Page 119 of Devil May Lie

What were the odds he could slip something into her coffee later without getting caught?

“I’m sure he has better things to do,” Berga stated dryly, “like hang out with his friends.”

Madden chuckled and tossed an arm around Zane’s neck, pulling him in close. “True. We’re actually headed out for lunch, so any potential lessons will have to wait.”

“Would you like to join us?” Zane asked, and Berga’s eyes narrowed when he realized he was asking him and not the professor.

Was he trying to rub it in that he got to spend time with Madden and Berga didn’t?

Asshole.

Forget the professor's coffee.

He’d—

“Looks like he’s got his hands full already,” Madden said, and when Berga frowned, he pointed past him and the professor into the classroom.

The classroom currently filling with pink smoke.

“Good Light!” the professor darted inside to put out whatever fire or chemical issue had been started, but Berga merely stood there and ran his fingers through the short hairs at the back of his neck sheepishly.

“I swear I turned the burner off when she called me out here…” Had he not?

How embarrassing.

For real this time.

His cheeks flushed and he found it hard to turn back to the Mad King, keeping his back to them as he waved them off and said, “Have a good lunch.”

He might have heard a chuckle as he reentered the room, but it also could have just been his imagination.

* * *

“This can’t keep happening. What is wrong with you?”

Where had he heard that before?

Berga slipped his hands into his lab coat pockets and kept his gaze down, hoping being submissive would make the scolding end faster.

How many times was this now?

Five?

Eleven?

“I told you we needed him alive.” Baikal flicked a wrist at the cadaver laid out on the metal table.

The one who, only five minutes ago, had still been breathing.

“I gave him a little bit too much,” Berga said. “I must have mixed the wrong amount of—”

“Enough,” he snapped. “This is the twelfth body in the past four weeks!”

“Maybe he should take some time off,” Flix suggested. The three of them were in Berga’s lab at the bunker, but up until this point, his best friend had remained silent. It was apparent by his expression he was worried, and also agreed with Baikal that Berga was a royal screwup.

They weren’t wrong.

All of the things he’d prided himself on were slipping through his fingers like sand at the beach. His impeccable record at school? He was one mark away from expulsion, his family name and position within the Brumal be damned.