Into Thin Air

Chapter 48

Hope stood outside Dr. Saltzman’s door, eyes glued to the end of the hall. Every blonde who walked past made her heart leap with hope, but it was never Lizzie.
Hurry up, Hope thought, bouncing on the tips of her feet. 
She could feel all the students staring at her but nobody dared to say their thoughts out loud after this morning. Dorian had been quick to find Hope with her Saturday detention slip, but that did nothing for anyone’s fears that they would be next. 
Come on, Lizzie.
The door behind Hope creaked as it opened, and Hope squeezed her eyes tightly shut, entire body tensing just for one moment before she turned casually, a lazy smile on her face.
“Were you waiting for me?” Dr. Saltzman furrowed his eyebrows at Hope lurking outside his door. “You could’ve knocked.”
“Yeah, I just - I wanted to talk to you,” Hope lied, tripping over her words. 
“Oh good. I wanted to talk to you too.”
“Oh! You first!” Hope said too eagerly. All the better if she had more time to make up a believable lie. 
“Sure.” Dr. Saltzman looked startled. He spotted the students gawking nearby. “Let’s walk and talk.”
Oh fuck. “Okay.” Hope glanced back at the end of the hallway one more time, praying Lizzie would show up with the final piece of ascendant before Dr. Saltzman could slip too far away.
“I just wanted to say that I’m sorry about telling Josie and Lizzie about the prophecy. I didn’t know that one of them would tell …” His eyes jumped around the halls defeatedly, “... the whole school.”
“Oh, uh, thanks.” Hope’s smile was fast, gone just as quickly as it had appeared. “But it wasn’t ‘one of them.’ It was Josie.”
“I kinda figured. I’ll make sure it’s taken care of.”
“No offense, Dr. Saltzman, but what are you gonna do? I don’t think Saturday detentions are working - for any of your students.”
Dr. Saltzman screwed up his face. It wasn't like he didn't know it was true. It wasn’t like he hadn’t noticed that Josie didn’t seem to care that she was in trouble, just that she got to do what she wanted before she got caught. And it wasn’t like he hadn’t noticed that Saturday detentions weren’t helping Wendy to stop stealing as much as her sessions with Emma had. But that was school policy to slap a detention slip on anything that could evolve rapidly into something bigger in a magic-fueled school.
“I’ll figure it out,” he said simply. “Now, you wanted to talk to me about something?”
“Yeah - Well - I mean, I’ve been thinking.” Hope clambered for the lie she had forgotten to formulate while he spoke. “It’s my last year here, and I’m still not sure what I’m going to do after I graduate.”
“You don’t have to know yet.” Dr. Saltzman’s tone was so casual that Hope almost believed it wasn’t her entire life decision waiting in the balance. 
She might be immortal, but she had a strong suspicion that these were still the most formative years of her life. This was her chance to set herself on track, but she wasn’t sure if that was college - they had discussed Whitmore several times before - or saving the world or hunting monsters here or traveling the world. 
“You’ll always be welcome in my school. I need more vampire and werewolf staff and … well, you’re both. Or if you wanted to continue your education, Whitmore is still an option. It’s a good college and pretty close by. And I can get you a strong recommendation from a former professor there.” Dr. Saltzman could feel the conversation taking its usual turn. This was nothing they hadn’t talked about before, and even he could feel the repetitiveness. “Listen, Hope, you can do anything you want. That includes trying things out and quitting or deciding you don’t like it. You may be a tribrid, but you’re also only nineteen. You have plenty of time to grow.”
“Yeah, Penelope’s given me the same speech before.” Hope rolled her eyes.
“Who?”
Hope’s eyes lit up when she spotted the streak of silvery-blonde hair hurrying down the hallway in the direction Hope was supposed to be in. “Nevermind! Thanks for the talk, Dr. Saltzman! I’ll see you around!” 
Hope took off after Lizzie, grabbing her shoulder before she could get away again. 
“What happened?” Lizzie furrowed her eyebrows. “I thought you were going to keep my dad in his office.”
“A slight improvisation on my part.” Hope cringed, following Lizzie up the stairs to her room. “But did you get it?”
“Of course I did.” Lizzie patted her backpack.
“Good.” Hope closed the door behind her and Lizzie. “Now all that’s left is to assemble it and reverse engineer that spell.” 
“Already halfway ahead of you.” Lizzie unzipped her backpack and pulled out the complete ascendant. She held it in her hands proudly. 
Hope’s smile slipped. “Then I’m sorry about this next part.” 
“What are you talking about?”
“Ad somnum.” Hope caught the ascendant before it could drop from Lizzie’s limp hands but let the girl hit the ground. She stroked the edges of the ascendant thoughtfully. “It’s just too dangerous for you.”