“Not her,” the Chief Mage snapped before they could lay a hand on me. “The guards.”
The Director froze. “You want me to remove the guards?” he sputtered. “After that violent display from this… this beastly girl?”
“Are you questioning my ability to defend myself against a hybrid?” The Chief Mage asked coolly. His face had turned to stone again, no hint of the emotion from earlier, but that was okay – I was furious enough for the both of us. How dare he refer to me so dismissively!
“N-no,” Chartis faltered, glancing at me uncertainly as I glared at both of them. “It’s just… this is against protocol.”
“I’ll remind you that I’m in charge here,” the Chief Mage said mildly. “Now have these guards escorted outside, or I will have you escorted out as well. And if that happens, rest assured you will not be coming back.”
The Director’s face paled at the threat. He nodded tightly at his boss, and turned to shoot me a death glare before waving the guards out the door. The sound of the double doors closing behind them echoed through the chamber with an awful sense of finality.
Before the Chief Mage could address me again, a hidden door to his right slid open, and a brown wolf shifter with yellow eyes prowled into the room.
“Ah, Fenris.” The Chief Mage turned to greet him. “You are late.”
I narrowed my eyes as the wolf shifter settled next to the Chief Mage and regarded me balefully. I glared back at him, disgust rising up in me at the sight of a shifter, any shifter, relegating himself to little more than a mage’s pet.
“I would not be so quick to judge a book by its cover.”
I blinked, startled as the wolf shifter’s deep voice echoed in my head. I hadn’t actually expected him to speak to me, and what was he talking about anyway? Was he reading my mind somehow?
“Director Chartis,” the Chief Mage said, drawing my attention away from Fenris. “Please read the charges.”
“With pleasure, sir.” Chartis pulled a sheet of paper from the sleeve of his robe, then listed off the same charges that Talcon had read, back at the earlier hearing. But this time, instead of being filled with anger, a kind of hopelessness stole through me. The Chief Mage didn’t look like he had a single ounce of compassion in his magical bones. What made me think that the outcome of this appeal was going to be any different?
“I see.” The Chief Mage drummed his long fingers on the table as he regarded me with those strangely colored eyes. I fought the urge to squirm beneath his piercing gaze, and instead lifted my chin and stared back at him as if I could see into the depths of his stone heart.
Not that I actually could. But as Talcon had so sweetly informed me yesterday, I was good at bluffing.
“Why was Miss Baine not identified as a magic user during the mandatory school testing?” the Chief Mage asked, never taking his eyes from me. “According to her file she attended a state-run educational facility.”
I blinked. The man had read my file? Maybe he really was interested in me. My insides squirmed uncomfortably at the thought.
Chartis cleared his throat. “She did, sir, and the tests were run. As to why they failed, I cannot say, but her status as a magic user is beyond reasonable doubt now. It’s an open-and-shut case.”
Fenris growled at that, and I glanced down at him, curious as he turned his glare on the Director. Was the Chief Mage’s pet shifter actually on my side?
Maybe he’s not so bad after all.
“I’m not quite so eager to rush to judgment,” the Chief Mage said, giving the Director a mildly disapproving frown for his trouble before turning his violet gaze back on me. “What do you have to say about all this, Miss Baine? Why was your magical talent not discovered during your school years?”
“Why don’t you tell me?” I challenged. Truthfully, though, that question had been burning in the back of my mind for many years. I’d never understood how I had managed to slip past the magic testing even though my magical outbursts, when they happened, were so powerful. Quite frankly it was amazing I’d been able to go undetected all these years from everyone. “It’s your test. I don’t know, and don’t care.”
“I’m not entirely certain I believe you, Miss Baine.” The Chief Mage steepled his fingers. He studied me as if I were an interesting puzzle that had been presented to him as a way to pass the time. “And I find that unlike you, I do care. I don’t like the idea of citizens slipping past the test so easily, especially one with a magical talent as strong as yours. I’ll need to study your case further to determine exactly how it was done and to make sure it does not happen again.”
“Study?” I echoed as images of me being strapped to a metal table under a set of bright lights danced through my mind. “As in, like, an experiment?”
To my surprise, the Chief Mage’s lips curved, a hint of amusement sparkling in his eyes. “Rest assured that no part of your body will be altered. Experimenting on humanoid subjects is a long banned practice, in any case.”
“Right.” I let out a breath. Because I fully expect you to follow the letter of your own laws. However, something about him made me wonder whether or not he really did hold himself to the same standards he was subjecting everyone else to.
“Argon, have her taken to a secure location where she can be kept until I am ready for her,” the Chief Mage ordered the Director. “Also, remove the shackles from her wrists. They won’t be necessary any longer.”