“Or what?” he asked, stepping so close her breasts brushed the silver silk tie clipped to his gray shirt.
She took a deep, miserable breath. The challenge leaked from her eyes. “Or nothing. You’re the big strong mage who can crush me. I’m just a Non.”
She sagged and turned toward the office door. He swallowed his irritation at her easy surrender.
A heartbeat later, Sadie whirled, her pointed chin raised defiantly. His heart thumped. That was more like it.
“In the apple. It was a potion, wasn’t it?”
Gray nodded.
“What’s your specialty?”
Ah, so that’s where she was going with this. “Potions,” he said dryly.
“Who wants me to leave more than anyone else?”
“Oh, that would be me. One problem.” Gray took his time crossing the room to stand behind her. When he got there, he leaned to whisper in her ear. “If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead.”
“What if you wanted to scare me into leaving?” She looked over her shoulder. A few strands of coffee-colored hair brushed against his stubbled cheek. Those pink lips were an inch away. Part of his brain registered her accusation. A bigger part remembered the way her kiss had scorched his skin.
She stepped away and put one hand on the brass doorknob, jutting a hip at him. “Better luck next time.”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” Sadie said.
In the light of the almost-full moon streaming through the window, Dream Pippa rolled her eyes. “Accusing the Gray House heir of something he didn’t do is not a good idea at any time.”
“I was really angry with him.”
“With him?” Pippa asked pointedly.
Sadie slumped against the pillows. These conversations with Dream Pippa were always painful. “And with myself. One little rescue and I was going to let him take over my life. To tell me what to do.” She pulled her red satin duvet under her chin.
“On the bright side, you’ve only alienated everyone who could help you. Not as bad as the time you got hit by lightning.”
“Lightning?” Confusion spun her head.
“Ooops.” Dream Pippa giggled and fiddled with the yellow ribbon on her sunhat. “Forget I said that. You are most definitely not going to get hit by lightning anytime soon.”
“I wish you really were here, Aunt Pippa. Jewel told me real messages from dead people were always matters of life and death. I wish you could come back and tell me why you wanted me here.” She sighed. “I can’t shake this strange feeling. The book keeps sticking in my head.
The Atlas of Ancient and Medieval Architecture
. What is it about that book?”
“It was an accident,” Pippa said. “Don’t worry about it for now.”
Sadie had to make an effort to push the mental picture of Pippa lying on the library floor out of her mind. “Aunt Pippa, you look younger.”
She’d been seventy-two when she died, but didn’t look a day over fifty now. Sadie’d always called her aunt, but it was “great aunt,” really.
“Death is better than Botox, dear.” Pippa patted her formerly gray hair, now the same brown as Sadie’s own. A few strands blew in the tea-scented phantom breeze accompanying her. “Don’t get off the subject. This isn’t going well. You were supposed to figure some things out by now.”
Sadie couldn’t stop the words from spilling out of her. “I’ve made a mess of everything and Carmina’s gone and Gray thinks I think he tried to hurt me. And I don’t even know why I care what he thinks I think. I have no hope of controlling my classroom, and now I’m even a little bit afraid of them, since I found out what all their powers are.”
“Ah, there’s your problem,” Pippa said. “You don’t need to control them. You need to—”
A piercing shriek snapped Sadie from the dream. Primal instinct threw her awake and launched her to a sitting position. She drew breath in panicked gasps.
Dammit! She threw on her robe and went to find the noise.
*
***
******
****
*
Sadie found Gray—who else?—outside a student’s door in her hallway. Too-bright fluorescent lights illuminated the silver pajama bottoms riding low on his hips, revealing an inch of taut flesh between them and his t-shirt. He was a calming force against the panicked flock of pajama-wearing students. She closed her eyes so she wouldn’t sexually assault him. Not with all these witnesses to testify against her.
No court would ever convict me,
she thought.
I’d just need one woman on the jury.
She took a cleansing breath and started counting.
One...two...three...
“You’re not needed here, Miss Strange.” Gray’s voice was sleep-husky. A lock of hair tumbled forward, covering one of his silvery eyes.
Four…five…ten…
“What’s wrong, Mr. Gray?”
I’m staying, Gray
.
“I can deal with this.”
You’re out of your league
.
The girls around Gray swung their heads back and forth like they were watching a tennis match.
