‘We didn’t steal it!’

I shrugged. ‘Borrowed it then. Hid it in the library sewer.’ I gave the three of them a hard look. ‘You know I almost died down there. That was what pissed me off and made me start looking for the real culprit. I realised the truth earlier tonight: it wasn’t me you were trying to kill, it wasn’t even Winter. You wanted to get Diall. It all makes sense.’

Rebecca stayed calm. ‘We haven’t done anything. You’re crazy. And where the hell is your partner?’

I waved my hand dismissively. ‘He got hold of some culver root and blocked me out.’ I sniffed. ‘Like I wanted to work with him. The man’s a fool.’

Bethany looked at Rebecca. She nodded slowly. ‘Culver root would do the job.’ Then her eyes hardened again. ‘Who else knows you’re here?’

‘No one. This was a spur of the moment thing.’ I smiled. ‘So what’s the plan? Who are you bringing down next? Price is in chains. He’s not getting out any time soon. Winter will see to that. And now that I’m in Arcane Branch, I think I’ve got a lot to offer you.’ I clapped my hands. ‘We can bring the entire Order down. That’ll teach them.’

They exchanged glances. ‘What led you to us?’ Bethany asked, choosing her words carefully to avoid any suggestion of culpability.

I stuck to the truth as closely as I could. The more I lied, the more chance there was that I’d be found out. If I could get these three to believe I was with them in heart and spirit then I’d win.

‘She was smiling,’ I said, jerking my head towards Rebecca. ‘When I saw you three earlier tonight. It seemed out of character.’ Rebecca glowered harder. ‘And,’ I continued, ‘you were the one who put me onto Price in the first place, weren’t you, Bethany?’ I shook my head as if in amazement. ‘I didn’t know for sure about anything but with the three of you here…’ My expression dropped. ‘Please don’t tell me I’m wrong. I really want to work with you guys.’

Bethany sank back onto the sofa. ‘We didn’t plan on taking the sceptre. It was going to be a few old books.’ She shrugged. ‘Anything that would have involved the wards being reset would have been enough. But then Weathers realised the sceptre ward was weak and that we could break it.’ She threw him an irritated glance. ‘We almost didn’t get the concealing spell up in time.’

‘You guys have some awesome skills.’

‘Yeah,’ Rebecca said shortly. ‘We do. All three of us should be Second Level. We have the magic, we’ve proved that. But because we don’t suck up to the right people, we’re stuck with menial jobs.’ She glared at me. ‘Let’s get one thing clear, though. We’re not trying to bring down the Order.’

I blinked. ‘Oh.’

‘Yeah,’ Weathers said. ‘Oh.’

‘We love the Order,’ Rebecca told me. ‘That’s why we did what we did. We want it to be as strong as possible. We want people to be treated with merit, to gain their Levels not because of politics but because they deserve them. So, yeah, we came up with a plan to destabilize Price and get rid of Diall.’