The Rejected True Heiress (Liora and Callum) novel Chapter 515

Liora’s POV

The woman behind the desk lifted her veil up and over her head and turned to face the room.

My stomach dropped through the floor when I saw that familiar face looking down at me.

“Mrs. Oakes?” The name came out as a whisper. I shook my head. “I thought you were—”

“Dead,” she said. “My sister is dead. I know.”

Sister.

Mrs. Oakes had a… sister?

The woman came around the desk slowly, stopping at the edge of the platform to look down at the three of us. Up close the differences between hers and Mrs. Oakes’ faces became more obvious. Her features were a little sharper, her eyes a little darker, and there was none of the warmth the headmistress once showed for me.

I knew this woman, I realized. It was the same woman who I’d spoken to the last time I was here, when I was pleading for help that they wouldn’t give. The very same day Mrs. Oakes, my Mrs. Oakes, revealed herself to me as a witch. I hadn’t made the connection because her face had been covered by the veil that was now pulled back.

“My twin sister and I shared a face,” the woman said, noticing the looks that all three of us were currently giving her. “We shared very little else. I hadn’t spoken to her in years, and neither did she speak to me.”

I swallowed hard.

“You’re the headmistress here?” Callum asked.

She looked at him. “I am. And in one afternoon you three have burned a hole in the side of my academy, trespassed onto private property, terrorized my pupils, and touched artifacts that you had no business touching.” She shot Zane a withering look at that last part. “I have every right to punish you for these crimes.”

I exchanged looks with Zane and Callum. The former’s face was streaked with sweat and tears. Callum’s expression was hard, but I could see the panic behind his eyes. If the witches were working with Belinda at all, then this was bad. Very bad.

“The three of you will repair what you broke,” the headmistress went on, “stone by stone, with your hands, until the debt is paid and not a day before. You will scrub the floors. You will replant the gardens that were destroyed during your rampage. And when you have learned what it costs to ruin something other people built, perhaps I will decide what to do with you after that.”

“You can’t—” Callum started, but she cut him off.

“I can do considerably more than that,” she said without bothering to look at him this time.

I should have kept quiet, but I was too stubborn for that.

“Your sister died for this,” I said before I could think twice. “She died trying to help us. And now, we need your help. Please, just… hear us out before you dole out our punishment.”

The room went still. The headmistress turned her head toward me, slowly, and for the first time something that looked a little like emotion flickered behind her face.

Before I could answer, the headmistress made a small motion with two fingers, and the shimmering light around Zane’s wrists broke apart. A moment later, the same light that had been holding Callum and me prisoner let go. I felt my body sag with relief at the sudden absence of it, and I rubbed my wrists as if they’d been shackled like real iron.

As the three of us gathered there, the headmistress turned to a woman in a veil who was standing beside her. They whispered to each other for a few long moments before Mrs. Oakes’ twin turned back toward us.

“The walls you saw in the scrying glass were obsidian, you say?” she asked.

I nodded, and the woman in the veil stepped forward.

“There are ancient tunnels under the academy,” she explained. “No one has set foot down there in decades due to structural issues; the entrance is sealed with magic to ensure that no one may enter.”

I tucked my chin. “Do you think Belinda may have found a way to get in?”

“Most likely,” the headmistress said. “My pupils will take you as far as the entrance and no further. What may or may not be waiting in those tunnels is your own affair.” She lifted her veil off the desk and settled it back over the face I kept wanting to call by the wrong name. “You may search them at your discretion. But if I see any of you set foot in this academy again, I will not be so lenient in regards to your punishment.”

Callum let out a breath beside me. “Thank you.”

“Good luck,” she said, waving her hand so that the door behind us groaned open again, revealing a throng of students who had gathered to eavesdrop. “If you do somehow manage to stop Belinda, bring her here. We will see to her punishment in our own way.”

With that, she turned back to her desk, sitting down, and picked up a quill, already writing.