After the monsters had come out of the magical closet five years ago, Thorndike’s buildings had been refitted with aura detectors that sprayed iron dust. At least the building would keep her safe from the lethal spells of a psychotic mage.

She strode down the hall to her room and unlocked the door. After pulling off her coat, she flicked on the light.

She gasped. Two men in black suits stood in her room—one thin, with impossibly long legs, and the other roughly the size and heft of an industrial fridge. What the fuck?

Instantly, her hand flew to her vial of dust.

Fridge smiled. “Well-trained, I see. But that won’t work on us.”

“We’re from the Brotherhood,” said the long-shanked one. “We don’t use magic.”

Her mind turned from confusion to horror. She really was in trouble. “I just saw my Guardian. I thought everything was going to be okay. What are you doing in my room? And where’s my roommate?”

Longshanks tilted his narrow head, studying her. “Randolph Loring sent us.”

Randolph Loring knew who she was? She wasn’t sure if she should be flattered or terrified. “Is this about the mages? How did you hear about that so fast?”

Fridge licked his pale lips, edging closer. “I’m sure we will enjoy hearing about the other mages. But no. This is about you, Rosalind.”

“I want to see Josiah,” she managed. “I just gave him intel about two mages on campus. You should be hunting them.”

“Josiah can’t help you now,” said Longshanks.

Fear crawled up the back of her neck. “Josiah is my Guardian. I need him here for this conversation.”

Fridge smiled, his long teeth like a row of tombstones. “No. You don’t.”

She took a step back, her mind burning with panic. She shouldn’t be afraid of her own people, and yet… “Why are you here for me? I haven’t done anything wrong. There’s a shadow mage and a sea-mage stalking the campus, and you’re here harassing me.”

Longshanks edged closer, and Rosalind took another step back—right into another body. A quick glance behind her told her the third person was a woman—a very large, muscular woman. Her heart clenched. There were three of them, trapping her in the dorm room.

“We know you’re a mage,” the woman whispered in her ear. “And I know you’re not stupid enough to resist us.”

A wave of horror slammed into Rosalind. A mage. Now that wasn’t possible, even if she didn’t know who her birth parents were. Unlike the other monsters, mages were made, not born. To become a mage, you needed to actually commit to learning magic. It could take years to learn Angelic, the magical language. It wasn’t like it happened by accident. “You’ve made a mistake. I’ve never learned a spell in my life.”

“The Brotherhood doesn’t make mistakes,” Fridge said. “Cuff her.”

The woman gripped Rosalind’s arms, and Rosalind’s adrenaline surged. Once the Brotherhood had someone in their sights, they didn’t tend to change their minds easily. She didn’t know what they did with convicted mages, but she was pretty sure no one arrested by the Brotherhood made it into the daylight again.