“Yes. What is the Nectar of the gods if not a poison designed to kill anyone who doesn’t fit a specific set of criteria?”

“I guess I never thought about it that way.” If Nectar really was poison, then that meant I got a rush from drinking poison. And why did I get that same high from Nero’s blood? Did that mean angel blood was poison too? This was all too bizarre for me to think about right now—or basically ever—so I chose blissful ignorance over enlightenment. There would always be time to be enlightened later, when I wasn’t trying to save the city.

“Ok, if the soldiers of the Legion are immune to these poisons, that explains why someone tried to blow us up rather than poison us at lunch today. Or at least tried to scare us by making us think they were going to blow us up,” I said.

“And you think this someone is the same person behind poisoning the vampires?”

“At this point, Bella, I really doubt we’re dealing with just one someone. The bomb in the dining room was Magitech.”

“You can’t believe Gwyneth is part of this too. She supports Aurora, not Morgana. She wouldn’t help Morgana kill vampires.”

“Maybe it’s Aurora who’s behind the attacks,” I suggested.

“Why would Aurora use animal-based poisons? The Botany department has a few poisons that are just as deadly to supernaturals as those from the Zoology department.”

“If it is Aurora, she might be trying to divert suspicion away from herself,” I said. “I just don’t know. None of this aligns. None of it makes sense. We’re missing too many pieces to this puzzle.”

“Well, I hope this will help you close the gap a bit.” Bella handed me a tiny metal stick. “I copied over any file that references either Sunset Pollen or Snapdragon Venom.”

I tucked the stick into my pocket. “Thanks. Now let’s see what’s brewing in the Zoology lab next door.”

We walked toward the door, but before we made it there, I heard voices echoing down the hall. I reached out and grabbed Bella’s arm, stopping her.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Someone’s coming.”

Bella’s eyes flickered to the ceiling. “Up there. We can hide in the crawl space.”

Nero would never have approved of hiding. He’d have called it unbecoming of a soldier of the Legion. Well, he wasn’t here, so he didn’t get to have an opinion. The witches couldn’t do anything to me—well, except maybe try to blow me up again—but they could expel Bella if they found her in the school’s restricted corridor. I was not going to let that happen. If I’d been thinking straight, I never would have dragged her into this. I’d been too eager to solve the mystery, too willing to take risks.

I grabbed a broom and used it to push aside the ceiling panel. Then I helped Bella up into the hollow space above the ceiling. I followed her inside and settled the panel back into place. Through the cracks between panels, we watched the four leaders of New York’s witch covens enter the lab.

“Why have you called us here at this late hour, Morgana?” Aurora demanded, tapping her foot against the floor.

“The Legion is keeping a close eye on us,” her sister said to them all. If only she knew just how close we were. “Now more than ever, we must keep our hands clean.”

“That isn’t a problem for some of us,” Gwyneth said with a cool look.

“Cute. Very cute,” Morgana said. “But I know all about your dirty little project, Gwyneth.”

“And I know about yours, Morgana,” said Aurora. “I wonder what the Legion would have to say about it if they knew.”

“If I burn, you burn, dear sister. Or do you think the Legion would turn a blind eye to what you’ve been doing?”

“Someone needs to explain to those two how sisters are supposed to treat each other,” I whispered to Bella.

She squeezed my hand.

“No one is tattling to the Legion about anyone else,” Constantine said. “There’s no need to arouse their suspicion.”

“The Legion is already here. And they are always suspicious,” Aurora snapped at him.

“They are here because you two can’t control your little spat,” Gwyneth told the sisters. “Or your extracurricular activities.”

Now we were getting somewhere. But before I could learn more about those extracurricular activities, a thick gas filled the lab. The witches moved faster than I’d guessed they could in their very stylish but completely impractical outfits. They fled the lab and hurried down the corridor, taking any chance I had of further eavesdropping along with them.

But eavesdropping was the least of our problems. The gas was leaking into our hiding space, and it didn’t smell friendly.

“Poison,” Bella coughed.

14

Playing Ninja

I pushed open the ceiling panel. Thanks to the gods’ first gift, I was immune to the noxious gas, but Bella was not—and she couldn’t hold her breath indefinitely. We had to move quickly. Bella and I hopped down. I waved at her to run down the hall while I quickly set the panel into place.

Once it was back where it belonged, I ran down the hall after her. Hand-in-hand, we made it through the green barrier. I could hear footsteps rushing up the stairs. I pulled a black mask over my face and tucked my hair hastily inside. But Bella was completely exposed. If university security was coming, she’d get in trouble for being up here. I hurried to the window and pulled it open.