Dawn

Dawn sighed and leaned into Rico as they headed back down toward campus. She didn’t know why talking to Tom stressed her out so much. She trusted him, at least up to a certain point, but he wasn’t like any other faeries that she talked to. Maybe it was because of his close connection to her family—it was like he’d known about her before she was even born, but he’d hidden himself from her. Maybe it was because he looked so human, and it made her nervous about her Sight.

Dawn scowled at Tom. She didn’t think he would lie to her, but then again, he had hidden things from her in the past, and he’d never made her any guarantee that he would tell her the truth. In fact, if he thought it would protect her, he probably would lie to her. But why would he think not knowing Ever would protect her? Was he just afraid of leading them to the court faeries again? He hadn’t been so nervous about it before. She tried to think of what Professor Lal had told them when asking them to contact Ever.

They went their separate ways after class, but managed to gather everyone else up to meet after they were done with their classes. When Corrie had returned to her room, Edie was awake, so she filled her in. When they met up in the hallway on the first floor of Gilkey, the group comprised not only Corrie, Edie, Dawn, and Roe, but Rico and also Dawn’s roommate Naomi.

“I told her everything and she wanted to come,” said Dawn. “I figured it would only be a good thing to have more people.”

Corrie swallowed. She wasn’t sure she liked where this was going at all. But they would be able to change it, right? Or at least be prepared for it. Roe had told them about visions before that had turned out to work differently when the actual event took place. So she bit her tongue and did not interrupt Roe with questions.

“We stopped before we got very close to the lights, though,” said Roe, and they all sighed with relief. “There was someone there I couldn’t see very well. Corrie, you spoke to her.”

“How do you know it was a her?” Corrie asked.

Professor Lal’s eyes widened, then she nodded quickly. “I’ll be back in a moment. I believe I have the book that goes with that deck in my office.” Before Corrie or Roe could say anything, she had turned away and was walking smartly out of the room. It was a measure of how much the class respected her that the noise level in the room did not rise when the door shut behind her.

The classroom was already almost full when they arrived, which made sense when Corrie thought about it, because Professor Lal always seemed to show up to class when everyone had already arrived. They walked around passing out Tarot decks randomly. Corrie held onto one she found particularly appealing, a small box with colored pencil drawings in soft shades.

“Crap,” said Corrie without thinking. She sat down quickly and started shoveling food toward her mouth. “Will you tell us about it? Or I guess we should wait until we find Professor Lal, so you don’t have to tell it more than once.” She spoke around her breakfast, wanting to get finished as quickly as possible. Based on Roe’s expression, whatever the vision was, it was not a happy one.

Roe nodded. “I’m pretty exhausted, but I couldn’t skip class after that, even though I’m sure Professor Lal would understand.”

Monday, December 1

When Corrie and Edie reached their room, Edie pulled off her coat threw herself down on the bed in her clothes. Corrie did the same, but a little more slowly. Edie was trying to fall asleep—Corrie didn’t think she would be able to. She lay down in the fetal position, knees curled to her chest, and stared across the dark room. Thoughts buzzed in her brain, and they weren’t going anywhere useful. Why had Paul attacked Dawn? Which faeries were behind it, if any? How could they protect themselves in the future? How could Ever help?

Dawn and the others brought their flames closer so they could see what Roe was holding. It was definitely some kind of root, brown and thick, with a little bit of dirt on it and a few tiny rootlets springing up around the pointed bottom end. It wasn’t really shaped like a knife, but then, turning it into a root shaped like a knife wouldn’t have helped very much, would it?

“How do we know if it’s really the right one?” Dawn asked finally.

It was tedious, unpleasant work, with the dim light, the cold, and the frozen ground. Dawn wished she’d brought a flashlight or some other portable lamp, then immediately realized that she didn’t need one. She lifted her hand and created a small flame. It wasn’t much and she didn’t want to bring it too close to the ground for fear of melting the mud, but it lit her way better than just the emergency light.