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19
Raven
Zach didn’t showup at dinner but Matt didn’t seem concerned. It was difficult to focus on anything without knowing how he did on that test. Professor Flora was still difficult to figure out and we’d never had a test where we were put in a situation. I still wasn’t even sure what that meant.
“Raven?” Makayla elbowed me. “You with us?”
“Sorry,” I said. “I’m just worried about Zach.” I turned to Matt. “How are you not worried?”
He shrugged. “I’m sure he’s fine.”
I frowned. There was no way I could concentrate until I knew he was okay. After my last experience with a fae professor - in Spellcasting no less - my mind was filled with all sorts of worst case scenarios. What if she released a shifter in the room with him and had him fight someone? What if she wasn’t who she said she was and was trying something weird? Why was he the first to go? She made it look like it was random, but I knew enough about magic to know that almost nothing was an accident around here.
“I’m going to go check on him,” I said.
“Does that mean you won’t be finishing your French fries?” Makayla asked.
I pushed my plate over to her. “All yours.”
“I’ll walk with you,” Matt said.
“It’s okay,” I said. “You finish your dinner.”
“You sure?” he asked.
“I’m sure.” I stood and waved to the rest of the table. Surprisingly, Ben and Luka were deep in conversation. It was nice to see them getting along but still a little alarming. I wasn’t going to question it, though. Every so often, we deserved to have some good things happen, right?
The hallways were dotted with people making their way to or from dinner. Some of them were already out of uniforms and changed into party clothes. It was a Friday night and some students would make their way to town or to dorm parties. In the shifter dorm, Friday night meant poker night. Luka and the twins had even joined us recently.
Plus, there was always the option of the vampire parties that were held every few weeks. The whole school had an open invitation to those, but they had a reputation for getting wild. One of these days, I’d head back to one. But I still felt too guilty about what happened to Violet. She wasn’t going to parties again yet and had a pass to miss gym until she was fully recovered. I missed her but during our visit a few days ago, she’d assured me she was improving.
The worst part was not being able to tell her why she’d been attacked. Or being able to admit to her that I was partially responsible.
That thought nagged at me as I walked through the halls toward the mage dorms. The shadow fae still hadn’t shown his face and while the others kept saying that maybe he’d given up and left, I knew he was still out there. I just had no idea what he was waiting for.
I climbed the stairs to the Obscura dorm room and waved to a couple of mages I passed on the way. They were polite to me, but none of them stopped to talk. I wasn’t exactly part of the mage world. Especially since finding out I was half fae. At first, it was the fact that I lived in the shifter dorm that seemed to keep other mages from connecting with me. Now, it seemed like they were all a little afraid of me.
They were probably justified, too. Especially after seeing what the shadow fae could do.
I stopped in front of Zach’s door and tried to push the thought of evil fae out of my mind. The last thing I wanted to consider was that Professor Flora was up to something nefarious. I knocked on the door. “Zach? Are you in there?”
My heart hammered in my chest. If he wasn’t here, where could he be? There’d been other Spellcasting classes after ours. Normally, I’d have been in that room for my independent study, but that was waiting till next week.
I knocked again. “Zach?”Please be in there.
The door opened and a pale, sleepy looking Zach stared down at me. He managed a weak smile. “Hey, Raven.”
He looked awful. Like he’d been sick for days and hadn’t left his room. Fear gripped my chest. Something was very wrong. “What happened? Do you need to see the nurse?”
“No, no nurse,” he said. “I actually already went. It’s why I missed class this afternoon.”
“When you didn’t come to dinner I was so worried,” I said. “Did she hurt you?”
“No, but the test was brutal,” he said. “It wasn’t real, but apparently the illusions can feel real.”
“What does that even mean?” I asked as I walked into his entry way.
Zach closed the door behind me and the two of us walked toward the couch. He sat down and I took the seat next to him.
