Dodging Calamities (Artemis University #7) - Erin R Flynn Page 0,38

didn’t want all the fingers pointed at me.

Even if this was absolutely my doing.

Well, my human friend and the genius hacker we used, Marisol Gonzalez, had been working on this for weeks now. It wasn’t an easy task to lay out the right crumbs and digital cookies for a flawless everything to bust someone for something so bad.

I might not be able to get this guy for going after helpless young women in a secret supe society the world didn’t know about… But I was going to do the next best thing. I honestly thought this wasn’t harsh enough as he’d blackmailed those women to continuing to give him sex, and sexual favors, once he had dirt on them. That would be blown off by the humans as next to nothing that the council could cover up.

But kiddie porn? Even they couldn’t make that go away and would be stupid to try and get involved with.

And honestly, it wasn’t all that far off. There might be states where an adult was allowed to touch a sixteen-year-old girl, but when that “adult” was eighty-five and just looked like a thirty-year-old human… Gross. For real. When I’d learned his age, I’d almost puked. So, it was sick he went after girls that young.

Another FBI agent read McGrath his rights, and Edelman looked over the warrant, nodding along as he was filled in. He seemed to be biting back a smile or laugh, but handed it back over and thanked the agents for handling such a dangerous criminal that fell through the cracks.

“I’m shocked, as he came highly recommended to us from a very trusted source that thoroughly vetted him,” Edelman added loudly. “An elder group of this school were the ones who pushed for his placement. To find out he was so sick and here around young minds is profoundly disturbing.”

Nice. That was a nice, nice way to say boldly that the council pushed to have him there and didn’t care he was a sicko.

McGrath got over his shock at realizing I was behind this and started struggling again, no match for the humans since he couldn’t do magic. If he did, it would be big, huge shit that could end up with him losing his head.

Well, I didn’t know if the councils actually carried out executions that way, but using magic on humans in public like that normally led to that outcome. There were exceptions. I was one of them. I hadn’t known, been an unknown, so I got a pass. Emergency situations or accidents did happen, but as old as McGrath was, there wouldn’t be a pass.

And he couldn’t use it to evade the humans. That would draw too many eyes and come back on us. He was fucked.

Just liked he fucked over others. Good.

Everyone was abuzz after he was dragged off, the chatter in the cafeteria unreal. I smiled that we didn’t have to deal with him anymore and was about to focus back on my food. Instead, I locked gazes with Craftsman and couldn’t seem to look away from his intense, gorgeous emerald green eyes.

Things had been… Well they’d been awkward and difficult for a while, but a different type since Berman had made his move. He’d been frantic, panicked, that day, and couldn’t settle down, even after it had been over. When I’d calmed down, he’d kept feeding me everything, having asked the hobgoblins to bring food to me.

I had thought he was trying to make me chill with food, but then I’d realized he’d figured out what I had. He’d figured out hobgoblins had to be rescued that day or people would know for sure it was me. Even more than that, he had demanded coming with me again and helping me.

And I had needed the help that day, shaken and shaky the entire time.

I had needed him that day. I didn’t want to admit it, but I had needed Craftsman that day and he’d known that. He hadn’t pushed it, but he’d known it and since then, I felt like he was circling me, waiting for me to acknowledge… Something.

He was staring at me so intently, I flipped on my telepathy against my better judgment, before I even realized it.

“That was you, wasn’t it, love?”

“He’s been hassling Izzy about helping her contact her parents and doing as they want. That lesbians aren’t real and she’s mental. Everything her demented family tried to brainwash her of. He was doing damage and she was taking it. So