“I should stay aware of the issues with my floor, Mr. Gray.”
You can’t cut me out of everything
.
A hideous ripping noise came from behind the door, making her flinch and reconsider. “Uhm, then again—”
A green-eyed pre-teen in SpongeBob pajamas piped up. “It’s Regina’s time of the month.”
Yes. She mentally pumped a fist in the air. A female issue. Something
she
could deal with. “Well, Mr. Gray, I think you should leave this one to me.”
In your face, mage
.
“I don’t think you understa—” He broke off. His scowl turned into an incisor-baring grin. “Maybe you’re right. I should leave it to you. Back to bed, girls.”
“Awwwww,” said the flannel-clad chorus in unison before slumping away from the night’s entertainment.
The door to Regina’s room rattled on its hinges.
It seemed strangely familiar, as if all this—or something very similar—had happened before. When she tried to remember, the memory skittered just out of reach. She rubbed her temple.
Gray leaned against the wall and raised an eyebrow. “Something wrong?” he asked.
“Just a wicked bout of déjà vu.”
“It’s probably nothing. Go on in.” He cleared his throat in a way she might have found suspicious, if she’d had the time to think about it.
She knocked right under the decorated sign that said “Regina” in bright colors. “It’s Miss Strange. I’m coming in.”
The door stuck. She had to apply all her muscle to get it open. When it finally gave, it swung inward and she stumbled after it.
Yellow eyes stared at her above a snout covered in wiry brown hair. Animal musk choked her. Hot breath snorted onto her face. Black lips curled back from jagged fangs.
Her jaw dropped as the thing reared onto its hind legs.
The word you’re looking for is “werewolf,”
supplied her brain.
Time of the month. The almost-full moon shone in the window. Blood dripped from the werewolf’s paws.
Run
, her brain said, and Sadie wasn’t about to argue. But when she turned, there was Gray, inspecting his fingernails, a little glass vial in one hand. Her fists clenched. How dare the man be so calm?
That was it. No more. She turned back. The monster growled. So did she.
The werewolf’s nose came close, smelling her fear.
“Smell this.” She backhanded the werewolf across the snout, then grabbed the fur under its chin and yanked down sharply. “Regina, get a hold of yourself, girl.”
The werewolf snorted.
“Yes, you can,” she challenged. “You wouldn’t be here if you were a danger to the others. Calm down and tell me what’s wrong.”
Regina sniffed and made a throaty noise, but it wasn’t a growl. Sadie released her death grip on Regina’s beard. The werewolf fell to all fours and slunk to the corner of the room. Sadie followed.
Regina put her paws on her swivel chair and nudged a paper on the desk with her nose before moving away. Glossy red liquid covered a page of handwriting. Sadie tipped up the now-empty bottle of nail polish. “It’s not blood on your fingers, is it?”
“My essay is due tomorrow and I’ll never get it done now,” a whiny voice said.
She turned to face a red-haired teenager, who now sat on the bed, shrugging into a fuzzy pink bathrobe. Gray still lounged in the doorway, but his face was discreetly turned from the barely dressed teen.
Sadie swallowed her surprise at the instant transformation. “Why were you doing your nails over your homework?”
“I need an extension, Miss Strange.” Regina sniffed back tears. “Please, I know Mr. Day will give me one if you ask him.”
She looked into Regina’s brown eyes and hardened her heart. “I can’t do that.”
“You’re not being fair.” Regina’s whine split her eardrums.
“It’s not fair to others if you get more time. You left your homework until the night before it’s due.” As she closed the door, Regina collapsed on the bed in a sobbing pink heap.
Gray stared at her with wide steely eyes. He pointed at her, then at the door, then back at her, as if he didn’t quite know what to do with his finger. “Did you just slap a werewolf?”
An odd tingly feeling crept up her arm. Everything felt really far away. Her mind was blank. The only thing rooting her in reality was the back of her hand, which was starting to sting. “I don’t know. Did I?”
“Hell, yes. You were kinda—I mean, I’ve seen people fight werewolves before—Metas, though—and you’re just a—and you—did you just slap a werewolf?”
The tingles in her arms had turned to full-blown trembling. She watched the vibrations with distant macabre interest. “I’m shaking.”
“Adrenaline. Come on.” He took her shoulders and steered her from behind. “Stay steady. Don’t show weakness. The kids might be watching.”
