Chatoyant College Book 13: Chapter 27: One Week

Thursday, May 18

Now that over a week had passed since Elrath’s death, the campus seemed to have relaxed somewhat. Corrie hadn’t heard any rumors or questions in a couple of days. Maybe they really had managed to forget about Elrath.

After all, it had never been only the magic on campus that kept people from understanding that faeries were real and lived there. The magic had just been enhancing the natural capability of the human mind to ignore things that didn’t fit in the world that they knew. If students had seen faeries day after day, eventually they would have had to admit that something strange was going on, but the vast majority of students didn’t have that much contact with faeries. So by the time they saw something else strange, they’d forgotten about the first thing.

There was also the fact that the end of the semester was fast approaching. Everyone was either worried about finals or looking forward to summer break—or both.

Some of Corrie’s classes had gotten less challenging, some more. On Tuesday, in her psionics class, they had practiced distance sight with candle flames instead of water. It had been just as easy for Corrie that way, so she knew it was a real inherent power. Today they had moved on to future sight, which Professor Rook didn’t expect anyone other than Roe to have any success with, so Corrie was neither surprised nor dismayed that she had no luck whatsoever.

Her math class had gotten harder, with the professor trying to cram everything into the last few classes that they hadn’t reached yet. Corrie was confident that she was going to pass the class, so she didn’t worry too much about keeping up with the new material, but she was going to have to study for the final. Intro to Literature continued to be a lot of fun, with the enjoyable books they were reading. Her trance and art classes were just the same as ever.

She was going to miss her friends, and Charlie, over the summer. Hopefully, though, she would be too busy to worry about it much. She had some friends at home, not to mention her mom and grandma, and she would be spending a lot of time at the restaurant.

For now, though, she had to focus on school.

Returning to Gilkey from her art class, she headed up the stairs. Before she could reach her own dorm room, she saw Roe and Annie walking down the hall towards her. “Hey,” Roe said, smiling. The skin under her eyes was dark. “Do you want to go get dinner soon?”

“Sounds good,” Corrie said. “Are you all right?” She hadn’t noticed how exhausted and ill Roe had been looking during psionics class today, but they’d both been focused on the professor, as they had to be.

Roe nodded, though she looked away. “I just haven’t been sleeping well. It’s this vision about teeth.”

Corrie’s heart sank. “You’re still having it?”

“Almost every night,” Annie said, giving Roe a sideways frown. “Sometimes multiple times. You really need to tell Professor Strega about this, Roe.”

“I have a meeting with her tomorrow night,” Roe said. “There’s no need to bother her before then. Besides, I’m meeting up with Link tonight.”

“Are things okay with him?” Corrie asked, hoping for some better news.

“They will be,” Roe said. “I hope. We need a really good talk, and tonight was the first night we both have enough time free.”

Corrie nodded. She hoped they could work things out. “Well, let me go put away my stuff and grab Edie and Dawn, and we’ll go for dinner.”

“No rush,” Roe said, opening the door to her room. “We’ll be in here when you’re ready to go.”

Corrie walked slowly down the hall to her room, frowning. She’d hoped that Roe’s visions had ended after the attack on Elrath. If she was still seeing the teeth in her dreams, what did that mean? Was she just remembering what had happened to Elrath, or was the vision about teeth entirely unrelated?

Or was whatever had killed Elrath still around? Maybe it wasn’t over.

She reminded herself that none of the professors seemed worried, and there was no danger to humans. But she didn’t remember Roe ever having the same vision so many times in a short period. It had to mean something.

Edie was knitting when Corrie came into the room. “What are you working on?” she asked half-heartedly.

“A baby blanket,” Edie said.

Corrie smirked. “Have something you want to tell me?”

Edie laughed. “I just like to have one on hand. Someone in my family will have a baby eventually, and then I’ll have the gift ready to give to them. Besides, it’s something that doesn’t take any brain power to work on.”

“I thought you liked complicated stuff that you had to think about.” Corrie put her art supplies away in her portfolio.

“Sometimes. Not today.”

“I get that. Do you want to have dinner soon?”

“Sure. Let me finish up this row.”