I’m pacing the tiled pathway. Penelope is sitting cross-legged on a bench —never mind her short skirt—anxiously plucking leaves off a rosebush.
Shepard is staring up at the Tower, probably wondering why it doesn’t fall over.
“She won’t hurt him,” Penny says, to herself, as much as to me.
“But she doesn’t like him,” I counter. “He says she’s never liked him.”
“Oh, she likes him fine—she just thinks he’s a bad influence on me.”
Shepard and I both laugh.
Bunce frowns at us.
“Maybe we should leave before your mom comes down,” Shepard says.
“I don’t want to be here while she’s still putting people in towers.”
“I’d break you out,” Penny says dismissively.
“Almost nothing you say is reassuring,” he says, somehow still smiling at her.
“Being reassuring isn’t one of my core competencies,” she tells him.
“Breaking people out of towers is.”
Maybe I should go check on Simon. I could wait outside Headmistress Bunce’s office. She likes me, I think.
I was so terrified when I realized that Simon had gone to the Chapel by himself … Then I was irate that he’d lied to us … Now I don’t know what I am. I’ll decide after I see him again. After I’ve had a chance to inspect him for damage.
Someone pokes me in the back, and I whip around, reaching for my wand — I find myself at the end of it.
Pippa is standing there, holding my ivory wand out to me. “Here you go.”
Her voice is rough, but it sounds like it’s settled into her chest.
“Pippa…” I say.
She frowns. “I didn’t mean to steal your wand. Not initially.”
“You can have it.”
“I—I don’t need it.”
I stand taller and adjust my cuffs. “Pippa, I’m ready to face whatever consequences I deserve. We can talk to the Coven right now.”
“Crowley, Pitch. Just— just shut up. ” She shoves the wand into my chest and lets it go.
I catch it. “I don’t expect you to forgive me—”
“Good!” she snarls. “I don’t forgive you. I—” She shakes her head and presses her lips together, like she doesn’t have words for how much she hates me. “I never want to see you again.”
I nod.
Pippa stares at me for a second, with her arms folded and her face still hateful. “Tell Simon I said thank you,” she says, then walks away.
Penelope touches my arm. She’s standing just behind me, her right fist subtly pointed at Pippa’s back. “All right, Baz?”
I put my hand on her wrist. “All right, Bunce.”
78
SIMON
I wait for Penny’s mum in her office. She sends the school nurse, Miss Christy, to tend the wound on my wing.
“There’s a familiar face.”
“Hello, Miss Christy.”
“The headmistress says I’m not to cast any spells on you. Let’s see that wing.”
I spread it out and try not to flinch when she touches it. I trust Miss Christy. She’s patched me up more times than I can count. And she never seemed to blame me for it.
“Ran out of bones to break, so you had to give yourself wings, is that it?”
“I reckon, miss.”
“You won’t need stitches, but this’ll sting.”
She cleans the cut and leaves me with a bottle of Ribena and two scones.
“These are from yesterday, I’m afraid.”
“I don’t mind,” I say. “Thank you.”
“The headmistress says you’re to keep waiting here for her.”
I nod.
Miss Christy looks around the office. “Strange to think he’s gone, isn’t it?”
She means the Mage, but I’m afraid to acknowledge it. Is she angry with me? Were they close? Miss Christy was at Watford when I started, and she’s at least as old as the Mage. How long did they work together?
I nod, carefully.
She pats my hand. “I was sorry for your loss, son.”
Oh …
I’m still afraid to speak. I nod again. And watch her leave.
The sun shifts, and the room falls into shade.
Penny’s mum hasn’t changed everything in here … There’s still a painted Watford coat of arms hanging by the door. （I suppose those could be goats.） And a sturdy iron rack where the Mage used to hang his green woollen cape.
An honest-to-Merlin cape.