“You want to avenge them,” it purrs. “You can, you know. All you need to do … is release me. And you know how to do that, don’t you?”
The world swims more into focus again. I’m aware of the room around me, the podium near me, the phylactery in my hands. There’s a dagger nearby. I can see it from the corner of my eye.
“Yes,” whispers the voice. “Release me with your blood, little Avery. In here, I am invincible. I am imprisoned, but I am safe. Don’t you see?”
My hand begins to drift toward the dagger.
“Release me. Only then can I be killed. Only then can you avenge those wretched humans you call your parents.”
I feel my fingers close around the hilt. The voice is whispering to me. The eye is staring into my soul.
This is it. This is the moment I’ve waited for.
I lift the dagger. I feel the prick of steel on my wrist.
And then the phylactery is yanked from my hands.
I snap back to reality. The pain of my ribs, my hand, the shards of glass stabbing into me, it all returns. Headmaster Novac stands over me with the phylactery in his hands and a stern look on his face. The eye drifts shut again, and he places it back on its podium.
I turn my head. Professor Waldman is sitting just outside the door, her hair wild, bleeding from tiny bites and scratches. She sobs as another teacher roughly handcuffs her behind her back. The iratxoak are tiredly stumbling around her feet.
“The container for the imps?” Novac asks me kindly.
Shaking, I point it out to him on the floor. He scoops it up and places a small lump of cheese inside, then puts it on the ground. The iratxoak rush into the container, which he snaps shut and then tucks inside his breast pocket.
“I think these should stay with me for now,” he tells me. I nod, unable to speak.
“What’s the meaning of this?” Mason Dagher barrels into the room, chest out, panting. He’s wearing leather armor and carries a lance in one hand. “Who was trying to steal my djinn?”
“My parents’ djinn,” I say weakly. I sit up and Mason looks at me, astonished. “My parents captured it, not you,” I say, louder.
“You—you little liar,” Mason hisses, but Headmaster Novac raises his hand.
“Her touch awakened it, Mason.”
Mason’s face goes pale. He looks from the headmaster to me, back to the headmaster. “You can’t believe a teenaged girl over—”
“Over an egotistical narcissist?” Novac asks crisply. He turns away from Piers’ father and offers me a hand. I take it, and he helps me to my feet. “Are you injured?” he asks me gently.
Mason Dagher keeps opening and shutting his mouth, unable to find the words to explain his sudden disgrace.
“Only a little,” I reply truthfully.
Headmaster Novac nods. “You should head to the first-aid station. The infirmary is for the more serious cases.”
“Is it over?” I ask the headmaster as we pass by the panting Mason Dagher and the slumped Professor Waldman. “Is everyone safe? Are the monsters back in the Menagerie?”
He smiles at me. “It’s over, and most of the monsters have been contained. A few escaped, many are dead, and …” His smile falls. “No. Not everyone was safe.”
We’re almost at the front hall.
“I can make it to the first-aid station myself,” I tell him. “You probably have more important things to deal with,” I add, glancing over my shoulder.
He laughs a little. “Very well. You’ve done well, Avery.” He gives my shoulder a grandfatherly squeeze before turning and walking back toward the phylactery room.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Everything’s relatively okay. People are safe, Waldman’s been captured, Mason Dagher’s been disgraced—and I finally found the monster that killed my parents.