Chapter Seventeen: Tested | Part 4
Thirtyx wasn’t giving up that easily. “I know what I saw, Headmistress.”
“When they used that trick to sneak back in after the first attack, they caused a noticeable anomaly in the security field. The night of the Peace Garden attack, there were no anomalies. And initiating lockdown triggers additional scans of the last six bars’ activity and sounds alarms if anything is off. So, if you truly want to take your Comp, I suggest you cut the act and tell me what actually happened that night.”
The breath Thirtyx inhaled was shaky, but his eye contact didn’t waver. Time to test the limits of his boldness. “Do you really think their return after the first attack is the only time they’ve snuck in or out? And yet, it was the only time you’ve seen an anomaly.”
Azirenne’s jaw twitched in frustration. “Enough with the rhetorical questions! What are you trying to say?”
“The night you saw the anomaly—not everything went as planned.”
Thirtyx clung to the memory of the twins stumbling through the forest in a state of night blindness. He recalled every detail of their encounter with the partying students who almost caught them. None of it was planned, and he had to make sure his tongue remembered that.
“In what way?” Azirenne demanded.
“I don’t know the specifics of the magic, ma’am. I only know they seemed frustrated by their issues. If you like, I can tell you what I’ve observed about the spell, in case that helps you figure out what it does.”
One of Azirenne’s eyebrows rose, and her tail gave a hasty twitch. Thirtyx’s heart swelled with hope. Offering details beyond what was asked would strengthen his case considerably. And on this front, Thirtyx was prepared to sing like a songbird.
Surely, Rhea and Benn would forgive him for giving up this little parlor trick to keep the headmistress from the far more dangerous information she sought.
The headmistress cocked her head so that her horns pointed toward the corner of the room. “Enlighten me.”
“The breach requires both of them. It seems like Rhea somehow takes control of the security field to help Benn break through it.”
Azirenne scrambled for a piece of paper. “Are the sigils circular or angular?”
“More circles, I think.”
“And do they cast at the same time, or one after another?”
“One after another—Rhea then Benn.” Thirtyx embraced the hope still rising in his chest. If she was this invested in the spell’s details, it meant she was buying the ruse.
Azirenne’s hand scribbled feverishly. “And what happens when they finish casting?”
“Some sort of portal appears, and they step through the hedge like it isn’t even there.”
Azirenne gave a derisive snort. “That’s because it isn’t. The hedges are an incredibly powerful illusion. They’re purely theoretical, existing only because we all collectively believe they exist as a marker for our magical wall.” She looked up from the paper, eyes hungry with the thrill of discovery. “Which one of them messed up the night of the anomaly?”
In his mind, Thirtyx watched Rhea fall face first into the dirt after seeing Benn walk into a tree. “I think it was both of them.”
“And they didn’t encounter the same problems when they left the night of the Peace Garden attack?”
Thirtyx couldn’t have worded the question better if he’d planted it in her head. “They did not, Headmistress.”
Azirenne scribbled for a few more moments before dropping her pen with a satisfied nod. She leaned forward again so that her eyes were level with Thirtyx’s. “Venmagalion, I need you to tell me one more time that you truly believe this is how they left campus that night.”
Thirtyx answered with a weak smile. “Like I said, I watched them walk through that barrier myself.”
Calley Jones 