Page 21 of Monster's Mystery

“Not unless you count the missing students,” Bruce said. “I’ve had at least one in each class.”

“Me too,” echoed Una and Rhiannon.

“Weird,” I said. “Anything linking them? Do you know names?”

“Brian, stitch witch,” Una said.

“Lincoln, healer, and Justin, camouflage,” Bruce put in.

“Paul, investigation,” Rhiannon added.

“All boys?” I asked, lifting my pen from the list I wrote down. “That’s weird.”

“All my type of beast, too,” Aiden put in. “You know, fire beasts.”

I frowned. “Is that common?” I hadn’t really looked into it.

He shrugged. “Common enough that I’m not closely related to any of those guys, at least that I’m aware of.”

“Huh.” I wrote that down as well. “I can’t think of anything that Hazel would have in common with these guys. She’s so different.”

“Maybe she was taken by someone else?” Lilia suggested.

“There are two people kidnapping people?” I shook my head. “That would be quite the coincidence.”

“We should ask around, see when those people were last seen,” Bruce suggested.

“The best people to ask about them would be their roommates,” I said thoughtfully. “Split up?”

I decided I would find Geoffrey, Richard’s roommate. Maybe he would have an idea about what motivation someone could have for killing the Dragon Polo star.

He was eating alone in a corner, his eyes furtively glancing around the cafeteria. When he saw me walking over to him, he looked panicked.

“Hey,” I said, sitting down across from him. “How are you holding up after, you know, everything?”

“I... I’m fine,” he muttered, poking at his food as if it were the most interesting thing he’d ever seen.

Someone else sat down next to me and leaned forward.

I glared at them for interrupting, and then almost snarled when I saw that it was Paige, the nosy b—witch who had accused Hazel of murder. “What doyouwant?” I snapped.

“The same thing you do, I expect. To find out why Geoffrey killed his roommate,” she replied blithely.

My jaw dropped. “What thefuck? You don’t go around accusing people ofmurder! I was hoping he could tell me if anything of interest happened the day they arrived.”

Paige rolled her eyes at me before refocusing her attention on the boy across from us. “Well? Whatdidhappen the day you got here?”

The poor boy looked absolutely terrified, twin spots of color high on his cheeks, eyes wide as he stared at Paige.

“Hey,” I said comfortingly, getting up from my seat and joining him on his side of the bench. I put my hand gently on his arm. “I’m just trying to solve this mystery. I’m sure you want answers as much as I do. I’m going to level with you…” I swallowed hard. “I’m trying to absolve my roommate, Hazel. She was last seen with Richard, and then she disappeared. So, I’m really hoping that you might have some piece of vital information that would help me clear her name.”

Geoffrey gave me a sympathetic smile. “I heard what happened to your friend. I’m sorry she’s missing. For what it’s worth, I don’t think she killed my roommate.”

“Thank you.” I beamed at him, and Paige scoffed from the other side of the table. “Now, what can you tell me about your arrival?”

“Well, I got here around lunchtime. Richard had already set up in our room, and was down on the pitch with his dragon,” he began.

“Do the dragons belong to the school or the student?” I asked, curious, thinking of how Lilia had carried Dip in a cat carrier. “Do they transport them in horse trailers?”

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