As soon as Diana pushed away from the bank the following morning, she knew that something was wrong. The usual flurry of snow that told her Professor Clairmont was watching over her was gone, and in its place was something colder and harsher. She was still being watched, but the person surveilling her wasn't the enigmatic professor.
Diana tried to push aside the unease she felt as she made her way down the river. She told herself that whoever it was watching her had been presented with plenty of opportunities to attack while she'd been preparing her shell, and they'd chosen not to. Which meant that she was probably safe.
At least, she hoped she was safe.
As she glided over the water she allowed that sense of serenity to wash over her once more, drowning out all of her concerns and insecurities as it did, until memories of Ashmole 782 and the effect it'd had on her were virtually erased from her mind.
The moment she stepped back out onto the embankment her calm and carefree attitude vanished, as those spikes of ice felt like they were being driven into her back. A part of her toyed with the idea of calling out her newest stalker, the same way she had with Clairmont the day before. But without knowing who was watching her, Diana didn't want to risk doing something reckless while she was alone.
That feeling of being watched only disappeared when she stepped back on campus later that morning and joined her group of friends, ready to start her day.
"Did you wanna head to the library?" Gillian asked, as they packed away their stuff at the end of the final lecture of the day.
"Yeah. I still have a ton of research left to do before I even think about submitting this next draft. With all our other deadlines ahead of us, I'm starting to panic a little about getting it done on time," Diana worried.
"Welcome to life as a grad student," her friend teased, slinging her bag over her shoulder. "If it makes you feel any better, I still haven't honed my proposal down yet. All I know is that I love studying Ancient Egypt, so I wanna stay in that area."
"It'll come to you," Diana assured her, as the two women made their way out of the room and headed for the exit. "Usually at the worst time and in the worst place. Mine came to me in the shower one morning."
"I'm normally more of a bath girl, but I might have to start switching to showers in that case," Gillian teased.
Everything seemed so perfectly normal as the two women made their way to the Bodleian that Diana almost forgot about what had happened the day before. That illusion of normalcy was shattered, however, the moment she stepped into the Seldon End of the Duke Humphries reading room.
The space was even busier than it had been the previous day.
Diana recognized a few of the people inside the room, including the man who was once again sitting and staring at the desktop without any books around him. But most of the people she had never seen before.
"What's up with all of this?" she whispered to her friend.
"Huh. What do you mean?"
Even without being able to see her face, Diana could tell that Gillian was hiding something from her again. Her friend's tone was far too nonchalant to be genuine.
"The library's never this busy," she pressed, as they took their seats at their usual table. "I don't even recognize half of these people."
"Well, it's a big university, Diana. Maybe they have papers due soon? Or an exam to revise for?"
"In October? I highly doubt that," she snorted out, as she began setting up her laptop. While she waited for it to load, Diana filled out a request slip and took it over to Sean before making her way back to their table.
It was as she was settling herself down into her seat that the feeling of being watched returned. Whoever was following her had a gaze like icy daggers, drilling into the side of her head with every move she made. Diana did her best to try and scan the area for some sign of her newest stalker, but nobody seemed to be paying her much attention.
She tried to pull her mind away from everything that had happened that week and steer it towards the research that she needed to finish, but even without Clairmont in the room, Diana couldn't seem to keep her mind off him. She could hear his words echoing on a loop every time she looked up and found the room busier than it had been before.
"… And they will, Diana. They will find out that it was you."
These people couldn't possibly have been in the library for her, could they?
A part of her wanted to talk to someone about what had happened, just so they could assure her that she wasn't going crazy. But with Gillian hiding something from her, Diana's gut was telling her not to confide in her friend. She knew that she couldn't bring it up with Sarah and Em either. That would only worry them both, and the last thing she needed was for her aunts to board a plane to England just because they were worried about her mental stability. Which really only left Diana with one option. She still wasn't sure how much she could trust Professor Clairmont – It was obvious that he was hiding something from her too, even if it felt like that something was in touching distance of her understanding – but he'd at least seemed open to the idea of a discussion, before Gillian had rudely interrupted them.
"Diana Bishop?"
"Yes?" she asked, a little louder than she had intended, as she lifted her head to see who had called her name. Diana had been so lost in her thoughts that she hadn't seen the man approaching their reading bench.
"I'm sorry to have startled you," he offered. "I saw you from across the room and I just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. My name's Peter Knox. I was a friend of your mother's."
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