Leila

Leila told them that it would now be safe to climb down out of the tree, and everyone did so with various exclamations of relief. Edie and Leila let everyone else climb down first—after all, they were the best climbers. And Edie was enjoying sitting here with Leila’s hand in hers.

Naomi yawned and said that she was going right back to bed when she got back to Gilkey. Edie remembered that she had planned on doing the same thing when she had been awakened so early by Dawn’s summons. It seemed like a long time ago now—which it was, of course. She was too alert to go back to sleep now.

“I hope she’ll be all right,” said Edie nervously. She didn’t like the idea of Ever getting in trouble because of humans—even if she’d given herself to the faeries because of humans in the first place.

“She likely will be,” said Leila, leaning forward slightly as though she could see Ever running through the woods. Maybe she could. “Anyone who would likely be interested in punishing her will be distracted by the discovery of Mardalan. Is she a friend of yours?”

The woman at the bottom of the tree looked up, her leaf-green eyes wide. That was definitely Leila. But just as Edie came to that conclusion, Naomi grabbed her arm. “Don’t leave the tree,” she whispered.

“I’m not going to,” Edie said, but she reached down toward Leila. “What’s going on, Leila? What are you doing here?”

Leila smiled briefly and reached up to clasp Edie’s hand. Edie felt warmth run through her from that touch. They hadn’t been touching nearly often enough recently. “Is it you that set off the alarm? I suppose I should have known.”

“What’s it to you?” Naomi snapped.

Note: Due to the busy-ness of the holiday season, I haven't been able to give the next chapter the focus it needs. Instead, have a holiday bonus story! This is in response to Francisco's request: "Why does she [Leila/Yedara] hang around with the theatre crowd (as opposed to any other group of faeries or humans)?"

Edie held Leila’s hand as they walked together out of the dining hall and back across campus to the woods. She looked up at her girlfriend, smiling. “That was nice of you to come have dinner with us.”

Leila nodded. “I am glad to spend more time with you and your friends.” She wasn’t looking at Edie, though, just staring straight forward. She was walking quickly enough that Edie had to take longer, faster strides than usual to keep up—but at least she didn’t have to run.

Corrie bit her lip, worried. Maybe Leila really didn’t know her sister that well, if she thought the book didn’t seem like something she would do. But what were the chances that it hadn’t been Mardalan at all? Not good, she thought—Professor Lal had been pretty certain it was her. Still, she could ask for more clarification. “What about the book itself? Professor Lal checked it for malevolent magic, but there wasn’t any in it. Just bad information. Does that sound like something she would do?”

“Why not?” asked Edie, frowning.

“Because,” said Leila, “there is very little that I know about my sister that Lal does not know. That is, I believe Rook knows her rather better than I do, and as she is trying to harm students I am sure they have shared all of their information in an attempt to stop her.”

“But she’s your sister,” Corrie said, confused. “Don’t you know her really well?” She looked around the table, trying to get agreement from her friends. “I mean, I don’t have any siblings, but I always thought if I did have a sister we would tell each other all our secrets.”

They had a surprise at dinner that evening—at least, it was a surprise to Corrie. Leila joined them in the dining hall. She and Edie were waiting there at their usual table, along with Rico and Dawn, when Corrie arrived. She paused before approaching them, unsure for a moment whether her discomfort was with Leila or with the idea that she would be a fifth wheel, then shook her head at her own silliness. She and Leila had made a truce, and should be getting along fine now.

“Well…” Edie shifted against the tree, trying to stand somewhere that snow wouldn’t drip down onto her nose, and taking the time to formulate her thoughts. “My friends who are taking magic classes say that there are two ways to get magic. One is the magic inside you, and the other is the magic that’s in everything else, and you have to do a sort of meditation to use that magic.”

Leila was gazing out at the falling snow, not looking at Edie. “Yes, I understand that to be the case for humans.”

The snow was heavy and wet, and the wind was still blowing hard. Edie tried to lean into the wind and pull her hood over her face to protect herself from the flying snow, but it kept changing direction, and soon her face was damp and freezing. She could barely see where she was going, but at least all the buildings she was near had lights blazing in every window. She threw her arms in front of her face and careened through the thick snow to the environmental co-op.