Chapter 6

Viola

It was past midnight when I got back to the shop.

I came in through the back door and hung my soaked coat by the stairs. My trouser legs were still dripping, so I found an old rag and wiped the floor, in case my aunt saw the puddles in the morning.

I went up quietly, locked my door, and stood in front of the mirror with my hair pushed back from my nape.

There was nothing there.

I felt along the skin again. No bite marks. No mate mark.

Good.

I buttoned my collar and sat down on the edge of the bed. The wet cold hadn't left my body yet, and another question had already pushed its way up.

Could I be pregnant?

I took out my terminal and searched a few times, deleted the words, and typed them again. In the end I switched to the school's public terminal, guest mode, and looked up how long emergency contraception stayed effective and what precautions came with it. I copied the important part onto the back of a scrap of used manuscript paper.

The next morning I avoided the pharmacy near the academy and went to one on the next street over. When the person behind the counter named the price, I hesitated a moment, and then I paid.

Back in the alley I swallowed the pill with water.

---

After morning rehearsal I went to the resource room to pick up the scores I'd need next week.

I was almost at the lockers when someone called my name.

"Viola. Wait a moment."

It was Marian, a student from a side branch of the Blaise family. Several people were standing around her, and she looked anxious.

"My brooch is gone. It's a family piece. It was still there this morning."

I glanced at the time. "Have you been to the office?"

"I have."

That was when her eyes came to rest on me.

Cecilia was standing beside her, holding her scores, and let out a light sigh.

"Don't panic. Maybe it was just put down somewhere by mistake. Nobody's been having an easy time lately. When the pressure's bad enough, people really do make mistakes."

She didn't name anyone, but several of the people around her turned to look at me.

I couldn't be bothered to guess what she was playing at this time, so I picked up my materials to leave.

A member of the academy staff stopped me right there.

"Viola, come with us to the storage room. We need to check your locker."

I raised an eyebrow. "Now?"

"Yes."

"Fine."

I set my scores on the table and went with him.

I hadn't taken anything, so let them look. I still wanted to get back to practicing, and I didn't have time to stand around with them.

Several people were already in the storage room. The staff member told me to open the locker, so I pulled the door open and stepped back.

Inside there was nothing but old scores, my practice notes, and a spare coat.

He went through it, then picked up my old score folder.

A silver brooch slid out from between the pages and dropped onto the table.

Marian came forward at once. "That's it!"

I froze.

The brooch lay on the tabletop with its silver edge catching the light. I didn't even know what it looked like, let alone how I would have hidden it among my own things.

"That isn't mine," I said.

The staff member didn't respond. He only picked the brooch up and turned to ask the others to confirm what the item was.

"Of course it is." Marian spoke quickly. "That's the Blaise family brooch."

"I know whose it is." I was staring at the folder on the table. "What I asked was why it was among my things."

Nobody answered.

The students who had been standing there with their arms crossed, waiting to be entertained, had started whispering.

"She couldn't even come up with the money for the event outfit, could she?"

"No wonder she agreed so fast just now. She probably had her explanation ready before anyone even asked."

"Someone without even a wolf is lucky to be in this school at all."

I turned around.

"Are you finished?"

He hadn't expected me to ask him straight out, and the smile on his face seized up.

I ignored him and turned back to the teacher in charge of the investigation.

"Check the storage room access records. And find out who touched my locker. That too."

"We will investigate."

"I want the official record of that investigation. Until there's a result, you can't decide I stole it just because the thing turned up in my locker."

The teacher's face wasn't pleasant.

"The academy has its own disciplinary procedure. During the investigation, you won't be taking part in the private music exchange three days from now."

"Then run the investigation according to procedure."

I picked up my scores, and my fingers closed hard around the edges without my telling them to.

A moment ago I had thought this was simple.

Now, looking at that brooch in the confiscated pile, there was only one question left in my head. Who put it there?

I had never touched it.

I didn't even know where Marian's locker was.

And it had turned up in my folder.

