secret.”
“Here’s one that you helped me remember,” I said, my hand closing into a fist. “My name is Cass Turner, and I’m not giving up without a fight.”
Chapter 24
Wraith closed his eyes and blinked out of existence.
I flopped onto the sofa and stared at the ceiling, waiting for him to reappear. I assumed he was busy finding the others, but it was hard not to feel anxious anyway. Every noise from the hallway made me twitch, wondering if Cly and Aegis were coming back already, if all the plans racing through my mind would be foiled by a broken heel or a forgotten purse.
I actually tried to look around the room to see if Cly had forgotten anything, only for my gaze to meet with the small rosewood box. And then I felt sick for a new set of reasons.
The Redbriars were going to pay, I vowed.
I sat up when Wraith reappeared, relief washing over me. “This may be a little disorienting,” he warned. “Let me see…”
It felt like being spun through a five-dimensional Rubik’s cube, rooms aligning and realigning in impossible ways. The room around me disappeared, replaced by a library storage room, then an empty lecture hall, then a janitor’s closet, then an abandoned office with dust sheets over the furniture.
The sofa came with me, chained to my wrist. I supposed that the magic-suppressing shackles posed difficulties to even Wraith’s strange abilities. The abandoned office was cluttered enough that he left the sofa—and me—half-propped atop the white-draped desk while he frowned vaguely into the distance. “I’m waiting for someone to leave… ah, that’s better.”
We popped into an empty stretch of hallway, then at last into a small, windowless room. It looked long disused, the walls peeling, the doorways bricked up—probably not with actual brick, I knew now. Arcturus, Acubens, and Darshan stood inside, already waiting for me.
I saw their faces as they took me in. Arcturus, impassive. Acubens, staring. Darshan… he opened his mouth, and I knew what he was going to say, something about how terrible I looked, the same as he’d said to me a dozen times before in greeting… but then he closed his mouth and looked down. I felt a lump in my throat.
“Cly?” said Acubens, stepping toward me.
“I’m not Cly,” I said.
Arcturus’s pale eyes scoured across me. “No, you aren’t, I see that now. Explain.”
I stared back at him. “My father was Priam Redbriar. My mother was a human woman named Kathleen Turner.” To one side, I heard Acubens swear in a very small voice. “My mother and I have been kept as prisoners at Redbriar Manor since I was a child. I was brought to Wraithwood Academy so I could supply magic to Cly through a family heirloom that drains magic from one mage and gives it to another.” I pulled down my jacket, showing them the necklace.
“I’ve seen similar artifacts. So the rumors about Clytemnestra Redbriar’s lack of magic were true,” said Arcturus.
“Yes,” I said. “If you’d fought that duel with the real Cly, you’d have won in ten and a half seconds.”
He narrowed his eyes faintly. “For how long have you been taking her place, and why?”
“Since the second day of school. You scared her off pretty easily. She decided she’d rather let me get beaten up on her behalf. And she knew she could control me because she has my mother as a hostage,” I said, my hands clenching. “Leda Redbriar’s keeping her at Redbriar Manor. She sent me her finger as a reminder.”
“And that’s why I’m here,” I continued, looking Arcturus in the eye. “My name is Cassandra Turner, not Cly Redbriar. I don’t want to work for the people who hurt my mom. That means we’re on the same side. You might not like me, but you have to admit I’m good at what I do. Help me get my mother back, and I’ll help you destroy House Redbriar once and for all.”
Tension thrummed in me as I watched him consider my words, his impassive face giving nothing away. “Wraith, is she telling the truth?”
“You can answer that,” I said to Wraith.
Wraith nodded, his hair rippling over his shoulders. “I’ve seen her secrets. You can trust her.”
Arcturus’s gaze turned back to me. “In that case, I have my answer. I will take up your cause with the full might of the Nightfelds.”
My heart rose. “You won’t regret it,” I breathed.
“But,” he added, “only if you kneel right here on the spot and swear yourself as my vassal.”
I