"So we're looking for a male suspect who is well enough versed in magic to be able to cast such a strong killing curse that cannot be reversed unless it's by them," Astrid says as she paces around my room, "though I don't think that we can just walk around campus asking people if they're a serial killer."

  She and Tessa had shown up around two in the afternoon the next day and it's now five in the evening, the sun already starting its descent outside my window as we try to piece together who could be responsible for the murders.

  "But he's not a serial killer," Tessa counters from where she is sprawled on her back on my bed and Astrid pauses in her pacing, the sunlight from the setting sun cutting stripes of light across her face as she squints at Tessa.

  "What do you mean?" I ask in a low voice.

  "He's only killed two people, a serial killer has to kill three," Tessa elaborates and Astrid rolls her eyes.

  "Well he almost killed me-," I begin, but Astrid cuts me off.

  "I doubt that he was the same person, the murderer knows killing curses, why would he choose to strangle you?" Astrid says as she shakes her head slowly.

  "So we're looking for two guys, one of them having murdered two students, while the other one tried to kill Kara," Tessa fills in for her and she nods.

  "And one of them may have been casting the persuasion spells and keeping information from getting out to her parents, I've asked my friend who works at the fair for tapes from that night, they didn't see anyone around the horse barn," Astrid admits, "which means either 'a' they knew where the cameras were and avoided them, or 'b' they knew magic too and became invisible to get away."

  "Bastet chased them though," I add and she frowns.

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  "Maybe some of the tapes were deleted?" Tessa asks.

  "I need paper and a pencil," Astrid mutters.

  "Here," I say as I reach over and grab a notebook from a drawer on my nightstand before I toss her a pen.

  "Okay," Astrid says as she starts to scribble on the paper, "we have Finn's murder, which was committed by person A, who is a man," she writes out in big letters before she tears out the page and sets it on the bed. "From Finn's murder, Kara had a persuasion spell cast on her, which could have been performed by person A or by person B, but if person B could cast persuasion spells, why wouldn't they cast something on Kara before they attacked her?"

  "Alright, and then from the persuasion spell, Kara was almost strangled to death, likely by person B," Tessa adds.

  "Person B is younger, he sounded younger," I murmur.

  "Who also managed to erase tapes of themselves at the fair," Astrid says as she continues to write and add pieces of paper.

  "And Sophia was murdered after Finn's ceremony, likely by person A-."

  "But this time, you were there and it was still early enough that Ms. Laroche was still working and called Kara's parents," Tessa murmurs, "so I think that we can rule Ms. Laroche out."

  "But she didn't call my parents the first time," I protest.

  "There's a nighttime secretary," Astrid interrupts suddenly, "Mr. Ivie, he runs her office during the night after nine in case of international phone calls from the other academies."

  "Do you think that maybe he's person B and hoped to cover up the murder by not telling my mom?" I wonder aloud and she shrugs.

  "It's one of the few leads that we've got," she says.

  "Okay, so Mr. Ivie could be a possibility since he hadn't called Kara's parents. Who else?" Tessa pries.

  "Maybe some of the security guards," Astrid suggests.

  "There are security guards?" Tessa deadpans.

  "Yeah...?" Astrid shrugs, "Four of them."

  "Men?" I inquire.

  "Three of them are guys and the other one is a woman, they have to patrol the whole campus," she explains.

  "Okay, one of them could be our person A," I point out and she nods.

  "I'll see if I can get steal their schedules from my uncle and see when they were working," Astrid offers.

  "Do that and then we can start marking off who could have done it," Tessa pipes up as she takes the pen and starts writing on a piece of paper. "So we've got Mr. Ivie and three security guards to look into."

  "I'll talk to Officer Marshall about it and see if she can help," I offer and Astrid nods.

  "Let's solve these murders," she says determinedly, a wicked smile quirking on her lips.