I shrug.
“Are you drunk?” he demands.
“Maaaaybe,” I reply with a giggle. Fuck. Did I just giggle?
“Jesus.” He speeds up.
“Why are you going to the school?” I ask, trying to keep my speech from slurring. I don’t succeed.
He sighs heavily. “Attempted break-in. Possibly attempted theft.”
“In the Menagerie?”
Helsing glances at me suspiciously. “No. Different place. Why?”
“I broke into the Menagerie last night,” I mumble. “You should change the keys more often. Wanted to see Aurora. Tell her what was happening.”
His expression softens. “That your kelpie?”
I nod.
He stares ahead at the winding, snowy road for a long minute before he answers my earlier question. “No, not the Menagerie.”
“Where?”
“None of your goddamn business.”
I don’t press him further. I stare out the window at the darkness.
“Professor,” I say softly, after a moment’s silence. “I found something over Christmas break. Something in my parents’ cabin.”
He stiffens.
“Found my mom’s journals,” I continue. I don’t know why I’m telling him this. I guess alcohol is as good a truth serum as devil’s breath. “She said she felt like they were being followed on their last hunt.”
I hear him sigh again. “Yeah,” he replies heavily. “Yeah … they told me about that.”
I look at him in astonishment. “Wait … they told you about the hunt? I thought you said—”
“Forget what I said,” he snaps, his eyes still glued to the road. “They didn’t give me details. Hell, Riley wouldn’t even tell me what it was they were hunting. Said it was too dangerous, said if it fell into the wrong hunter’s hands … it could be deadly.”
“But they didn’t give any indication who it was they thought was following them?”
Helsing glances at me, and he looks a little guilty. “All I know is when Mason Dagher found them … it wasn’t a pretty sight.”
I feel my pulse quicken. “So Mason Dagher is the one who found them.” It sounds more than a little suspicious. Their rival hunter just happened to find their bodies after the monster killed them?
“You didn’t ask him about it?” I ask, carefully.
“Cagey fucker,” Helsing mutters. “Never been able to get him alone after that.” He drives up to the gates of the school. They open and he pulls into the courtyard, parking outside the entrance. He shuts the car off. “Come on.”
I haven’t regained full control of my limbs so I stumble out of the car. I yawn widely. All I want to do is crawl into my bed and sleep. Helsing grabs me by the elbow and tugs me along.
The entrance hall is bright and full of people; a few professors, the headmaster, and Mason Dagher, much to my surprise. He’s standing with a crowd of men and women in suits, who I take to be the board of trustees. He locks eyes with me immediately.
“The hell is she doing here?” he demands of Helsing, pointing at me.
“Keep your shirt on,” Professor Helsing retorts. “You go on up to bed, Black. Now. And I’ll deduct points from your score if you so much as put your face to the window to look outside,” he adds in a growl as I turn to head to the residence wing.