“You could have at least answered her.”

“You’re not supposed to be here.”

Fox sat on the Headmaster’s desk. His legs were crossed and he smiled. He did not look to where Cinder’s form had just vanished. “If she hadn’t been so honest with herself about her feelings, the end game condition would have never been triggered. Plus, her reaching out to Kade would have negated all the major conflicts on his end as well. She would have just had to find a way for Wells to fall for her.”

“It’s better to have it end early, than waste all of our time.”

“That isn’t the point. For a mouse she’s impressive.” He was still upset. The inflection in his voice was similar to when he’d demanded a fight. The pain of the hits he landed hadn’t been easily forgotten. I’d prefer to avoid it if possible.

“You’re too involved.” He slid to his feet, smile still fixed into place. “Tell me, how many rules did you break this time around?”

“Will you put me out of commission again?” Fox’s foolishness would never fail to exhaust me. He had to have remembered the pain better than I did his fists. I wanted to ask father why he kept the boy around, and to go so far as to let him be a guide to a main character.

I doubted he’d answer, “That had nothing to do with me.”

“Which means I won’t be punished if you’re the only one who noticed. I’ve heard the students say snitches get stitches and I think I like the phrase.” How had he been faring with his student masquerade? I’d have to ask later. Fox could only have been coming off as wrong.

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“I have no desire to humor you right now. If you desire something, speak it.”

Fox came to a stop in front of me and the sunlight above shifted into a reddened hue of twilight. When he looked up, his eyes flashed blue, “I didn’t have anything to say. Just that you should treat her better. I hate to see her cry.”

“You’re too involved.”

“You’ve already said that.” He tilted his head, his smile growing. “You sensed me the whole time, right?”

I had, “What does it matter?”

“You were going to do something to her, right? Back when she was waking up?” Even the slightest shift in my expression could give something away. The twitch of the eyes were enough. His smile was now a warning. “But you sensed I was there and held back. Tell me, what were you planning?”

“Nothing. Even I can’t escape the Headmaster’s wrath when it comes to breaking rules. Especially when it comes to us harming the people he’s chosen.”

“So you were thinking about harming her. Maybe make her never wake up? Our resident Sleeping Beauty? Show she’s not cut out for this and make the Headmaster undo everything because of it? It wouldn’t be that hard to fake.”

Cinder resting with the photograph griped in the vice of her hands had been vexing. The way father had taken an interest in her had been equally as so, “It would have been the best for her.”

Fox only stared. I turned, ready to leave this conversation behind me.

As I closed my eyes to leave this place, Fox said, “I don’t know why the Headmaster is so curious about her either, but our job is to respect his wishes. Even if you don’t agree.”

“His wishes could have led to Abigail just as well.”

Abigail Rose. With her face bruised and lips bloodied, and lies dripping from her tongue at any probing. The kind of lies only Cinder would have obsessed over. If the girl hadn’t been able to resist magic without effort, the Headmaster wouldn’t have become so curious. It was her only redeeming quality, stacked against a multitude of inadequacies. Yet, she found herself here and had continued on to another story. One where the red would split her open and prove my grievances correct.

I hated that I was ending the cycle stuck on her. A disease I wished to purge.

Truly, she was an inconvenient main character.