Chatoyant College Book 13: Chapter 42: Plans

Edie, Dawn, and Corrie left the magic professors’ lounge, walking slowly and quietly. Edie wondered if they would really be able to find anything. Well, if Dawn and Corrie would find anything. She would just be holding back and trying to stay safe… as usual.

Not that she minded being safe. But it was awful when her friends were putting themselves in danger for a good cause, and she couldn’t help.

“Do you want to start looking tonight?” Corrie asked Dawn.

Dawn shook her head. “Not until we have more information.” She pushed open the front door to the magic building. “We should at least wait until Professor Lal gets back to you with that schedule and the phone numbers.”

“Right,” Corrie said uneasily. She sighed. “I just hate to hesitate. If someone else is hurt or killed tonight, it will feel like our fault.”

“I doubt anything will happen tonight,” Edie said. “The faerie just killed someone yesterday. It might still be hiding, or whatever it was doing in between when it killed Elrath and Sean. Maybe it’s really tired—maybe attacking people is really draining.”

“Or maybe Link hurt it when he fought back,” Dawn said.

“Okay, that makes a lot of sense,” Corrie said with a grin. “It’s a good thing I keep you two smart people around. Which begs the question, of course, why you keep me around.”

Edie laughed. “You’re smart, too, and you’re brave. Without you, I’d never get anything done.”

“Besides, we weirdos have to stick together,” Dawn said. “You with your werewolf dad, Edie with her faerie great-grandmother, me with my Sight. Plus Roe, of course.”

“I could just hang around with Charlie. He’s a werewolf.”

“But you’re not really a werewolf,” Dawn pointed out. “Charlie has werewolves to hang out with. You’re the only person we know who’s half a werewolf while still being basically human, and Edie’s the only person we know who’s part faerie.”

“And you’re the only person we know with the Sight,” Edie said. “And Roe’s the only person we know with visions. We can’t be the only ones on campus with weird heritage and powers.”

“That’s right,” Corrie said. “Remember Lin from our Intro to Magic class, Dawn?”

“Sure, vaguely,” Dawn said. “What about her?”

“She has some kind of special power. Remember, when Professor Lal was asking us all why we’d decided to take magic class?”

“Oh, that’s right. I remember thinking she had something in common with Roe, but she wouldn’t say what special power she had that she wanted to train.”

“Right, and I still don’t know, but I bet they’re not the only ones.”

“No one said anything like that in my class,” Edie said. “But I guess anyone who has a special reason to take a magic class gets in as soon as they can.”

They’d reached the front door of Gilkey, and Corrie stopped to swipe her ID and get the door open for them. “Anyway, back the original topic, we should talk to Troy and Link.”

“Do you think they were hiding something from the magic professors that they would tell us?” Edie asked.

“Probably not,” Corrie said. “But the professors might not have asked enough useful questions. It sounds like they just talked about why a random faerie might attack Troy and Link, and didn’t ask if they have any connection to Elrath. There might be something there. Besides, they said Troy was hurt, and I want to see if he’s doing any better. We could bring them some food so they don’t have to go out.”

“That’s a good idea,” Dawn said. “I hope he’s all right. I guess the magic professors would be helping if he wasn’t.”

Edie nodded. “Yeah, I’d forgotten that they said he was hurt. Also, Dawn, you might be able to see something about his injury.”

“Oh, that’s a thought.”

“Great!” Corrie clapped her hands so the sound echoed in the stairwell. “Shall we see what we have in our rooms that we can bring by?”

“No, we shouldn’t go tonight,” Dawn said. “Let’s go after breakfast in the morning and bring some food from the dining hall.”

Corrie frowned. “What’s wrong with going now?”

“Remember, this was when Roe was originally going to meet with Professor Strega? And she wanted to reschedule it so she could talk to Link.”

Corrie laughed and smacked herself in the forehead. “Okay, that is an excellent point. If he told Roe what we just heard, then she’s totally forgiven him by now and we don’t want to go and interrupt that.”

Edie giggled. “I think we’ll be okay to wait until morning.”

“I wanted to get something done tonight,” Corrie complained, pushing open the fire door at the end of their hallway.

“Maybe you should take the time to study,” Dawn said. “Get ahead so you’re not rushing over the weekend.”

Corrie sighed. “Studying doesn’t make me feel like I’ve moved forward. But you’re right. There’s always math.”