Month: June 2017

Chatoyant College, Chatoyant College Book 13: The Teeth

Chatoyant College Book 13: Chapter 10: Motivations

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Corrie stared at Charlie, her mouth half open. Elrath was the victim? It was hard to believe. He was such a big, scary guy—surely he could take care of himself.

What could have killed him? And why?

But a moment later, she felt herself relax a little. She couldn’t be sure what would have killed him, but she could imagine many reasons why. He must have made himself enemies among the faeries. Even Tom didn’t like him—could Tom have killed him?

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Chatoyant College, Chatoyant College Book 13: The Teeth

Chatoyant College Book 13: Chapter 9: The Victim

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Thursday, May 11

Corrie slept badly that night. She was inclined to blame the fact that she hadn’t been able to get out for her run the morning before, but she knew it was just as likely to be stress in not knowing who was dead. All her friends were okay, but she was friendly with a lot of people on campus. What if it was one of the girls she chatted with in her art class? Or someone she just smiled at when she walked back and forth to her classes?

If it was a stranger, that would almost be worse. If she was a student, Corrie would feel bad for not getting to know her before she died. If she wasn’t someone who belonged on campus, then that would be very scary in a completely different way. What would she have been doing there?

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Chatoyant College, Chatoyant College Book 13: The Teeth

Chatoyant College Book 13: Chapter 8: Doldrums

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A little while later, there was a knock on the door. Corrie hopped up to answer it, and Edie saw her open the door to let Lorelei in. Lorelei looked around at the group of them and laughed. “You guys certainly know how to take advantage of a foggy day.”

“Come join us,” Edie said, gesturing at the pile of food. “There’s plenty.”

Lorelei shook her head. “Sorry, but I can’t. Charlie and I are responsible for the whole dorm. I wish I could just hang out with you guys.”

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Chatoyant College, Chatoyant College Book 13: The Teeth

Chatoyant College Book 13: Chapter 7: Fog Party, Part II

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Edie and Derwen got back to Edie’s dorm room just as Corrie was leaving the bathroom, her hair plastered to her head with dampness. “Everyone already used up the hot water,” she complained. “Hey, Derwen.”

“Yeah, I noticed the same thing,” Edie said. “Did you get enough exercise running up and down the stairs?”

“I think so,” Corrie said. “At least I feel a bit better. What’s with the kettle?”

“It’s to make tea,” Derwen said.

“We’re having a potluck breakfast,” Edie said. “Everyone’s in our room. I hope you don’t mind.”

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Chatoyant College, Chatoyant College Book 13: The Teeth

Chatoyant College Book 13: Chapter 6: Potluck Breakfast

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Edie decided that if she was stuck inside the building, she might as well go have a long, hot shower. Unfortunately, it seemed that a lot of other people in the building must have had the same idea, because there wasn’t much hot water left. Either everyone else had used it up, or the fog had done something to the hot water. Since it was a comfortable, warm temperature inside without the heaters running—though Edie was not about to open her window to see what the outdoor temperature was like—the former seemed more likely.

After she’d showered (at least she was clean now) and dressed, she grabbed up her trusty supply of bread and peanut butter and went looking for her friends. Corrie was still out of the room, but Dawn and Naomi were home next door, and they were able to fetch Annie and Roe from their own rooms as well.

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Chatoyant College Book 13: Chapter 5: Thick and Deep

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Edie woke up in a panic from restless sleep. After flailing her arms around for a moment and realizing that the only thing covering them was her sheet, she managed to sit up and shut off her alarm. That was all that had woken her—nothing nefarious. She still had to sit in bed and catch her breath.

She still felt fuzzy-headed, and she knew she hadn’t gotten anywhere near enough sleep. She, Corrie, Dawn, and Rico had stayed up for at least another hour after leaving the gathering in the common room, talking over the same things again and again. With no new information, they were unable to come up with any explanation as to why someone might have been killed on campus.

She was tempted to roll over and go back to sleep, but it was Wednesday, and her first class was magic class. Now that they were in the practical portion, she never wanted to miss magic class, and today they were starting on water magic. Knowing that her faerie ancestor was a water faerie, she wondered if she would have any special affinity with that kind of magic.

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Chatoyant College, Chatoyant College Book 13: The Teeth

Chatoyant College Book 13: Chapter 4: Speculation

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Dawn didn’t realize until they’d already left the common room that Derwen was still with them. She wished the faerie would leave, so they could talk more freely, but of course Derwen would get offended if Dawn actually said that. And since she was friends with Edie, Edie probably wanted her around with them.

If Dawn thought of any other questions to ask a faerie, she could ask now. But Derwen had already answered her only question—she didn’t know what faerie might have killed someone on campus. If they didn’t know who was dead, they wouldn’t know who to suspect.

Even if they did know who the victim was, she realized, they probably wouldn’t know who to suspect. Except for Mardalan. She could always suspect Mardalan.

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Chatoyant College, Chatoyant College Book 13: The Teeth

Chatoyant College Book 13: Chapter 3: Located

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“Come on,” Dawn said quietly to Rico, shifting so his arms weren’t around her anymore and taking his hand instead. She couldn’t just stand here and speculate—she had to find out what Lorelei knew.

They worked through the crowd to find Edie with Corrie right at the front. Dawn hadn’t been able to see her because everyone between them was taller than Edie. “Where did Charlie go?” she asked when she reached them.

“He’s calling other RAs,” Corrie said. “They said the missing people were probably in other dorms.”

Dawn nodded. Just like Naomi had been the last time. “That’s good. And I guess he has to let the other dorms know that we have some of their people.”

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Patreon

May at the Patreon

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The Scholarship Girl – May’s Patreon story

May wasn’t as busy a month as April, but here’s a wrap-up post anyway, in case you missed some posts!

I posted a theme poll for $5+ patrons and a prompt post open to all.

For $3+ patrons, I posted the compilation, an epub file containing the March chapters of Chatoyant College and the March Patreon story.

May’s Perennials free story is One-Eyed Harry’s, a story of the Extranormal Crimes universe, in which a very special division of the FBI hunts real monsters.

Finally, the May Patreon story is The Scholarship Girl, about a girl new to a boarding school who finds herself unexpectedly befriended by the most popular and powerful girls in the school.