea and Noella, leading the charge. It was hugely annoying, but funny all the same, as the trolls lived for practical jokes.

“Yes, I guess we should expect the odd spider in the punch and so on. Still, better than a full-on demon-shifter massacre,” I pointed out.

She didn’t look convinced, and remembering her horror of spiders, I nearly burst into laughter. I roughly pulled the comb through my hair to help stifle any giggles. I stood up from the stool to give my dress a once-over in the full-length mirror. I spun around, feeling like a pageant queen in the teal ball gown. The fabric emitted little sparkles as it moved with me.

“Wow, that gown is amazing. What’s making it shine like that? You look great, Cordelia,” Faustine said. “Are you going to put your hair up?”

My hair was straight and fell around my shoulders. “The shine? I wonder if it’s faery dust,” I mused. “I think I’ll leave my hair down with the neckline bare. Just a simple pair of black diamond drop earrings, and I’ll be all set.”