The voices were still going behind me when I left the storage room.

"The Blaise family's involved now. You think the academy is going to let this slide?"

I didn't look back.

At the stairwell the staff member caught up with me.

"Viola, please have your guardian come to the academy tomorrow afternoon. The disciplinary committee needs to hear the situation in person."

---

My aunt arrived at the academy on time the next afternoon.

She was wearing the dark blue coat she kept for visiting people, her hair combed neatly into place. The first thing she asked when she came in was whether I'd eaten lunch.

"I did," I said.

I hadn't.

She looked at me, didn't call it out, and handed me the small cloth bundle she'd brought. "There's bread in there. Eat it after class."

I took it, and something in my chest went sour.

I hadn't wanted her to know about any of this, but if the academy was asking for my guardian, there was no way to keep it from her.

"I'm sorry you had to come all this way."

"What is there to be sorry for?" She reached over and straightened my collar. "Just explain it clearly. What you didn't do, you don't have to be afraid of."

I nodded.

We had just reached the stairwell when she stopped.

"Aunt?"

She had a hand on the railing, and her face had gone wrong all at once.

"I'm fine," she said.

The words were barely out before her knees gave.

I threw myself at her, but her whole weight came down on me. I nearly went down with her and could only shout.

"Someone — please, help!"

A few students came running from the other end of the corridor. The staff had the infirmary called within a minute, and two medics lifted her onto a stretcher and carried her off.

I followed the whole way, and my hands wouldn't stop shaking.

She had been talking to me just a moment ago.

How did this happen?

In the infirmary the doctor had her examined and asked whether she had been having dizzy spells, fatigue, anything wrong with how her wolf soul ran. My aunt tried at first to say she was only overtired, but she couldn't even sit up without effort.

After checking the state of her wolf soul, the doctor's expression turned serious.

"Her wolf soul has weakened badly. Taken together with these symptoms, it's very likely wolf-soul depletion, and it's been going on for a considerable time."

I stood by the bed and looked at him as though I hadn't understood.

"What is wolf-soul depletion?"

"A condition specific to werewolves. The wolf soul gradually loses its activity. Patients can be tired for long stretches, dizzy, and in severe cases collapse without warning. If it isn't treated in time, it can keep getting worse."

"How is it treated?"

The doctor didn't answer right away.

"The medicine is the difficulty. It isn't a question of money. Several of the materials it needs don't move through ordinary channels at all — the only supply in this city runs through the Crawford family's private hospital, and they don't dispense to the public. You'd need someone inside that family to even get an application heard."

I took my aunt's hand.

I looked at her pale face and suddenly couldn't tell whether I was angry or frightened.

"How long were you planning to keep this from me?"

"I didn't want you to worry."

"And now? You think watching you go down in a corridor means I'm not worried?"

Her lips moved, and in the end nothing came out.

I stood up, went to the door, and stopped there.

I wanted badly to step outside and breathe, but I couldn't leave her alone in that bed.

"I'll go ask the doctor what the treatment costs," I said.

"Viola. Don't go owing people favors for me."

I turned back to look at her.

"You're still worrying about that now?"

She didn't say anything else.

I went out to find the doctor.

I had to know what the treatment involved and what it would cost. The money in the shop wasn't enough. I could take on more work, I could apply for the academy's emergency aid.

There would be a way.

I had just finished asking about the cost when someone in the corridor said my name.

"Viola."

I turned.

Alistair Crawford was standing outside the infirmary. He was in a dark coat, and his face was as cold as it always was.

"I can ask them to suspend the disciplinary action against you, and to re-verify the entire process by which the brooch got into your locker. I'll also ask the Blaise family to stop interfering with the investigation."

What?

Why？

"What do you want?"

I followed Alistair to the end of the corridor. He didn't stand too close, and he didn't touch me.

"In two months the Crawford family conducts its inheritance review. I need a formal, stable partner. The family wants my marriage arrangement settled before the review."

I looked at him, almost certain I had misheard.

"You want to get married?"

"Yes."