“She found out,” she murmured. “Whether it was that Alicia girl or some other way, Veronica found out about you. I should never have sent you. I thought you’d slip underneath her radar if the other girls were charmed, but I was wrong. I was selfish and naive. It would’ve been better if she knew I was on to her from the very beginning. You’re sure you were masking Sydney’s appearance?” That was to Adrian.
“Positive,” he said. “Everyone we talked to, all the girls and even Alicia . . . none of them would have a clear idea of what Sydney looks like.”
“Maybe she’s been spying on you,” I suggested. “And saw us together. I haven’t been in disguise around here.”
“Maybe,” Ms. Terwilliger conceded. “But we also know she was active in Los Angeles. She would have to spend considerable time stalking her victims, which wouldn’t give her the chance to come here and watch me extensively. Even with her powers, she can’t teleport.” Her expression hardened with resolve. “Well, there’s nothing to be done now but damage control. She doesn’t seem to know exactly where you are yet or that you’re even connected to me. I’ll make you another charm to try to boost this one, but it may not work if she’s found a way to reach out to you. And in the meantime, don’t worry about offense anymore. You need to focus on defense—particularly invisibility spells. Your best protection against Veronica at this point is for her simply not to find you if she comes looking around Palm Springs.”
I’d continued reading the advanced offense spells, despite her warnings. With this new development, though, I knew she was right about defense being more important. Still, I couldn’t shake the worry that Veronica had discovered me by watching Ms. Terwilliger, which in turn made me fear for my teacher’s safety. “You keep saying she’s not after you . . . but are you really sure?”
“She’ll avoid me if she can,” said Ms. Terwilliger, sounding confident. “I have the power but not the youth and beauty she’s after. And even she would draw the line at taking on her sister. It’s the only remnant of human decency she has left.”
“Will she still have that attitude when you confront her?” asked Adrian.
Ms. Terwilliger shook her head. “No. Then anything goes. I’d like to meet with you tonight to practice a couple other defensive tactics.”
I eyed her carefully. “Are you up for that? No offense, ma’am, but you already look exhausted.”
“I’ll be fine. Meet me at the park again around ten. I’ll get Weathers to let you go. We must keep you safe.” She stared off into space for several moments and then focused on me again. “In light of this development . . . it wouldn’t be a bad idea for you to find some, ah, more basic means of defense as well.”
“Basic?” I asked, puzzled.
“She means like a gun or a knife,” supplied Adrian, catching on to what I hadn’t.
Ms. Terwilliger nodded. “If you ever confront Veronica, it’ll most likely come down to magic fighting magic . . . but, well, one can never say. Having something else for backup might prove invaluable.”
I wasn’t a fan of this idea. “I have no clue how to knife fight. And I don’t like guns.”
“Do you like being put into a coma and aging before your time?” asked Adrian.
I shot him a glare, surprised he’d be on board with this. “Of course not. But where would we even get one on such short notice?”
From the look on his face, he knew I had a point. Suddenly, he became enthusiastic again. “I think I know.”
“I’m sure you two will figure it out,” said Ms. Terwilliger, her mind already moving to something else. She glanced at her watch. “Almost time for classes.”
We all stood up, preparing to go our own ways, but I held Adrian back. I couldn’t imagine how in the world he would know where to get a gun on no notice. He wouldn’t elaborate and simply said he’d meet me after school. Before he left, I remembered something I’d wanted to ask.
“Adrian, did you keep my cross?”
“Your—oh.” Looking into his eyes, I could practically see yesterday’s events playing through his mind—including us rolling around on the bed. “I dropped it when—ah, well, before we left. You didn’t pick it up?”
I shook my head, and his face fell.
“Shit, I’m sorry, Sage.”
“It’s okay,” I said automatically.
“It’s not okay, and it’s my fault. I know how much it means to you.”
It did mean a lot to me, but I almost blamed myself as much as him. I should’ve thought of it before we left, but I’d been a little preoccupied. “It’s just a necklace,” I told him.
This didn’t comfort him. He looked so dejected when we parted ways that I hoped he wouldn’t forget about us meeting up later to visit his mysterious gun source. There was nothing to worry about, though. When classes ended, he was outside my dorm in the Mustang and looked much more upbeat, with no more mention of the necklace.
When he told me his gun plan, I was shocked, but after a few moments of thought, I realized he might be on to something. And so, a little less than an hour later, we found ourselves far outside the city, driving up to a forlorn-looking home on a large, barren piece of land. We had reached the Wolfe School of Defense.
“I never thought we’d be here again,” I remarked.
Wolfe’s house had no windows, and there were no cars in sight as we walked up to the door. “He may not even be home,” I murmured to Adrian. “We probably should have called first.”
“Wolfe never struck me as a guy who leaves the house very much,” said Adrian. He knocked on the door, and almost instantly, we heard a flurry of barking and scampering feet. I grimaced. Wolfe, for reasons I would never be able to understand, kept a herd of Chihuahuas in his house. He’d once told us that they could kill a man upon a single command.
We waited a few minutes, but the barking was the only sign that there was any sort of life inside. Adrian knocked one more time (driving the dogs into an even greater frenzy) and then shrugged. “I guess you were—”
The door suddenly opened—just a slit—and one gray eye peered out at us from underneath a chain. “Oh,” came a grizzled voice. “It’s you two.”
The door closed, and I heard the chain being unlocked. A moment later, Wolfe slipped outside, careful not to let any of the dogs out. He had a patch over his left eye, which was probably just as well since his other eye alone seemed to peer straight through me. “You should’ve called,” he said. “I nearly turned the dogs on you.”
Wolfe was dressed in his favorite pair of Bermuda shorts as well as a T-shirt showing a bald eagle riding on a monster truck. The eagle held an American flag in one set of talons and a samurai sword in the other. That seemed a weird weapon choice for such a patriotic shirt, but we’d long since learned not to question his wardrobe. That had come after he’d kicked a woman out of our class who’d dared to ask if he only had one pair of shorts or several identical ones.
“What do you kids need?” he asked. “Next classes don’t start until after New Year’s.”
Adrian and I exchanged glances. “We, um, need a gun,” I said. “I mean, just to borrow.”
Wolfe scratched his beard. “I don’t lend them out to students who haven’t taken my gun class. Safety first.” I found it promising, however, that he lent out guns at all. It was a sign of his character that he didn’t even bother asking why we wanted one.
“I’ve already had training,” I said. That was true. It was mandatory for all Alchemists. I’d done well in it, but as I’d mentioned to Adrian, I really didn’t like guns at all. At least a knife had other uses. But a gun? It was only there to injure or kill.