Tom

Dawn reeled—not literally, because Rico still had his arm around her, but mentally. She stared at Tom in astonishment, though she didn’t really have any trouble processing his words. “Who is it?” she finally managed to ask.

“Her name is Siffyd,” Tom said with a shrug. “I do not know what she calls herself to humans.”

Edie was staring, too. “How could there be a faerie working at the library without Dawn knowing about it?”

Tom actually went pale. “But who would do such a thing?”

At least he understood the severity of the danger, this faerie who was almost perpetually cheerful. Dawn shook her head. “I don’t know. But you don’t think it could have been Paul on his own either, do you?”

Tom made a dismissive gesture. “A human? Please. Where did he get the knife?”

“We have no idea. He wouldn’t talk to us—not even Corrie. He told her that he got it in the woods, but he wouldn’t say whether he found it, or whether someone gave it to him, or what.”

“Tell me he doesn’t still have it.”

After the rest of them finished eating dinner, Naomi went back to the art building and Roe headed to the library to work on a paper, so Dawn, Rico, and Edie walked back to Gilkey alone. Dawn wondered if Corrie had talked to Annie about their mutual suspicion that she had a crush on Edie. She would have to find some time alone with Corrie to ask her about it.

Edie thought they were running north, or close enough to it; she’d wandered through these woods a fair amount with Leila, so she had a pretty good sense of where they were. She noticed when they ran past the ruins where the theater students often partied. They hadn’t gone much past it when Ever stopped. “Can all of you climb trees?”

“I can,” said Edie. After all of Leila’s lessons, she was pretty confident in her abilities.

“I think I can,” said Naomi, who was bent over with her hands on her knees, breathing hard. “What’s going on?”

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.”

Annie didn’t want to go, but Roe was interested in meeting Tom, so they were a little group of four that headed up to the north end of campus. Edie was anxious enough that she actually remembered her bracelets this time, which reminded Corrie and Roe, too. She kept touching them as they walked through the campus, bumping into people as they tried to stay on the path—the sidewalks were crowded today, with fellow students moving around. But it was a Saturday, after all, and for once there was something on campus to do. Maybe the craft fair was getting some business after all.

As Corrie chatted with Wendy and Gareth, catching up on their lives and those of people she hadn’t spoken to since her big fight with Byron, she glanced around the room. The conversation didn’t hold much of her attention, and she was amused to see someone standing surrounded by a ring of onlookers, juggling brightly colored balls, someone filling the broad pockets of a painting apron with candy, and someone else intently focused on what (Corrie took a minute to realize) was another person’s bared back, painting an intricate dark-green design.

Dawn was relieved to be walking out of the forest again, with the comfort of her two friends and Tom by her sides. She didn’t entirely think she should trust Tom, but she did anyway. Maybe it was just because her aunt had. Maybe it was because he’d helped them by escorting Troy away from the fight despite his own desires.

“What’s in the bag?” he asked cheerfully as they walked downhill. Naomi was carrying all of their bags of candy in a plastic grocery bag.

“Cold iron,” Leila breathed, staring at Corrie’s bracelets. “Like this stick.” Her head came up swiftly before Corrie could reply. Her green eyes bored into Corrie’s. “You created these as a weapon against me.”

Corrie swallowed. It was the truth, but she couldn’t say that. “We created them to protect ourselves. People keep attacking us—Edie and our other friends. Edie probably told you about Marlin?”

“Yes.” Leila made some gesture with the steel wire that made Tom jump back again. “But this wouldn’t be the first time you used iron to attack me.”