Chatoyant College Book 9: Sundered

Chapter 57: Secret Meeting

Edie hated early mornings. She wasn't a morning person to begin with, but when she had to wake up excessively early like this, the world always seemed colder and more hostile. Plus, once she started moving quickly, she started feeling really hungry, even though she normally wouldn't be eating for another few hours. She pushed on anyway, but she quickly fell behind to the back of the group.

Before they reached the woods, Roe slowed down to keep pace with her. "Are you okay?"

Edie nodded. "Just cold, and tired, I guess. What about you? Are you worried?"

"Yeah. But I don't know what to do about it." Roe looked around. "I guess it's because this is like my vision, but not exactly like it. I don't know how it's going to turn out. That's how things usually work, of course, but this feels like I'm reading a book for the second time and it turns out that something completely different than I remember happens."

Edie grinned. "That makes sense to me. I've reread books that turned out to be different from what I thought I remembered. But hopefully this will be a good change."

"I hope so. I'm just not sure that it is."

They had passed the edge of the woods and were now approaching the zone that Edie remembered separating the faerie land from the college. She reached into her pocket for a four-leaf clover, intending to look for the border, but she'd forgotten it. That made her nervous for a moment, but she shook it off and reminded herself that there were a lot of them and they did all have their steel bracelets on. They would be okay.

The lights of the court appeared in the distance, Corrie and Dawn leading the group toward them. Could the court faeries still be dancing, or whatever it was that they did all night? They might very well be, she decided. She knew of parties on campus that lasted all night, and faeries were immortal, so a night probably seemed even shorter to them.

She was just beginning to wonder whether they'd missed Tom and Ever, and growing nervous at how close they were to approaching the court, when a shadow detached itself from a tree ahead. Her heart flew into her throat, but sank down again when the shadow stepped further away and resolved itself into a human-looking person: Ever.

"Oh, good, it's you," said Corrie, as they all clustered closer to listen. "Where's Tom?"

Ever shook her head. "He didn't want to stick around and potentially get into trouble. I don't really understand what he's worried about, since he doesn't even like the court, but I guess it doesn't matter. It's good to see all of you again."

"You, too," said Corrie. "So Tom told you what we need?"

"He just told me you want me to spy for you." She grinned. "I guess I'm perfectly placed for that if you want to spy on the court. And of course, I'm happy to help. Oh, before I forget..." She reached into the bodice of her ill-fitting brown dress and pulled out a notebook and pen. "Edie, I think this is yours."

"Oh!" Edie stepped forward to take them. They were still warm from her body heat. "Um, thanks. You might want to hang onto them, though, so we can communicate in the future." She was starting to feel a little less nervous. She hadn't heard about Roe's vision directly, but from what Corrie and Dawn had told her, she hadn't spoken to Ever in the vision. They were obviously diverging from it already. Maybe there would be no red tree.

Ever shook her head. "I can send you notes magically, using leaves. It's not a good idea for me to have human-made things like that, because if anyone sees me using them, they'll know I'm doing something with them."

"Right. Of course." Edie shoved the notebook into her pocket.

"Is this a good place to talk?" asked Corrie. "We're kind of close. Won't they see us?"

"I doubt it. They're distracted." Ever glanced back over her shoulder. "This is usually the time the dancing gets the most frenzied. I'm not much of a dancer, so hopefully I won't be missed. But we should make this as quick as possible anyway."

"This already seems to be taking too long," Roe said.

Ever frowned at her, but nodded. "So are you looking for any information in particular?"

"Yes," said Corrie. "First of all, do you know where Mardalan is?"

Ever let out a short laugh. "No. No one does, except for her little servant. It's really strange, actually."

"She couldn't be hiding in the court?" asked Dawn. "Disguised or something?"

"No, I'm sure she... oh, no." Ever looked over her shoulder. Edie followed her gaze to see a tree behind her—its bare, black branches were glowing red.

"Run!" Ever cried, taking off north. Edie didn't wait to figure out what was going on but broke out into a run with everyone else.