A Knight's Purpose (Book 1) ✔️

Chapter 32 - The Aftermath

Sereya remains silent as we take the elevator up to the second floor. I'm not sure if it's shock at Jayav or anger at me that keeps here quiet but I don't push.

Teacher leads the way back to Fawn's office, but I barely notice the hallways. We pass a few people, all of whom glare at us and all of whom I ignore.

Fawn is just entering her office as we approach, a steaming cup in her hand. As I breathe in I hum, lightly eyes fluttering shut.

"Where on earth did you get St. Helena's ebony for tea?" I practically salivate, unable to tear my eyes away from the mug.

"Uh..." Fawn stutters and I look up to find her both blushing and looking at me uncertainly. "We have a greenhouse here and one of our herbalists discovered a stash of seeds. Any extra that isn't needed for spell preparation is dried for our teas."

"Interesting." My gaze returns to the mug.

"Would you like a cup?"

I nod. "If you don't mind."

She smiles, leading us into her office to set down her mug before hurrying back out to get me a cup. Teacher and I settle onto the stools across Fawn's desk, still clean from our visit yesterday, while Sereya mills about the office, not really looking at any one thing.

When Fawn returns she sets a steaming cup before me and takes her seat, opening a glasses case and putting them on. I pull the rest of the transcribed spell from where I folded it in my back pocket and hand it over.

"Anything you can do will help," I smile.

She nods absentmindedly, already unfolding the pages and summoning books to her with pages flying. I watch for a moment as she pulls out clean pages of paper and starts flipping through books before grasping the hot tea.

I drink a small sip to test the temperature and sigh. Perfection. Tea including St. Helena's ebony was lost when the flower went extinct a few hundred years ago due to the Portuguese and their silly goats. Not that the Portuguese knew that they'd just killed off a necessary ingredient in the most potent healing tonics. Outside of herbal witchcraft, the flowers were dried and crushed, customarily to be added to black tea for their honey sweet taste. It was a soothing draft I'd developed a sweet tooth for.

Best. Tea. Ever. I think I might have even let out a purr.

Teacher however, isn't observing Fawn or reveling in the tea. He's watching me very carefully. "Tell me, Eve, where have you had the pleasure of St. Helena's ebony tea before?"

I freeze, cup at my lips.

"There are books that discuss tea's such as this and I've heard much of their flavor." I speak slowly.

He nods, almost kindly. "I'm sure you have. You seem to be quite the prodigious reader and collector. But, how did you know the smell?"

Shit. There's really not many ways to spin this without lying and no way to know who has a truth spell out and about without revealing more than I want.

"The tea smelled like honey but there was no honey in it. I took a wild guess. I've always wanted to have some." I return a brittle smile.

He just watches before nodding slowly. "Very well."

We sit in silence for a little while with only the shuffle of Sereya's walking to keep us company. Finally, Teacher swivels to watch her as she picks up a book here, leafs through, the replaces it to start at a strange piece of art there.

He casts me a knowing glance. "I suppose we will be avoiding the shifter side of Enforcement for as long as possible?"

I grimace. "Yeah."