as I studiously avoid looking at the dead man on the floor. It’s not like he’s lying in a pool of blood, but there’s also no mistaking the fact that Trevor is no longer alive, and the thought makes nausea roil in my stomach. “What’s going on here?”
Hardwick narrows his eyes at me. He always seemed like a kindly uncle or something, but I’m slowly realizing he’s got a lot more facets to his personality than that. And this side of him doesn’t take any shit. “Not that it’s any of your business, young lady, but Roman is one of the magical practitioners who has learned how to temporarily raise the dead.”
My jaw drops. Excuse me, what?
I turn to Roman, eyes wide. “You can do that?”
“Not for long,” Roman says, his voice quiet and soothing. Like I’m the one who’s being accused of murder, not him. “The dead can only answer direct questions, and if you keep them animated for longer than a certain amount of time, they turn into mindless zombies. Only Unpredictables who pass difficult, specialized exams are allowed to do it. A few necromancers work homicide in the Circuit.”
Well, that makes sense. If you can ask a dead body questions and actually get answers, it must make solving murders a hell of a lot easier. But…
“Why can’t you do it this time?” Cam asks, taking the words right out of my mouth.
Roman looks down at Trevor. “I don’t know. Something’s blocking me.” He sounds disturbed.
“Blocking you?” Dmitri frowns. “How?”
“I don’t… know.” Roman repeats his answer absently as he crouches down next to the body, trying to examine it without touching it. “And that is very concerning indeed…”
“Well, since we can’t do this the easy way and get a name from him,” Hardwick says, “how about you tell me where you were and what you were doing? Preferably before security gets here.”
Roman opens his mouth, then closes it. Almost imperceptibly, his gaze flicks over to me.
Oh fuck. Right. I’m his alibi.
But if he says that—if he admits what we were doing—there goes our attempt to keep what happened between us under wraps. I don’t know if it’s strictly against the rules for a professor to fraternize with a student, but I know both of us have our own reasons for not wanting it to come out.
“Come on, son,” Hardwick adds quietly. “I’d rather not have security march you out in front of all your students.”
Shit, shit, shit. I can’t let them arrest Roman. Not when I know he didn’t do this. He couldn’t have done it, not unless he managed to sprint past me to the dorm. He had to have just gotten in when I did, and that’s a hell of a small window in which to kill someone. And what was Trevor doing in Roman’s room anyway?
It might put my head on the chopping block, but I have to say something.
“Dean Hardwick!” I blurt. “He couldn’t have done it.”
The dean and my professor both stare at me. Roman’s face is—I’d almost dare to say it’s devastated. He looks horrified that I’m speaking up. Not for himself though, I don’t think… but for me.
He quickly wipes the expression off his chiseled features, replacing it with his usual neutral look.
“Oh?” Hardwick asks.
“He was with me,” I continue, not quite sure where I’m going with this yet. “I’m… um, I’ve been struggling in my classes. Since I wasn’t really a part of the magical community before I came here, I started out behind, and I’ve been trying hard to catch up. Roman’s been tutoring me.”
There’s a large element of truth to that statement, which I’m hoping will cover up the part that’s a lie.
Hardwick narrows his eyes, clearly suspicious—but then Cam speaks up from behind me.
“It’s true.” He puts a hand on my shoulder. “We all quiz her, and she’s been working late at night when she can use an empty classroom to practice. I was there with them.”
“We were sparring this time,” Dmitri adds with a small smirk in my direction, and Asher nods.
Roman is staring at all of us, his face a mask of total shock, but he transforms his features into a calm I told you so expression when Hardwick looks over at him.
“That’s correct,” he says smoothly. “These three men have been very helpful in welcoming Miss Sinclair to the school and making sure she doesn’t get left behind. She’s extremely powerful but still needs to work on control, and our private sessions keep her