Dawn

Corrie had to admit, if only to herself, that she was getting anxious as she pulled on warm clothing to go out to meet Paul. (Thankfully, it wasn’t too cold, and she’d be able to move her hands without mittens on.) She wasn’t really sure why. She knew Paul wasn’t going to hurt her. He was a really nice guy deep down, or they wouldn’t have dated in the first place. The only problem was that he’d gotten fixated on her. By now he might even have found a new girlfriend. The thought cheered her up slightly.

“So if you’re already done your homework, what are your plans for the rest of the day?” Roe asked Corrie.

“Well, I should probably head to the library for research on my history term paper. But that’s boring, and it’s not due until the end of finals week, anyway.” Corrie shrugged. “Actually, I emailed Paul. We’re going to meet up later tonight—well, as close as we can get—and I’m going to try to take that stupid curse off him.”

“Paul?” Roe said. “Your stalker?”

There were a few people in the hallway, but no Roe, so Corrie slipped past them to get to the end where Roe’s door was. She knocked, and it was answered quickly. “Corrie!” said Roe. “You’re back too?”

“Actually, I’ve been back for a few hours now,” Corrie said. “But it looks like right now is the time for everybody to show up.”

Roe leaned through the doorway, looked down the hall, and laughed. “I guess Edie and I just beat the rush. We met in the parking lot and walked up together.”

Wednesday, November 26

Dawn slept until noon the next day—partly wonderful luxury, partly exhaustion, because the late flight meant they had all been up late. Still, she felt very refreshed and happy when she woke up, and was even more pleased when she remembered that she didn’t have to change out of her pajamas to go get breakfast.

Dawn was glad she’d already packed up the stuff she’d need for the long weekend, because by the time she got to the parking lot, her parents were standing around outside the car and looking impatient. She held up her bags and waited for her dad to pop the trunk. He took the bags from her and threw them in. “Sorry,” she said, “that ran longer than I expected. But it was important. Why are you in a hurry? We’re not really going to drive all the way home tonight, are we?”

As the four of them left the meeting with Professor Lal, Dawn was worried about getting her things together in time to meet her parents, but she was more worried about what the professor had told them. She didn’t really like any of it—not the idea that the court faeries had some unusual way to get things to the library, nor the fact that Mardalan was not the one who had created the book after all, and definitely not the fact that she and her friends were the human students with the most knowledge of faeries on the entire campus. It felt like it was her fault, and she hated it.

Corrie glanced at Edie, wondering what Professor Lal meant. Edie sighed and nodded. “She’s kind of… well, I guess she’s just really tired lately,” Edie said. “I think it took a lot out of her to be social with you guys yesterday.”

“Jeez, I’m sorry,” said Corrie.

“It’s okay,” Edie said. “I mean, she wanted to do it. But she went right back to her tree.”

“She did leave kind of abruptly,” said Dawn. “But I guess it makes sense that she would be tired in the winter.”

Professor Lal nodded. “Exactly. As the trees slow down and sleep, so will a dryad, whose life is tied to them.”

“But—” Corrie started, then paused, not entirely sure what she was going to say. It wasn’t as though she didn’t want to help. But she was scared—not so much for herself as for Edie, of course, but for herself as well. She didn’t want her parents to be upset by having their daughter kidnapped by faeries, or killed by them, and that was their overwhelming experience when it came to dealing with faeries. Or was it? Professor Lal and Leila both treated them fairly well, and Ever was their friend. There were also plenty of faeries Dawn had noticed on campus who didn’t seem to want to hurt anyone.

Dinner that evening was quieter than usual—Annie, Rico, and Duncan had all already gone home, as had a large percentage of the campus, judging by how uncrowded the dining hall was. Corrie didn’t mind, though. She wanted to hurry through dinner so they could get to the meeting with Professor Lal quickly.

Roe pushed away her bowl of soup, looking queasy. “Are you sure she didn’t say anything about what we’re going to meet about?” she asked for the fiftieth time.

Corrie shook her head. “She just said she wanted to discuss something with us.”

Tuesday, November 25

Corrie and Dawn stood outside Professor Lal’s office, leaning against the wall and making desultory chat. They had come to her office hours to ask her about Corrie’s idea for an information exchange, but there was someone in there already, probably discussing work for magic class. They certainly didn’t want to interrupt, but neither of them could think of anything interesting to do while they waited.