I’m going to figure this out, I sent through the bond, but he was still freaking out. It was understandable. I’d freaked out the night before, so he was due, but I had to make a plan.
First up was to get back to campus and sort through this stuff. And then I was going to have to find a way to get in touch with Eli. Because if I couldn’t make a deal with him, then maybe we really were screwed.
Dastien squeezed my hand. We’ll get through this, right?
Of course. I just prayed I wasn’t lying.
Sixteen
The second we stepped into the Admin building, I could hear arguing. There were a few voices layered on top of each other, which made it so that I couldn’t quite figure out what anyone was saying or what the fight was about.
I followed the sound down the hall and into the library, with Chris and Dastien trailing behind me. I’d gotten off easy, only carrying one of the totes. The guys had the rest of the haul from Luciana’s lair. The dark feeling that we were on borrowed time hung over my head, and the fact that my friends were fighting didn’t make me feel any more hopeful about our situation.
I braced myself as I opened the door to the library. My friends were all standing around the table. Adrian was quiet. He had a stack of papers and some books in front of him. He was the only one actively doing research in the room. The gold star went to Adrian.
The rest of them…
Lucas was red faced and seething in one of the chairs as he watched the commotion, which—shockingly enough—was mostly caused by Claudia. My sweet, proper cousin who blushed when I cursed was currently yelling at Mr. Dawson. And Raphael? He was yelling even more.
I was glad to see Raphael was back, but whoa. This was a mess.
I’d thought they were going to help me come up with some solutions, not sit around and bicker. What had gotten into my cousins?
I dropped the bag of books on the floor with a loud clunk, but the fighting kept going. “What’s going on?” When no one stopped talking, I looked at Dastien and Chris, both of whom looked just as confused as I did.
Dastien gave me one of his half-shrugs, but he knew what they were talking about. He was much better at listening to select voices at the same time.
I’m not sure, but I think Michael said something that basically blamed the witches for everything that’s happening.
Yikes. How in the hell did that come up?
Don’t know.
Fighting right now wasn’t helping. “This needs to stop. We just outran Astaroth. Again. I don’t think we’re going to get that lucky a third time.”
“I’d prefer if there were no third time,” Chris muttered as he set the two boxes on the ground.
“Ditto. We need to get them working again.” It was past time for me to step in. “Hey, everyone.”
Nothing.
I clapped my hands. “Hey!”
Nothing.
I couldn’t do the loud, fingers-in-your-mouth-whistle thing, so I did the only thing that I figured could work, even if it could be considered a bit rude. But I couldn’t think of a faster way to shut everyone up. “Stop talking! Now!” I shoved a ton of power with the words through the room.
Instantly the room went quiet.
I hadn’t expected it to work that well, especially on Lucas and Mr. Dawson. “Thanks. Now, can someone please tell me what you’ve figured out?”
Everyone started talking at once, and I held up a hand.
I scanned the faces of my friends, and found Lucas to be the most red faced. I could almost feel him pushing against the power, straining to answer. “Lucas. Please, tell me what’s going on.”
“I’d be happy to, but next time, less power.”
“Of course.” As long as they didn’t all start fighting again. “I’m guessing whatever you’ve found out, it’s bad.”