Amari and the Great Game by B. B. Alston

Author:B. B. Alston
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2022-07-12T00:00:00+00:00

19

HALF A DOZEN STUN STICKS ARE POINTED AT MARIA and me, and we raise our hands in surrender. This is bad. Really bad.

Harlowe sniffs the air. “The place reeks of magic.” She steps up to the table and flips through the spell book. “Practicing magiciancraft inside the Bureau is strictly forbidden.”

“We have permission,” says Maria. “Prime Minister Merlin—”

“Is sadly frozen at the moment,” Harlowe interrupts. “And Prime Minister Bane has made his position on magicians crystal clear. Curious timing, this lesson. Trying to recruit young Amari here for whatever you and Dylan are planning next, are you?”

I lean forward to protest, but Maria beats me to it. “That’s not what’s happening, and you know it.”

Harlowe waves a dismissive hand. “I’ve heard enough. Take her away, please.”

“Wait!” I say. “You can’t!”

The agents escort Maria to the door anyway. She gives me one last look and mouths the words “the winds” to me over Harlowe’s shoulder.

Director Harlowe smiles and takes the seat opposite me.

I shake my head, my hands balled tight in my lap. “You can’t be serious about arresting Maria Van Helsing.”

Director Harlowe purses her lips. “I’d be far more concerned with yourself, young lady. Practicing spells inside the Bureau, that’s a big no-no.”

“It really was an order from Prime Minister Merlin,” I say. “That I be taught magic to help the supernatural world and prove magicians can be good.” Not to mention it will give me a chance to win the Great Game. “It’s actually really important.”

“You don’t need magic to do either of those things,” says Harlowe. “So why is it really so important? Anything you want to confess?”

As if I’d tell her—talking to her might as well be talking to Bane. I grit my teeth and say, “It just is.”

“It just is,” Harlowe repeats, then sighs heavily. “Honestly, I blame myself. I thought by making you an Elite you’d be grateful. That you’d come to value and honor this wonderful institution as I have, not befoul it with that awful magiciancraft.”

“My magic isn’t awful,” I say. “At least, it doesn’t have to be.”

Director Harlowe shrugs.

“You don’t even care,” I snap. “Because of what happened to your parents, you’ll always see magicians as the bad guys.”

Harlowe’s eyes flash, but it’s quickly replaced by the pleasant act she does so well. She folds her hands and smiles. “Please keep Lord and Lady Harlowe’s names out of your mouth.”

“I only meant that what happened to them was terrible, but that was Moreau, not me or Maria. You’re arresting her for nothing!”

She raises an eyebrow. “The Prime Minister needed someone to be guilty, dear, and we decided on Maria.”

“B-but that’s wrong,” I say. “I’ll tell people what you’re doing.”

Harlowe pouts her lips mockingly. “And who’ll believe you? Maria is the only way you have to speak to your brother, is she not? So it stands to reason that you’d be oh-so-desperate to keep her from going away . . . maybe even desperate enough to lie?” She grins and leans in close. “See how easy that was?”

How can she twist the truth like that? “You’re horrible.

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