them. I didn’t even carry them off or extract them. I opened a portal, and they went through all on their own, not even knowing who had done it.
“Do you know anything about it?” she pushed.
“I heard from Keya that dozens of hobgoblins arrived at the main estate of HAVEN, asking for sanctuary as they were being held elsewhere against their will.”
She nodded. “I need to verify where you were the past two days.”
“What time exactly?”
“They’re unsure, but they think about one in the afternoon, our time.”
“Yesterday, she was training in the rec center then,” Ray told her, carrying a tray and walking with Zack. “I was right outside the entire time. She was in there for a couple of hours.”
“The day before, she was at lunch with Mel, Izzy, and I,” Zack added.
Izzy nodded to confirm it. “And then we were ordering stuff in our room until we all went to grab dinner.”
Dean White nodded she heard them. “Have you used the portal in the student union or faculty lounge since you’ve been back?”
“I have not,” I confirmed.
“Wonderful. Thank you for answering. I will report back my findings clearing you.”
“I’m disappointed that’s all you’re doing, Professor White,” Blake interjected from a few tables over. “It’s not like Vale hasn’t stolen hobgoblins before.”
I’d picked up on a few things about how supes did ranks and subtle slights. I wasn’t sure if it was how humans did it at the college level, but it did get confusing. On my first year schedule, White was listed as Professor White, as she was my teacher. However, she was a dean, so unless she was acting in her capacity as a professor, we really should address her with her higher title.
So Blake was actually slighting her by calling her Professor White right then.
Bitch.
I stood so I could see them both. “You cannot steal a person, Blake. The hobgoblins are free people, and I’ve helped them escape people who forget that—including your family.”
She blinked at me as if I was speaking another language. “They’re hobgoblins. You stole our servants.”
I fisted my hands and tried to reign in my anger. “Liluth is a person who was basically your family’s business manager and now runs the co-op. How you can—”
“Oh please, they’re fair folk,” she drawled. “You cannot equate them to the rest of us.” She rolled her eyes when several people gasped. “We all know it, but most try to be polite and placate them.”
“No, Blake, most aren’t fucking racist like you,” I sneered. I threw back my head and laughed at what I heard in her mind. “You’re just fucking jealous they’re more magically gifted than you.” I narrowed my eyes at her as if daring her to deny it. “I can hear their thoughts, as I can yours. The hobgoblins are just as smart as the rest of us. Hell, the fae dogs have more complicated thoughts and reasoning than you.”
Rage filled her eyes as steam about came out her ears.
“Enough, Blake,” Darby said as he moved near me, but so the three of us could still see each other. “Lots of us are tired of this picture you portray of vampires and as if you have some right to speak for us.”
She snorted at him. “I do. I’m a council family. I can’t believe you are speaking to me as if we’re equals just because you’re not a scholarship student this year. It’s nuts.”
“It is, because we’re not equals,” he agreed, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m a senior who earned his place here and every grade he’s gotten. And you’re basically a freshman who bought her place here not once, but twice. So enough with you, of all people, trying to be the shining example of vampires.”
If looks could kill, he’d be dead. “Aren’t you in enough trouble for siding with her over your own?”
Darby snorted. “I love her, and I don’t even like you, Blake.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you use that excuse for a lot—don’t you? It didn’t work when you were called in front of the council for questioning about her. How much trouble did you get in for getting a magical tattoo to lock away her secrets from your own council and trying to say it was because you loved her?”
I shot a glance at Mel across the cafeteria, seeing she had the same gobsmacked looked I did. We didn’t know that. Fuck.
Blake smirked at me before focusing on Darby again. “Right, but how did that end?”
Darby