Chatoyant College Book 13: Chapter 47: Suspicion

Dawn looked at Link to make sure he wasn’t confused or upset by the question. He and Roe had been having complicated relationship difficulties; she hoped mentioning Roe’s recurring vision didn’t make it worse.

But he sighed and nodded without his expression changing. “I thought about it right away when I was fighting the teeth—well, as soon as I had some time to think, anyway. I wondered if the vision was meant for me. But if this is the same thing that killed Christy, then it’s not a vision that’s only meant for me, is it?”

“Did you tell her that you think it’s connected to the vision?” Dawn asked.

“Of course. As soon as she understood the important part, that I wasn’t blowing her off on purpose at all.” He finally gave a genuine smile, though it was lopsided and his eyes were distant. “We are pretty sure it’s the same teeth she’s been seeing in her vision. It was hard for me to give a clear description, but it was hard for her, too, and it only makes sense. What other kind of creature is going to be only teeth and nothing else, not even eyes?”

“Good,” Corrie said. “Then she knows that she should tell Professor Strega about the connection. She’s meeting with her later today.”

Dawn really wanted to know whether Link and Roe had worked out their differences regarding marriage and their relationship, but she also didn’t think it was a good idea to ask Link, if he wasn’t volunteering the information. If Roe wanted them to know, she would tell them. “I don’t feel like we’ve been very helpful,” she said. “But I guess we know more than we did yesterday.”

“We have more information about who the faerie is after and why,” Corrie said. “It might not help much right now, but if something else happens, there will be more dots to connect.”

“I hope nothing else happens,” Troy said. “Especially since it seems like the only things that can happen are people getting hurt and killed.”

“We have a plan to watch for the faerie,” Corrie said. “I’m going to use my distance sight to watch over the campus. Dawn’s Sight might be able to help a little, too.”

“Let us know if there’s anything we can do to help,” Troy said. “I guess if you catch it or something, we can identify it.”

“You’re not going out on your own anymore,” Link said. “At least not at night.”

Edie nodded. “That’s true, you should be careful, Troy. As far as we know this faerie only attacks at night, but if it does turn out to be after you specifically, then you might not be safe at any time.”

Troy grimaced but nodded. “I will be. I’m not going anywhere until my arm is healed, anyway. Maybe you guys will have caught the faerie by then.”

“Well, we should go,” Corrie said, standing up. “Enjoy the pancakes. If you want, I’ll take the plate back to the dining hall later.”

“No, I’ll take it,” Link said, also rising. “Thank you.” He ushered them out of the room and closed the door behind them.

Dawn was glad to leave, though she hoped Troy would be okay. It had to be really difficult to be gay when your family wanted you to marry a woman and have children—doubly so if that was actually the law because your family were hereditary rulers. It was obvious that Troy and Link had some more discussion to do before they decided what they were going to say to the king and when. Not to mention that the king might not have heard about his only son’s injury yet.

“Do you really think his arm will be fine?” she asked Edie as they walked back out into the sunlight. “It looked so bad to me.”

“I think so,” Edie said, grimacing. “Like I said, it would have been better off with stitches, but it seems like it’s healing really quickly. And there’s no infection, so that’s the really important thing.”

“I just wish this made sense,” Corrie said. “Who would want to attack Elrath and Troy? Do they have something against non-humans on campus?”

“If so, a lot of people are unsafe,” Dawn said. “There are a lot of faerie students, not to mention the professors. And of course there are you two, and Charlie, and probably others we don’t even know about.”

“I don’t think there’s any system to who is being killed and why,” Edie said. “Or if there is, the faerie is going about it very badly. It could have attacked Troy or Sean almost any night—it wouldn’t have to wait until a week after it killed Elrath.”

“I wonder if faeries have assassins,” Corrie said. “Like, someone else has hired this faerie to do its dirty work and disguise its tracks. Maybe the random attacks are just to draw suspicion away.”

“It sounds like something Mardalan would do,” Dawn said. “But that doesn’t mean it is.”