Spycraft Academy B. Miles (new ebook reader txt) 📖

the thief seriously, but there was a chance that the thief could take something more important later. Either that, or Apelles was very, very good at hiding his worry.

"Goodnight, professor." Drina sidled up to Apelles and batted her eyes at him, unfazed by the nightmare spell he'd cast on her not an hour before.

Apelles' lips thinned. "Child, you are neither old enough nor substantial enough to be more than a gnat in my eye."

"Substantial enough?!" Drina huffed, "Have you even seen my chest?"

"No," he deadpanned.

"Whatever. Sam appreciates it." She flipped her hair over her shoulders and gave Sam a wide, conspiratorial grin. She was trying to get a rise out of Apelles. The only people who thought it was funny were Rosin and Mattie.

Sam rolled his eyes at the brunette as she sashayed past him, but he turned to follow her regardless. Before they got more than a few steps from Apelles' cottage, however, an ugly sound blared through the darkness, something that sounded like two dozen geese screaming in fear. Apelles moved so fast that by the time Sam turned to look at him with a question on his lips, the spymaster was already darting off.

Before Apelles got far, though, he glanced back at Sam and his crew, drew to a stop, and leveled a stern finger at them. "Do not follow. If he escapes again, you will focus on the task I have given you and call for me if you see him."

With that, he was off, blurring into the night like the wind. Sam had the urge to follow, to disobey, but his body was quick to remind him that he should do as he was told and get some rest. The instructors were more than capable of handling one thief and if they weren't, Sam might catch him out some other time. Either way, the thief wasn't taking anything that put anybody in danger, and really, that was the only thing he cared about to begin with.

Sam tilted his head toward the main building and gave the girls a small, weary smile. "Want to get some rest tonight?"

"I thought you'd never ask," Mattie said.

20

Once again, the staff failed to catch the thief. Since then, the school had been on such high alert that the faculty enlisted the fourth and fifth years to patrol the grounds. That had started almost three weeks ago. Apelles had been so casual about the thief when they met him at his house, but whatever the thief had taken this time, nobody was playing around, joking, or looking casual about it. The teachers seemed on their toes, their eyes darting around the classroom whenever they thought the students weren't looking.

As for Sam, he kept diligent watch as he promised Apelles he would. Sometimes, one of the girls would take a shift whenever he got too tired to do it himself, but for the most part, he took on the bulk of the work. Even when the girls tried to insist otherwise, it didn't feel right to just let them do it. After all, what if the thief actually showed up? Would they know what to do? Would they be able to capture him themselves if need be? He had no idea. Sam liked to think they could handle it, but anxiety gnawed at him at the thought of letting the matter fall to Drina or Rosin. He knew Mattie could do it, but Mattie was a different matter.

The lockdown itself was miserable, students weren't allowed to walk the hallways together casually. Not without an escort or the ever-watching eyes of the fourth and fifth years, which meant Sam couldn't sneak into the girls' rooms nor they his. He didn't want to go to mess around or anything, although that would have been fun. Just for reviews and checkups of the watches.

It was a lucky thing Sam was able to make it to his spot every night, but it usually took an hour of planning beforehand because they switched the rotations so often. So he stayed out for four or five hours, sometimes he even fell asleep and woke up at dawn to stumble back to his room. But nothing ever happened. It felt like he was wasting his time, like whatever the thief had taken had been the thing he'd been looking for all along.

But he couldn't know because Apelles wouldn't tell him what the thief was after, nor what he took. And even though Apelles had brushed it off before, Sam knew there was something more going on. The spymaster acted far too casually, and Sam had observed time and again that Apelles was not a casual man. He never smiled. He never beat around the bush. He was straightforward. Mean, even.

That was alright, Sam would figure it out sooner or later on his own. He always did. His gut told him the situation with Franklin and the strange woman in the classroom had something to do with it all, so maybe he would investigate that on his own. Maybe Franklin knew who the thief was and the woman, possibly the thief's associate, threatened to kill him. Or sell him out. Or blackmail him. Any one of the options was viable payment for the potion master's silence.

Whatever Franklin was into, he was in over his head and Sam briefly entertained the idea of approaching his teacher and asking him if he needed help, but he squashed the idea quickly. Despite how open Franklin was, he was still formally trained as a spy, and by nature, spies were not forthcoming with information regardless of whether it would help them.

"A girl so sweet, lo' there, he said, and the vase cracked in her hands. Haven't you a care, she said, you tread into my lands. You desecrate this sacred place, this altar of Arete. The shards fell in the mud below, like pearls laid at her feet." Sam muttered the catchy lyrics to himself, twirling a strand of grass between his fingers.