Read Online INTEGRATION (Bonfire Academy Book Two) (Bonfire Chronicles) by Imogen Rose - Free Book Online Page B

you think they’d just stand and wait while you broke in and then offer you some tea?”
    “When you put it like that—”
    “Like what? I’m just stating the obvious.”
    Sheesh—way to make me feel really stupid. And I guessed it had been a moronic move, but had the third person been unable to fly or be transported out that window—I mean, she did sound old—then I’d have found out who she was. I swallowed my pride and apologized again.
    “Well, bygones,” The Smelt said. “And no harm done. M. Drasco didn’t know it was you knocking and that I had sent someone out to find Mason. He returned here voluntarily with Mason. And as far as this note is concerned, we have no proof that Mason wrote it or that he’s even involved.”
    “I can’t think of anyone else, and considering what happened last year—”
    “Yes. I know what you mean. I just said that we don’t have any proof. I still strongly believe that he’s involved. And you said there was someone else in the room?”
    “Yes, but I couldn’t make out what kind of being. My sense of smell isn’t that great.”
    “And the scent will probably be gone by now, so there is probably no point in sending any of the Trackers down there.” The Trackers were The Smelt’s crack team of sniffer shifters. “But I will, just to make sure. They can have a sniff around when Mason heads off to his classes.”
    “Good. Could it have been Mason’s mother? His biological one?”
    “To be honest, I have no idea, Cordelia. There is no mention of her in the files at all. Why do you feel it’s important to know who it was?”
    “I don’t know. Maybe because it’s odd. If it was his mother, surely she’d have just come with the father?”
    The Smelt shrugged. “Well, there is no surveillance footage of her coming in or out of Mason’s room. So she either made herself invisible or came through the window.”
    “Or she could be a Wanderer,” I added.
    “Yes, there is that. Professor Bern and I have discussed that possibility in relation to Mason. That is now something you’ll have to figure out through the remaining Initiation sessions with Mason. I hear that you’ve been down to the new dOME lab. Impressive, isn’t it?”
    “Yes, very.”
    She narrowed her eyes until they were tiny slits and glared at me again. “Then make sure not to do anything
else
that may impede your use of it and your apprenticeship with Professor Bern. Understood?”
    I nodded and got up to leave.
    “Wait. Sit down for a moment.” She held up her hand and stared at her phone. “A text. King Sebastian is here. Stay for this meeting.” She tapped her phone keys, and moments later, the door opened.
    With movie-star swagger, Faustine’s father lit up the room with his dazzling smile as he walked over to Frau Smelt and took her hand. He kissed the back of it gallantly before sitting down on the couch next to me.
    “Cordelia, lovely to see you,” he said. “So what’s up?” he asked The Smelt.
    I watched his expression turn from easy charm to dark danger as Frau Schmelder recounted what had happened. He sat still, listening intently to every word, not once interrupting. His silence continued even after she’d stopped speaking. The three of us just sat while he digested the news. He finally stood up, appearing even taller than when he’d entered. Then he put both hands down on the corners of Frau Smelt’s desk and leaned toward her. I was on the ready to transform and intercede if he attacked her, but he just let out one long deep sigh and stepped back from the desk, running his fingers through his hair.
    “
How
? How could you let this happen?” His voice cut through the air like a sharp knife. “What is Mason doing back here after everything that he did?” He sat back down and glared at Frau Smelt as she began to explain the various donations Mason’s father had made to the Academy, and how the trustees had decided that Mason should be allowed back.
    He leaned forward,