A good half of the class didn’t need any explanation. They didn’t need time to pack up, having been ready to go since the moment they walked in the door.
“But we still have an hour left of class,” said a voice speaking for the other half of the students.
“Finish reading the chapter on your own. I’m certain it will consume less of your time than finishing it in class.”
With that said, Zoe waited for the students to file out. It didn’t take long for her to be left alone. Alone apart from Mr. Anderson and the Coggins twins.
“Something I can do for you?”
Shelby Coggins stepped forwards. “Are you alright, Professor?”
Her first instinct was to give a single word affirmative. ‘Fine’ was on the tip of her tongue before Zoe stopped and thought. With a barely constrained sigh, Zoe said, “as alright as I can be with our missing students, I think.”
“Is there anything we can do to help?”
“Not unless you are able to locate those students, Mr. Anderson. And, to be clear, I do not wish you to try. There are enough angry people without adding your parents.”
Mr. Anderson frowned, but nodded. “If you think of anything we can do…”
“Then I will contact your parents and you will be hearing from them.”
“One more thing,” he said after a moment of mutual silence, “any update on Professor Lurcher’s situation?”
Zoe smiled. It wasn’t even forced. Wayne was her one bright spot in all this mess. “He’s been cleared for release and will be in town by the end of the week, though he won’t resume teaching until next semester. I’ll arrange a meeting for you after he has had a chance to settle in.”
The smile slipped from Zoe’s face as she watched the three leave her classroom. She waited an extra minute before locking the door.
Zoe turned her dagger over in her hand, looking over the somewhat grimy blade. It needed a good clean and polish. It had for a few days. She just hadn’t felt up to digging out her cleaning kit and actually doing it.
The filth did not stop it from working. Not yet at least. Zoe picked up her cane in one hand. With a thought and some channeled magic, the walls of her classroom fell to between and the walls of the women’s ward appeared in their place.
Despite being relatively untouched by the battle with the nuns, the women’s ward had turned into something of a pigsty. Both Genoa and Carlos had been living in one of the spare cell rooms and neither seemed motivated enough to clean up after themselves.
With a sigh, Zoe used a little telekinesis to gather up the half eaten remains of a pizza and several empty bottles. She crushed the floating trash and dropped it all into a garbage bin.
A few sweeps of air cleaned up the scattered crumbs. It did nothing for the beer stain in Eva’s couch, but that was out of the purview of her abilities.
Cleaning wasn’t a big thing, but it gave a small amount of satisfaction. More than staying for the rest of her class would have given.
Zoe walked up to the door with Eva’s name and rapped the handle of her cane against the door.
There was the sound of a brief scuffle before the door swung open.
“Oh. You.” Eight red eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “You’re early today.”
“I canceled class,” Zoe said as she peered around Arachne.
Lying in the middle of a sweat soaked bed was Eva. Long black hair twisted and tangled into a matted rat’s nest. A bowl of water and a bathing sponge had been haphazardly placed on an end table. It teetered on the edge.
A subtle flick of her dagger later and the bowl slid backwards, resting fully on the table.
The massive black and white cat curled up at the foot of the bed lifted up his head and gave a slow nod. Whether in a greeting or acknowledgment of her saving the bowl, Zoe couldn’t tell.
Devon and Arachne both talked to the cat–the cait si–as if it could understand them. What’s more, they would respond to it as if it spoke to them.
It probably could. There was a glimmer of intelligence in the cat’s eye that set the hairs on Zoe’s neck standing on end. There wasn’t a good reason for it either. The cait si wasn’t even a demon. It was an unseelie fairy.
That was only marginally better. According to Carlos, most species of unseelie fae ranged from ‘ill tempered’ to actively malicious.
“How is she?” Zoe asked. There wasn’t much point. It was clear to see that nothing had changed.
“Better than yesterday.”
“Are you sure you don’t want someone else to take a look at her? Nurse East and Nurse Post are both very good at their jobs. And I doubt either would object to you sitting at her side.”
Arachne growled a low, threatening growl. “Devon wants her here.”
“Devon is not a doctor.”
“He knows more about her biology than any other mortal.”
Zoe frowned. Both Devon and Arachne were of the opinion that Eva’s demonic limbs made her inhuman enough that regular medicine wouldn’t work. And they might be right, for all Zoe knew.
