“Maybe we should focus on why we’re all here?” Yarra says. “Your visions? Did you two come up with any idea of what’s going on?”
“Well, we might’ve figured out who the woman is that Saffron keeps seeing,” Aydan says with a sigh.
“Really?” Yarra sits up excitedly. “Who is she?”
“Was,” I tell her. “Natasha of Hino, the consort of Alpha King Leon’s brother. She took part in the coup against the Alpha King.”
“Oh, well, that’s something, right? Maybe your visions have to do with the Alpha King somehow.”
Aydan and I exchange a silent look of disappointment. “I don’t think so,” he says. “Both the prince and Natasha died during the coup twenty years back.”
“Well, I’m not surethat’strue,” I say. “She’s pregnant in my visions, but there’s hardly anything written about her or any child she might’ve had. For all we know, she escaped and is alive in some remote Clarion Fairy village.”
Yarra goes quiet for a moment as she bites her bottom lip, the wheels turning in her mind. “It has to mean something, though. All of your visions mean something . . . right?”
I shrug. “Who knows?”
Yarra puts a hand on mine to comfort me. “You look tired. Did you get any sleep last night?”
I do my best not to look at Aydan, but it doesn’t matter. Yarra immediately picks up on the awkwardness between us. “Oh, my God.Againwith you two? You’re like bunnies!”
My hopes that her analogy has gone over Aydan’s head are dashed the moment I see his face flush. “Again? You told her about the first time?”
“Duh,” I say unapologetically. “She’s my best friend, Aydan.”
“I thought we agreed on discretion.”
“She’s my best friend,” I repeat, enunciating every word. “Surely, you’ve already told your buddies.”
“I don’t happen to have anybuddieshere, andyou—”
“Guys,” says Yarra. “Focus. Please.”
We stop bickering. Yarra’s sitting between us with her hands up as if holding us both back. I cross my arms, feeling a little attacked. I’m not really done fighting with him. “Did you tell your sister?”
“What?” He sounds really offended. “No! Of course not. She’s my little sister. Besides, you’d know it if I told her.”
“I’m not so sure about that.” I look over at him, and I have the quick thought that I shouldn’t say anything. Maybe he doesn’t know . . . then again, maybe he does. They’re both looking at me expectantly now. I might as well say it. “I saw her last night creeping around in the woods.”
Both of them are giving two different expressions of surprise—Yarra with eyes wide and Aydan scowling. “What are you talking about?” he says with utter distaste in his voice.
“Last night, when I was walking back to the dorm, I saw her sneaking off into the woods,” I tell them.
“Are you sure about that?” Yarra asks. “I mean, are you sure it was her?”
“I saw her as clear as I’m seeing you two here. It was her.” I’m watching Aydan’s reaction, seeing if he knows anything about it. He looks away for a moment, and I swear I see his mind turning. “You know anything about why she would be out there, Aydan?”
“No, of course not,” he says.
I don’t know if that’s true, but I can only take him at his word. Yarra says, “Chad’s been getting reports of students in those woods lately. You know how it is. You tell people to stay away from a place and it’s like putting up a sign to go more often. I can ask him about it. Maybe he and the dean—”
“No, no,” Aydan says. “Don’t. I’m sure there’s a good explanation for her being out there, and I’d rather not get her in trouble. Let me talk to her.”
Now we’re both looking at him suspiciously. He goes, “Hey, Nadia might be uptight, but she’s also a straight-A student. She’d never do anything to jeopardize her academic career.”
“Except sneaking into the forbidden woods,” I say.
“He has a point,” Yarra says, and I roll my eyes. “Saffron, Nadia is a lot of things, but she’s not a rule breaker. If she was out there, then there has to be a good reason.”