Page 70 of Scars Beneath a Serpent’s Scales

Emmeline managed to laugh, feeling lighter already. “You already knew.”

“Everyone knows who he is.” Myrella shrugged, her enthusiasm radiating off her so vividly, it was hard for Emmeline not to feel it. “And everyone has seen you two together. Though if you want to call it work…” Her voice trilled up at the end, teasing.

“It’s not that sort of partnership.” Emmeline laughed. But even as the denial rolled off her tongue, heat flared beneath her skin.

“Are you sure?” Myrella prodded. “Some of the instructors have a bit of a wager going on it.”

Emmeline’s jaw dropped. “What?”

“Oh, yes. It’s been so fun gambling over when you’d be caught by the Temple Master, how long the affair would last. There’s a number of different categories.”

“There is no affair.” Her cheeks flushed.

Myrella frowned, cocking her head to the side. The twinkle in her eye said she didn’t miss how Emmeline blushed. “Can I at least pretend you didn’t tell me that? The games have been so entertaining.”

And again, Emmeline couldn’t help but smile, biting her lip. “Do whatever you all want. But I did have something about Roremar that I wanted to discuss.”

She’d agonized over this all day yesterday, but Roremar had Nico and Desmond who knew about the case, despite one of them being Emmeline’s prime suspect. Why couldn’t she have a confidant as well? A…friend.

And who better than the woman who’d come for her when no one else in the Academy had?

Myrella turned fully toward her, wide attentive eyes relieving any reservations Emmeline had. With the dining hall blessedly empty, she told her everything.

About her and Roremar working together, about the murders and cults and tattoos. Myrella knew some of it already given that the isle was under a curfew and there was a general air of unease around the mysterious deaths, but to find out Emmeline was involved in the hunt and what evidence they’d gathered so far shocked the girl into silence.

She left out that Desmond was her lead suspect currently. She had to tell Roremar that before anyone else, and she didn’t have enough evidence yet to make a case she was confident in.

When she was done, Myrella’s eyes were so wide, Emmeline feared she may have broken her. She answered all her questions as best she could, and Myrella declared, “I’ll help.”

“What?” Emmeline’s jaw dropped. “That’s not why I told you.”

But Myrella insisted, “Let me help you.” She dropped her voice, though no one was around. “It will only be easier with more of us, right?”

Reluctance twisted Emmeline’s stomach, blood and starfire flashing beyond her vision. Fear streaked through her, a need to protect Myrella—the only instructor in the Academy who came for her during the attack—when she hadn’t been able to protect so many others.

What is wrong with me, Emmy?

Emmeline shook her head. “It’s not your job, Myrella.”

“It doesn’t need to be my job for me to want to help.”

That was a problem with the world. Too many people only wanted to face the issues that were their job. Too many were willing to turn a blind eye unless it affected them directly. Even Emmeline had been coerced into solving this case by the Temple Master, though she liked to think she would have cared regardless.

Not Myrella, though. She was selfless, authenticity bubbling out of her very being.

That level of openness scared Emmeline.

“You saw what happened to me a few nights ago, though. That was because of this.” Somehow, though Emmeline hadn’t figured out how yet.

Myrella’s jaw quivered, but she set it. “And I want to be a part of it.”

“Why?” Emmeline asked.

Myrella gripped her hand. “Because you’re my friend, Emmeline. And while I can tell Roremar is a great partner for this—that he cares for you—you deserve more help. To not face all of it alone.”

The words had her throat closing. It was a sentiment she hadn’t realized she needed, another woman to stand at her side in the face of these deaths.

Myrella’s overly expressive eyes hardened with resolve as she waited, every emotion flitting across her face carrying the weight of the world. She was always like that—feeling and expressing everything in a way that made the whole realm feel it, too. But now, this desperation pierced down to Emmeline’s spirit.