She started walking down the hall, her brain whirling uselessly. The world blurred, except for Gray, who, in his bed-tousled state, came into sharp focus. He blew a puff of air out of his mouth, sending the black lock of hair floating, but it settled back onto his forehead. His shoulders slumped at a lower angle than their usual ninety degrees. A red pillow crease marked his cheek. In her peripheral vision, she caught him sneaking glances at her when he thought she wasn’t looking. Maybe it was the adrenaline, but he seemed almost human.
Oh, wait. Her perceptions were lying to her again.
The wide hallway seemed suffocating with Gray walking so close. He was obviously shortening his strides to match hers. She caught a glimpse of the well-defined ridge where his legs met his torso. The Ridge. She’d always been a fan of The Ridge.
Eye, do not twitch.
He looked around to see whether anyone was watching, then ducked under Thalia’s arm and followed her into Pippa’s apartment.
“Here.” He sat her in the comfy chair and handed her a little glass vial. “Drink this. When does the yelling start?”
She uncorked the vial and smelled it. For some reason, the odd herbal scent seemed familiar. “Does this sort of thing happen a lot around here?”
Gray nodded. “The students lose control. So, yes.”
She sighed and went boneless in the chair.
“Sadie, aren’t you going to yell at me? Come on, it’ll be fun. I’ll get you started: ‘Gray, you alumnus, I can’t believe you threw me to the wolves.’” Gray dragged his hand through his hair as he paced. “Well, wolf.”
“Gray...”
“Don’t take a reasonable tone with me, young lady. We’ll never get started if you do. This is the part where you quote a famous work of literature to me.”
Sadie shook her head and twisted the vial so the golden liquid stuck to the sides.
“You’re no fun tonight.” Gray folded onto the couch.
“I have to tell you something. You’re really, really wrong about Carmina—”
“Ha!” Gray rubbed his hands together and grinned in anticipation. “Here it comes.”
“I’m sorry for accusing you. You wouldn’t try to hurt me.”
“Uh, Sadie, I just did. Remember the werewolf? Her name’s Regina. Ring a bell at all?”
She shrugged. “I guess somewhere along the line, I started to trust you.”
“Before or after I threw you in a room with a werewolf? Damn, you really do see things in men that aren’t there.” Gray slumped back. His cinnamon scent drifted toward her.
“And you stood in the doorway, watching over me,” she pointed out.
“Yeah.” His voice was so dry it could have sucked the water out of the St. Lawrence Seaway. “A regular Mother Theresa.”
Mother Theresa never filled out her pajama bottoms like that. “You wouldn’t let anything hurt me.”
“Yeah.” There was something sarcastic in his tone. “I’d never erase your memory or anything.”
“You wouldn’t. But I can’t—” She tapped a finger against the glass vial in her hand. Ta-da. “Yes, I can prove it. I have no clue what this is. Could be anything.” She raised the vial. Putting it to her lips, she threw back her head and chugged the contents.
“Boy,” he said, “did I miss an opportunity.”
“Ugh.” Sadie made a face at the grassy taste. “Ben and Jerry won’t be making this flavor of ice cream anytime soon.”
“That could have been a love potion. How’d you like to be so desperately in love with me you’d do anything I said?”
“It would be a nightmare.” She smoothed a wrinkle in her kimono. When she looked up, Gray was staring at her. Was that hurt in his eyes?
“I’m a jerk for thinking of it, then.” A weird note of anticipation tinged his voice. Like he wanted her to agree.
“You’re acting weird, Gray.”
He raised his brows. “You just slapped a werewolf and you think I’m weird?”
“You keep putting yourself down. It’s out of character.”
Gray rolled one shoulder, like he had a backache. A light bulb went on in her brain. “Is this your way of apologizing?”
“Of course not,” he snapped.
“For throwing me in a room with a werewolf, maybe?”
“Don’t be stupid.” It was as good as an admission.
“Can’t you just say you’re sorry for scaring me? Will you lose your powers? Is it your kryptonite?”
He sprang from the couch and was suddenly in front of her, leaning in. She flinched at the sound of his hands slamming down on the arms of Pippa’s comfy chair. His bulk trapped her.
He’s no threat
, she reminded herself, and willed her stomach to stop quivering. Then she remembered Count Burana’s warning and Jewel Jones’s fear. At least she thought he wasn’t.