The Prof Croft Series: Books 0-4 (Prof Croft Box Sets Book 1) Brad Magnarella (ink book reader txt) 📖

squinted at the young woman before realizing there must have been something in the paper about my injuries. “Oh, that. No, no, I’m fine.” I flexed my right knee a couple of times to show her.

“Is it true?” Brie asked.

The words seemed to tremble past her lips. I set my leg back down and studied her again. Was I missing something? The two young women were among my more enthusiastic students—both added after the ghoul operation—but now their faces were taut and pale.

“Is what true?” I asked.

Denise took a folded newspaper from her bag and pushed it to the edge of her desk as though it were an explosive device. I broke my rule by looking at it and nearly choked at what I saw.

Above the side column that featured my headshot was a single-word headline:

TRAITOR

I lifted the paper from her desk and unfolded it. For a dizzying moment, I was in my mother’s staggering, bleeding body with that word, that awful word, being hurled at me from all sides.

NEW YORK - Everson Croft, the wizard consultant to Mayor Lowder’s ambitious eradication program, gave faulty information that led to the slaughter of three dozen NYPD officers, a credible source claimed.

The men lost their lives in last night’s operation to clear the southern end of Central Park.

“Croft knew the Hundred would be overwhelmed by creatures,” the source, who asked to remain anonymous, said. “Which was why he underestimated the threat. He wanted the operation to fail, and fail spectacularly.”

According to Police Commissioner Warren, the operation did not fail, thanks to the decisive actions of Captain Lance Cole. “He made the right call, meeting the overwhelming force with attack helicopters and napalm,” Warren said. “Indeed, Cole may be the only reason the Hundred wasn’t reduced to zero.”

As for Croft’s motive, the anonymous source said the wizard is secretly working for the city’s banking class.

“With Mayor Lowder close to securing the federal bailout, the city will no longer be in the thrall of the big firms,” the source said. “The firms know this. They’re fighting it. They need the mayor to lose his reelection bid, which means denying him any success. Croft was a plant to that end.”

Though the large firms, including Chillington Capital, have contributed millions to Lowder’s opponent, the source declined to speculate on whether Abby Azonka knew of the arrangement.

“But there’s something Azonka should know,” the source said. “She’s accepting money from vampires, and I don’t mean the figurative kind. Let’s just say not all of the city’s creatures hide underground.”

When asked whether Croft was one such creature, the source said, “No, but he might as well be.”

The mayor’s office declined to comment on the story, declaring it under investigation.

In the meantime, the city is planning a dedication for the slain officers today at noon, and…

I returned the paper to Denise and stepped slowly backwards until I was leaning against my desk. The room revolved around me. “…bad information … wanted the operation to fail … a plant…” My two students looked on worriedly as I choked down a surge of liquor and bile.

Last night Cole had said the mayor was meeting with advisors to determine the next step. Was this what the fae had come up with? Was this their solution to the bungled operation? To throw me under the bus?

Impossible, I thought. Caroline would never let that happen.

But was it impossible? Given the insinuations against Budge’s opponent, the anonymous source had clearly come from the mayor’s office. And Caroline’s allegiance was to the fae now, to securing the portal in lower Manhattan. In the eyes of her race, the fate of someone like me meant nothing.

Hence, Caroline’s warnings, I realized.

But why make me a traitor? Why link me to the bankers?

Because the portal is located in vampire territory.

Securing Federal Hall, the building in which the lower portal was housed, was only half the battle for the fae. The other half was them being able to come and go as they needed. The vampires may have been making that difficult, demanding a hefty tribute or something. The solution? Poison my name to mitigate any political fallout from the operation and then put me in league with the vampire bankers, thus poisoning them too.

Two birds, meet one stone.

I raised my gaze to the students. “No,” I answered. “It’s not true.”

Denise let out a relieved laugh. “We knew it.”

Brie drew a finger through the mascara-tinted tears forming beneath her eyes. Her voice hitched as she spoke. “It’s just, you’re our favorite teacher, and—and—and everyone was talking like you’d done these horrible things. And—and we just refused to believe it.”

“Thanks,” I said, digging into my pocket and handing her a clean handkerchief. “That’s really nice of you. Both of you. Class will be cancelled until we can get this sorted out.”

I spoke calmly, but my mind was scrambling like a spider in a glass jar. I needed to get out of here, needed to get to a phone. I would call Vega, even Budge—someone who could tell me what in the hell was going on.

“Is there anything we can do?” Denise asked.

“Maybe don’t mention I was here?” I suggested.

Denise and Brie nodded as though taking solemn vows. That would help, anyway. As they collected their bags, I slung my satchel over a shoulder and retrieved my cane. I would go out the way I came in, don the sunglasses and beard to disguise me from a public that wanted my head on a pike, and go straight to a payphone.

Someone cleared his throat.

I spun toward the doorway. At first I saw only the backs of my departing students, but when they stepped around a diminutive figure in a bowtie and three-piece suit, my heart plummeted into my stomach.

“Going somewhere?” my department chair asked.

“Professor Snodgrass,” I said, then thought, please tell me you didn’t read this morning’s paper.

His triumphant grin suggested otherwise. “What did I tell you?” He took a jaunty step into the room. “I said this wasn’t over, that I was