Chatoyant College, Book 1: New Student Orientation

Chapter 49: Back to the Woods

Once they had left the building, Edie found herself having to jog a little to keep up with Ever. She wondered why the blue-haired girl was in such a hurry. Did she even care what happened to Annie? Edie was finding it hard to wrap her brain around what was happening. She could no longer deny that magic, or at least faeries, were real. But what stake did Ever have in this--how did she even know about the faeries? What could she do against them? And wouldn't it be dangerous to go back? The woman--who had been at first beautiful and then horrifyingly lovely--had tried to hurt Dawn. Edie had thought she wanted to kill her. So why were they going back?

All right, Edie knew the answer to that. They couldn't give up until they had rescued Annie. It was cruel and insane for the faeries to take her and force her to play music--she had obviously been forced, she didn't want to, but she couldn't stop. She hadn't even faltered when Edie, Dawn, and Corrie had arrived.

Several steps ahead, Ever was entering the woods. Edie bit her lip and jogged faster to catch up with the strange girl. "Should Corrie and I hold onto her keys again?"

Ever paused, looking at her and frowning. "Keys? Oh!" She smiled as the others caught up. "Iron, right? Yes, that's probably a good idea. And Dawn, you have the Sight, don't you?"

Dawn nodded slowly. "Yes, that's what the faeries said."

"You can see past glamour," Ever said with a nod.

"What about Rico?" Dawn asked.

Ever shrugged, turning back to the path and starting forward. "If you have some other iron, or if you find a four-leaf clover or a stone with a hole in the middle before we get there, he can use that," she called over her shoulder. "It doesn't really matter. We're not going to be there for very long."

"But what if they try to charm him?" Dawn cried.

Edie nodded hastily. "That's--well, I think that's what happened to me and Corrie."

"Yeah, they tried to make us want to join them, and it almost worked," said Corrie.

Ever shook her head. "They probably won't have time."

"But--" Dawn protested. But Ever seemed to be ignoring them, walking faster through the woods. Edie tried to think as she hastened to keep up with everyone else. What could Ever's plan be? Did she know better riddles? But the riddling contest was over, and Ever didn't know about it anyway. Or did she? She seemed to know much more than she had any reason to know.

"Where are we going?" Dawn asked after a few minutes. "This isn't the way we went earlier." Edie looked around, but she didn't recognize anything. All the trees and bushes looked the same to her. She looked over at Corrie, who shrugged.

"The way changes every time," said Ever. "I know how to get there."

She sounded so sure of herself that Edie couldn't question.

"You two had better get those keys now," Dawn warned. "We're in the other part of the forest."

Corrie pulled out her keys and Edie joined her. As soon as she touched the metal (still warm from Corrie's body heat) the forest around her changed--subtly, but still noticeably. "Oh!" she said. "I can see it now."

"Do you see any difference?" she heard Dawn ask Rico.

"No," he said. "You'll just have to tell me what's going on."

As Edie and Corrie walked along in silence, she couldn't help feeling a little jealousy toward Dawn. Not that she wanted Rico, of course, or anyone like him--he was one of the least feminine people she'd ever seen--but she was jealous of how easily he and Dawn had met, dated, and settled into couplehood. She wanted that. She'd never had so much as a successful date; the only one that had not left her feeling thoroughly rejected had involved the other girl practically forcing her into a sexual situation, which she had not been at all comfortable with. And she'd had very few dates. Lesbians were few and far between in the small town where she'd grown up. She still had hope of finding someone at college, but no one had pursued her as quickly or aggressively as Rico had pursued Dawn. Then again, maybe that was a good thing. Edie didn't think she would have been comfortable with the speed with which that relationship had developed.

She glanced over at Corrie, wondering if she thought the same thing about Dawn and Rico. She would have to ask when they were alone. Noticing her gaze, Corrie turned to her and offered a reassuring smile. Edie tried to smile back.

"You okay with going back?" asked Corrie.

"Yeah," she said. "Are you?" Corrie had been much more taken in by the faeries than she had--granted, that had been at least in part because Dawn had told Edie first to grab the keys, but she was still a little worried about her friend.

"I'll be fine," Corrie replied. "Besides, we have to, don't we?"