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A couple of hours later, Lily, her badly sprained ankle in a rather fetching air boot, was made comfortable in the vacant teacher’s quarters right next to Sam’s.
“I don’t want her to be alone in that huge dormitory. She’ll need someone to look after her, and the five remaining seniors aren’t up to it. And here, either Joanne or I will be able to.”
Lily protested feebly that, once she got her crutches, she’d be just fine to maneuver on her own, but one look from Magdalene ensured full capitulation. Sam broke out in a sweat despite the look not being addressed at her. The power of those bi-colored eyes, put on display like that, was quite astounding. The sheer authority, the weight of responsibility, and the determination to get things done her way… Well, it was something. Especially when Sam had seen those eyes close in surrender. The dichotomy was stunning.
The Headmistress took her leave and, with the rest of the wellwishers having departed earlier, Sam remained to make sure Lily settled in comfortably and could reach her water bottle and the snacks Joanne and the rest of the folks still at school had left for her.
“You have to admit though, teach… She’s kinda hot.” Lily’s face was split by an unrepentant smile.
“Those better be the drugs talking, missy.” But Sam knew she was blushing as she tucked the blanket around Lily’s injured leg.
“I’m not saying anything. But you, despite all the fighting you guys do on the daily, like her ‘cause she’s kinda brilliant… No worries, your secret is safe with me. Plus…” Lily lifted her hands in surrender and then started shaking one of them as if scalded. “Hot, hot, hot.”
“Those are definitely the drugs talking. Now, you’ve got your phone, and I’m just a call or a loud yell away. Off to sleep with you.”
Lily was still mumbling about hot older women and their stern ways as Sam closed the door and was faced with one ofthehottest older women with her own very stern ways waiting by her apartment, looking austere indeed.
“We need to talk about what happened, Professor Threadneedle.”
“What happened?” Sam stared at her rather dumbfoundedly.
“Water on slippery tiles and the lights not working in the whole corridor? You think there is nothing to talk about? The custodians replaced the bulbs, by the way—all three of them—and as you can see, everything is back to normal.”
Sam’s color drained.
“You think somebody tried to hurt Lily?”
“Considering that it all happened in front of your door, I don’t think that the intended victim was supposed to be Lily at all. Wrong time and wrong place for her, though.”
Confused and unsettled, Sam struggled a bit with the door to her apartment.
“How is she?” Magdalene’s voice sounded right next to her shoulder and Sam was hot all over again.
“You mean how is she now versus when you saw her three minutes ago?” Sam knew she was pushing it, but it was much better than still feelingembarrassed over being called out by a student for finding the Headmistress attractive and then having said attractive Headmistress ambush her moments later.
“I admit, I was rather too distracted by the neanderthal at the clinic to pay attention to what he had to say. I wanted to throttle him the whole time we were there.”
Magdalene pushed into Sam’s room as soon as she’d opened the door and without a backward glance stalked towards the window, staring distractedly into the darkness behind the glass. Sam could have sworn she saw neither the window nor the shadows beyond it.
“She’s just a child. And he almost refused to treat her.” The gravelly voice sounded forlorn and disappointed.
Sam gaped.
“You know, I think since you came to Dragons, I’ve spent way too much time trying to pick my jaw up off the floor. You do all these things, making cuts everywhere, chopping and changing, and ruthlessly throwing people out… You threaten the scholarship girls’ presence here, yet then you try to strangle the doctor who dared look at Lily sideways. I don’t understand you, Magdalene Nox.”
In a graceful motion that Sam followed avidly, Magdalene turned around.
“I think you’ve been surprised by me a bit longer than just the past three weeks.”
Sam found herself suddenly standing very close to the pair of deep amber eyes, the blue circle almost disappearing, being consumed by the darker color. And just as suddenly the feeling she’d had all week, of being untethered, of belonging nowhere and being no one, disappeared, the scent of wild jasmine grounding Sam like nothing seemed to have ever done before.
“I still have no idea why you even looked at me back in New York.”
Magdalene threw her head back and laughed, exposing the long line of ivory throat, and Sam’s mouth watered.
“A gorgeous blonde, alone at a bar, adorable in how out of place and awkward she looked and probably felt, was finally getting the courage to send me a drink… No, I have no idea why I paid you even one jot of attention that night.”
“So you spoke to me because I was so awkward and pitiful?” Sam gave her a puzzled look.
