Page 38 of Monster's Mystery

“And yet here I am,” she said, slumping into the seat next to me. “Pick a number. We’re the only unpaired students, so we might as well work together.”

I chose a number at random, picking one that was close to the academy.

The math was annoying, even with the equation that the professor had put up at the front of the class. It made no sense.

“I don’t get it. His data from a few days ago gave us equal rates of decay, but then this week, it increased each day, but not at the same rate at all!” I exclaimed, frustrated. “Are we even doing the math right?”

Paige glanced around the room at the other groups. “Everyone else seems to be having similar problems. Keep the numbers. Let’s plot them and see if that helps it make more sense.”

The graph was wonky and didn’t look anything like a normal rate of decay graph.

“Okay, what might have happened in the last few days that would affect the forest like this?” I asked myself, talking out loud. “The students returned right when things started to increase. Could that have an effect?”

“It would have stabilized once we got here,” Paige disagreed. “And some students got here the day before. It should have had a gradual increase at that point if it was related to our arrival.”

“Good point.” My eyes widened and I met Paige’s horrified gaze as we figured it out at the same time. “The kidnapped students!” we said at the same time.

I bent over my numbers again. “How many students went missing and stayed missing that first day? Three?”

“I think it was four,” Paige said. “Don’t forget Hazel on the first day.”

“Right,” I mumbled. “And then six the day after. We won’t have today’s data yet, because presumably there will be students that return in time for dinner, if the kidnapper follows the same MO.” I put up the new data points.

Other than Hazel, they followed the data exactly.

“Remove the outlier,” Paige muttered, changing my graph to exclude Hazel. “She’s not the same as the others, anyway. It’s a perfect match.”

“But... I don’t understand,” I said, my gaze following the two lines. “How can the missing students be related to the forest being drained of magic?”

CHAPTER11

I metwith the others in the library after classes ended and told them all about the theory that Paige and I had come up with.

Bruce blanched. “That’s hard to believe.”

“That’s what Professor Calderwood said, too,” I said. “But once we eliminate the possible, what is left, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.”

“Right, except there wasn’t any magic in Sherlock Holmes’s world,” Lilia pointed out. “Who knows how else magic might affect this.”

I shrugged. “Math doesn’t lie.”

“Coincidences can happen,” Brom said quietly.

I sobered at that. “That’s true. I might be seeing parallels where there are none.” I sagged in my seat. “And here I thought we were on to something.”

Aiden hugged me around my shoulders. “You might still be. Come on, let’s see if you can find anything helpful in your grimoire.”

“That’s a good idea,” I said, brightening once more. “I’m sure I saw something about retrieving repressed memories in here at some point last year. That might help.”

The group worked on homework, Aiden completing our star chart from Easter Island for us, while I scoured my grimoire for any helpful spell.

Half an hour into our study session, Paige stormed into the library, spotted us, and made a beeline for our table.

“I need your help,” she said to me, ignoring everyone else.

“With what?” I asked. I had warmed up to her considerably during our work together in the Herbology lab, but was still wary. She had accused two students of murder in front of me, after all.

“I need your help interviewing a student who went missing, but is back now.”

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