Lavender

I woke up at eight on the dot, and wasted no time heading straight for Fairburrow’s classroom.

His schedule wasn’t the easiest thing in the world to find, but from asking around, his first class of the day was at nine. The gods themselves would have had to intervene to keep me out of there.

The clock read fifteen minutes until nine when I burst into class.

“Princess, you're in this class?” One of the girls asked, some minor noble I’d met a few weeks ago. Gods, what’s her name? Stacy? Taylor? No, it started with an S for sure.

“For today I am.” I could save names for later.

I took the furthest seat from the board, right next to her seat. I need to catch Fairburrow at the right time. “What class is this, by the way?”

“Advanced magical ethics.” She said, “Oh, my name is Tris.”

“Of course! I remember from when we met. Still a cute name.” Complete lie, but what she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her. “But advanced magical ethics? Why does every class taught by Fairburrow have the most boring name imaginable?”

I could feel my teeth clenching with every word.

“I don’t know, I think they can be pretty fun?”

“You do?” First time for everything, I guess. “Whatever, does Fairburrow typically arrive to class early?”

“Yeah,” she frowned. “He typically gets here before we do.”

“He does?” That didn’t sound good. “Well, as long as he shows up on time.”

But Fairburrow didn’t show up on time, or show up at all, for that matter. The entire class period passed without a peep from him, as the confusion in the room only grew.

Gods, Fairburrow’s avoiding me.

“This hasn’t happened before…” Tris looked worried as the bell rang. “I hope the Professor’s alright.”

“I think he’s probably just peachy.” I scowled. One day was a coincidence, two days of not showing up made a pretty clear pattern. “I’ll see you soon.”

“Okay, you sound like you know something, Princess.”

“I’m not sure what I know, but there's only one way to find out.” I left her with those parting words.

But how? Did Fairburrow simply overhear us? Was it Gregory? No, still wouldn’t make any sense. Arthur doesn’t have the courage. Val? I ruffled through my hair. It can’t be Val…

But there wasn’t a single other person who came to mind.

Mary lay fast asleep in my bed as I got back. She grumbled a bit when I shook her awake—two days of little sleep clearly hadn’t been easy on her.

“Wake up, sleepyhead. Have you seen Val?”

“Val?” Mary rubbed her eyes. “Not a trace. You saw her with Gregory way after me.”

“So we got a missing Professor, and now Val’s missing too…” I could connect the dots well enough. I don’t wanna believe it…

“Are you thinking Val may have told him, Princess?”

“Can’t think of an alternative. He skipped the first period today.” For once, Mary and I were roughly on the same page. I didn’t think it’d hurt so much to point fingers.

Even I had a limit for coincidences, and this was well past that bar.

“Either way, gods, there's not much we can do but continue to look.”

“That, or wait until they find us.”

“You think they’re that brave?” I raised an eyebrow. “Fairburrow’s never exactly come off as the showboaty type.”

“I-Isaac’s notes said Fairburrow was interested in you,” Mary said, fidgeting with the covers. “Maybe he wants to wait for the right time.”

“Well, the right time better be dang well soon,” I said. “Let's do one more loop, then I’ll call it quits for now. We have nothing better to do.”

“If you insist, Princess.” I could tell she thought it’d be useless—I honestly thought the same—but we had to do something. “Let’s split up. I’ll take the north half of campus.”

“Then I'm in the south.” There was significantly less energy in my legs compared to last night as I walked to the door. “See you soon.”

                                                                                 ☀ ☀ ☀

It didn’t take long for the two of us to give up. Fairburrow skipped every single one of his lessons, and there wasn’t a single sighting of note.

“Anything?” I finally met back up with Mary around an hour later in front of the dorms. Her expression answered my question before her mouth opened.

“Not a thing. The maids are on break, so I couldn’t overhear any rumors.”

That would be her strategy. “We’ll have to rethink our plan then. Let’s take a break for now.”

Mary agreed without a word. She would never admit it in a million years, but all our searching was wearing her down.

I inserted my key into the lock. “That's weird…”

“Weird, Princess?”

“I locked the door, right?” With a gentle nudge, it creaked wide open.

“You did,” Mary said, summoning a few thin vines from the ground. “Tread carefully.”

“Carefully?” I took a step back from the door and summoned a thick frozen sword. “Or we could catch them by surprise! Take this!”

My elbow slammed straight into the door. Ice flashed through the room from my sword, exploding like a fireball. “Not so cocky now, sneaking around in my room!”

But the dust cleared without a single person in sight.

“There’s no one here, Princess?”

“You have to be kidding me. Just when you were getting me excited for a fight.”

When the scattered mist cleared, our room sat exactly how we left it an hour ago. Hiding places weren’t exactly easy to come by in a room this small. “Let me check the shadows.”

But one quick sweep later, and there wasn’t the faintest hint of a person hiding under the desks.

I was willing to bet my life savings that there wasn’t another person more qualified to check either. No one, and I mean no one, had spent more time hiding under tables waiting for the kitchen chefs to look away.

“I was a bit wrong earlier,” Mary’s weak voice snapped me back to the room. “Someone was here earlier, no doubt.”

She held up a simple crimson letter, with a familiar golden wax seal holding it closed.

“Let me see.” I caught the letter midair and tore the thick envelope in half.

“I’ll read aloud.” My throat tightened as I cleared it. Room seven. Tomorrow, seven sharp. You know the building. If you want to see Val alive, come alone and don't be late. Fairburrow.

“I-Is that it?” Mary asked.

“Apparently.” I flipped the letter over—blank. “Well, at least he didn’t mince words.”

So he’s watching our every move. I gently pushed open the door and stared outside. Are you watching now, Fairburrow?

There was a part of me pretty on edge, but I pushed that feeling aside. Isaac hadn’t let his feelings overwhelm him.

I had to do the same/

“What are we going to do?” Mary gently sat down, stress written on her face.

“Easy. Fairburrow wants me to meet him, right? I say that we go, save Val, and finish tomorrow off by smashing his face in.”