When the Academy said they offered therapy, they actually meant I had no choice but to attend. I got a session scheduled after Friday classes. I had no intention of rolling over like a puppy and showing my belly for them to dissect. Except instead of belly it’d be my brain. And I’m more of a feral rat than puppy. And instead of rolling over—you know what, analogies are lame.

I knocked on the door and went straight in. That was important first step; I needed to set the pace. The therapist was a young guy, younger than a lot of the teachers.

‘Guessing you’re my nine o’clock?’ he asked. ‘Eleanor Wilson?’

I made a point to ignore him, instead hastily patrolling his dominion, like a feral rat scurrying around a strange house. Don’t worry, I’d seen Good Will Hunting three times, so I had a decent idea of how to conduct myself.

My biggest initial hurdle wasn’t the therapist. It was his room. It had empty shelves, a desk, coffee table, and chairs, but no decorations. A few cardboard boxes made waist-high towers. I couldn’t ignore him if there was nothing else for my attention.

‘You’re new?’ I asked, nudging a box with my shoe.

He confirmed. ‘Haven’t had the chance to settle in.’

‘I’ll come back when you have,’ I replied, and aimed at the door.

‘No need,’ he replied, unperturbed. ‘Please, have a seat.’

I waited for him to sit first, and then sat opposite. He introduced himself as Lucas Owen, but I could call him whatever. His height about matched mine, and he had a slim frame. He wore oval glasses, which I didn’t like.

Peeking into the nearest box, I found hefty, ear-marked tomes, so I said:

‘You read?’

‘When I can.’

‘Books like this must be expensive, and useless. You could’ve got all this for one-dollar-fifty in late fees at the public library.’

‘Nice. Good Will Hunting, right?’

My brows shot up. ‘You’ve seen it?’

‘A while ago. You like movies?’

‘…Yeah.’

‘Got any favourites?’

I’d waited a long, long time for someone to ask me that. ‘When I was a kid, I liked Garfield and this movie called Over The Hedge, which is about a bunch of animals stealing food. Then when I got older I liked Taxi Driver and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. These days I’m getting into more obscure stuff, like this movie called Stalker, which is really weird and atmospheric, and I had a friend who said the director died during filming.’

‘Pretty good.’

I scoffed. ‘Pretty good? Let’s hear yours.’

‘As a kid: Home Alone 2, Rango. Later: Heat, River’s Edge, and Blue Ruin. The best recent movie I saw was Midnight in Paris.’

I made a face. ‘I’ll give you the kid choices. Heat is a good action film, but that’s all, and liking River’s Edge is like liking lemon slices.’

‘I do like lemon slices’

‘And Midnight in Paris is boring,’ I added.

He shrugged. ‘I found it romantic and inspiring.’

‘Potato, tomato.’

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‘Is it because you didn’t know who the historical characters were?’

‘I knew who they were,’ I lied, scowling. ‘I’m saying the movie’s boring because basically nothing happens. Main character goes back in time, great. He meets a bunch of old, dead people, great. Then he has the chance to stay and he doesn’t.’

‘You’d have stayed?’

‘Uh, yeah. Imagine walking down Collins Street and suddenly you’re in a world with no Dusk. I’d stay in a heartbeat.’

‘You’ve got a point.’ He poured two glasses of iced water. Ice cubes clinked against my teeth when I drank. ‘You didn’t mention Blue Ruin,’ he remarked.

‘So?’

‘Have you seen it?’

I pursed my lips. ‘Can’t remember. What’s it about?’

‘A semi-homeless man takes revenge on the man who killed his parents.’

‘That sounds familiar.’ I used my nail to wriggle in a gap between my teeth. At lunch, the cafeteria had served a corn dish and a crushed bit of kernel had itself lodged way up. ‘Is this therapy, talking about movies?’

‘It can be.’

‘You can ask some proper questions, if you want.’

‘I appreciate your magnanimity,’ he laughed. ‘Well, the Academy wanted you to speak with me because of the incident during the—’

‘DetMage detention. Boring. If I did a Stand By Me crisis of identity every time I saw a corpse—or heard about one—I’d be nobody.’

‘Everyone is someone.’

‘Sure.’

‘How about…’ He had an itch on the back of his neck. ‘How’s Academy life going? Meeting people?’

‘Yes and no.’

‘Would you say it’s more yes or no?’

‘It’s both. Yes, I’ve met people. No, others have met me.’ Xandria crept along my skin, stopping at my scapula. ‘There’s this one person. She’s the kind where you’re not exactly friends, but you spend a lot of time together, kind of like a Heathers situation – minus the suicide.’

‘Do you not like being her friend?’

‘She’s…useful.’

‘If that’s the only reason you’re friends, it doesn’t sound like much of a friendship.’

I hiked up my shoulders until I had no neck. ‘I like having her around, but I wish we’d have some distance occasionally.’

‘Have you expressed these feelings to her?’

‘No, and even if I did, it’d be impossible.’

‘It might feel impossible but—’

‘It’s impossible.’

He wrote something. ‘How about the other type of person?’

‘Two of them. I got into a misunderstanding with both. Now I play tennis with one, and the other is helping me solve something.’

‘Like, studying together?’

‘More like sleuthing.’

‘Sounds exciting.’ He smiled. ‘Would you call these two your friends?’

‘One yes, one no,’ I answered. ‘I’m leaning toward no on the sleuthing person.’

‘Any particular reason?’

‘She’s…’ My hand opened and closed, as if reaching for words in the air. ‘I don’t know where I stand with her, and we’re only together because of the sleuthing.’ Plus, I had to convince her to keep quiet about my magic.

‘Do you think that’s the only thing connecting you?’

I needed a moment. ‘I hadn’t thought of it that way.’ Did I fear my link to Victoria would end after we solved Sergio’s death? Like, she’d suddenly pretend I didn’t exist? If I passed her in the hall, would she ignore me? There was also the threat of her blackmailing me, in regards to my magic. Did I prefer being ignored, or blackmailed?

That aside, hadn’t we already solved the Sergio case? The Cult of the Pale Maiden claimed responsibility for his corpse.

The Cult.

I had a sudden thought. I shot to my feet, scaring the therapist. ‘I gotta go,’ I announced. ‘Thanks for the chat.’

I didn’t give him a chance to stop me. I fast-walked from the building, jogged across the quad, and thought aloud. ‘Back at the Auroch, Wira Kusuma sounded like he hated Sergio, so killing him would’ve made sense. But instead the Cult did it. Why?’

‘Method without motive,’ Xandria said, back on my shoulder.

‘What did the Cult have to gain from killing Sergio?’

At the recent meeting with the gang, Umar and Dado had outlined what they knew about the Cult of the Pale Maiden: In essence, the Cult worshipped a “deity” called the Pale Maiden. The Cult’s members regularly moved through the Dusk, like the clans, but also spent lots of time hiding in cities. They kidnapped kids. Mostly they operated around Sydney, but there had been a couple recent kidnappings in Melbourne. Police hadn’t determined if the Cult were to blame.

‘Umar and Dado didn’t have all the information, but it sounded like the Cult kidnaps, not kills.’

‘They might kidnap and then kill,’ Xandria suggested.

‘Sergio was only killed.’

‘Depending on your perspective, he was killed and then half-kidnapped.’

Images of Sergio’s halved corpse flashed behind my eyes. I shivered. ‘I’m just not convinced the Cult did it.’

‘We’re forgetting a significant detail,’ Xandria said. ‘Wira Kusuma tried to kill you.’

‘I haven’t forgotten.’ I’d talked about it with the gang at the recent meeting, but Stefan and Wei hesitated at the notion of going after Kusuma right away. The specific name hadn’t come up, but I suspected the Phoenix salt stuff made them see stars.

So, Kusuma may or may not have killed Sergio, but he’d tried to kill me and deserved retaliation. Moreover, he’d tried to kill me, but only because I would’ve witnessed him trying to kill Victoria. Assuming he killed Sergio, would it have been to hurt the Fornax family? Back at the Auroch, Kusuma sounded pretty glad he could kill Victoria without witnesses.

The mystery of Sergio’s death may or may not have been solved, but that didn’t mean the partnership between Victoria and I was over. With sunset near, I jogged to find her.